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It's been 23 years since the great original Predator film and 20 since the pretty good sequel Predator 2, but after that point this movie monster has only made appearances in Alien Vs. Predator film, video game and comic book mash ups. But now, Robert Rodriguez has successfully produced a sequel actually on a similar level as the originals in the form of Predators.
The story is super lean and mean, and the film starts by literally dropping you into it. Random Earthly bad asses and killers are mysteriously transported to a remote jungle. They have no idea what's going on. But we the audience do, don't we? That's why we're here to begin with - The Most Dangerous Game with ugly monsters chasing humans. These bad asses and killers stumble around the jungle, trying to find a way out without dying. And that's it. Let the games begin.
Immediately there are a lot of nods and references to the original Predator. The score was not composed by original composer Alan Silvestri, but it might as well have been - they used all the same great music cues and themes, and it really is incredible how having the right music in there can make all the difference. Making the Predator Planet (Predatoria?) mostly jungle also calls back to the original South American-set film. And there are a few lines that are even the same ("Over here...turn around." "Kill me! Do it!"). There's even a point where one of the bad asses admits having knowledge of a mission in Guatemala in 1987, in which one of these monsters dispatched an entire special ops team. Well, except for one fella.
For the most part, I gotta admit that I really couldn't buy Adrien Brody as the bad ass killer leader; he bulked up a bit, put on some muscle, talks tough most of the time, but I don't know. Just wasn't working for me personally. He's a good actor and he seemed to have a lot of fun doing the movie, but it's tough. Danny Trejo? I can buy him as a crazy bad ass killer. Oleg Taktarov? He looks like a lovable Russian military-trained killing machine. Larry Fishburne looks like homeless fat Morpheus, but he's cool. His character is kinda hammy, and actually a nice dose of fun in an otherwise tense and grimy movie. While the cast is decent, the real triumph is the use of many practical effects and real locations. It was nice to see a lack of CG-enhanced backgrounds, and while this movie isn't CG-free (as a matter of fact, the computer effects in the movie are kind of weak), the action rarely dissolved into a mess of pixels. The Predator designs look great, as they use the original Stan Winston look, as well as some newer, updated, crazier looking Predators.
In the end, Predators isn't as good as Predator, but what the hell is? There is plenty of cool action and a few inspired touches (like the Predator vs. Yakuza battle), but there really aren't any action scenes as good as the ones in the original (or even as intense as the subway attack in Predator 2). But those recent AvP movies are just so incredibly bad, and good sci-fi horror is so hard to come by, that Predators comes at just the right time. It is nice to see a small, fun, crazy movie like this come out among the big boys of summer, and I hope it does alright financially to warrant further Troublemaker Studios produced Predator films. Robert Rodriguez (and director Nimód Antal) know what they are doing with these creations, and all they need is a slightly more inspired story to really take things to the next level.
The Trailer Rundown:
Resident Evil Afterlife 3D - remember what we learned about Paul WS Anderson?
The Lottery Ticket - official sick of this trailer. This must have been the fourth or fifth time I've seen it.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - I don't know, I hope this one is good. Oliver Stone is hit and miss, especially at this later stage in his career. Michael Douglas is great, though, so the more Michael Douglas movies the better.
Step Up 3D - another trailer I've seen a couple of times already. The kids love their dancing these days, especially done by "crews" all wearing colorful outfits and throwing baby powder into the air while doing variations of The Robot.
Middle Men - from the director of Trapped in Paradise and Homeland Security comes a movie about the first guys to figure out they could use the internet to sell stuff, namely smut. I like Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi, but this movie looks kind of silly and on-the-nose. Between this and a movie about the creation of Facebook, it looks like we're reaching the point where the internet age goes into navel-gazing.
Machete - born out of a trailer for a fake movie comes a real movie about a fake guy named Machete, a super bad ass dude ready to kick serious ass. Machete is played by Danny Trejo, and the rest of the cast is rounded out with Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Jeff Fahey and Cheech Marin. The trailer is a lot of fun and makes the money look like a crazy time at the theater. I'm really looking forward to this one.
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