PREDATORS
 
STARRING: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne,
Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov,
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Louis Ozawa Changchien
2010, 107 Minutes, Directed by:
Nimrod Antal
 Predators
opens with man falling from the sky. We know he’s Adrien Brody, but we don’t
know the
character yet, introduced to the man as he free falls down to a jungle planet.
Frantic, he searches madly for
a parachute, baffled by the mechanism strapped to his body, watching as the
planet below draws near at an incredible speed. It’s a pitch-perfect moment of
disorientation and panic, setting an outstanding tone for this semi-sequel/rebootish/do-over
motion picture, which endeavors to smash surprise back into a franchise squeezed
dry by a studio that never quite understood what they had over the last two
decades.
Thrown onto a threatening alien
planet, Royce (Adrien Brody) doesn’t immediately comprehend where he is or why
he’s there. Also planted here are soldiers (Including Alice Braga and Oleg
Taktarov), a doctor (Topher Grace), troublemakers (Walton Goggins and Danny
Trejo), and a member of the Yakuza (Louis Ozawa Changchien). Studying their
surroundings, Royce surmises the gang has been dropped inside of a game
preserve, targets for a mysterious pack of hunting aliens on the prowl for human
trophies. Winding through the arduous terrain, the group deals with issues of
leadership and trust as the vicious Predators draw near, with Royce searching
not only for a way to defeat his new enemy, but also for a ride off the deadly
planet.
A box office smash and a
critical step in the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1987’s
Predator is widely considered these days to be a
classic of action cinema. Its sequels are most certainly not. In fact, after two
disastrous Aliens vs. Predator motion pictures, the
heat-sensing thrill was pretty much gutted from the franchise, with any hope for
the alien character to reign triumphantly once again squandered on filmmakers
incapable of gruesome imagination.
Enter Robert Rodriguez, who
assumes a shepherding role for Predators, questing to get beastly matters
back on track, working from a script that understands the need for graphic
violence, salty language, and burly men brandishing city block-sized guns.
Predators returns the franchise to the basics, once again observing an
anxious group in a jungle setting, slowly coming to grips with the monster
hunters stalking the area.
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"A wildly entertaining picture that erases much of the bad taste
left behind by previous installments!" |
Cleverly, Rodriguez and
director Nimrod Antal (Vacancy, Armored) rework the premise to
shake Earth out of the equation, moving the action to a neutral planet the
Predators use as a testing ground, sending packs of three at a time to hunt and
kill whatever they’ve decided to parachute in. Outside of the fact that the new
environment provides exotic, gorgeous locations (a mix of Hawaii and Texas) to
survey, the fresh surroundings provide diverse elements of menace, as it’s not
only Predators after the team, but the flora and fauna as well.
For the first half, Antal mines
the mystery superbly, cautiously developing the brutes and their weaknesses,
bonding them together as they search for the upper hand. The dialogue is thickly
cut and meaty (Brody growls his way through the film, barely containing his
excitement), providing a righteous shot of testosterone that matches the
original film’s brawn. Even Braga gets in on the gun-stroking tension. Playing
with primary colors, Predators nails a satisfying stride of violence and
sleuthing, as the team comes to understand the Predator threat, looking for any
possible way to defeat them.
Laurence Fishburne joins the
festivities midway through the film, playing a disturbed survivor of the
Predator hunts who’s made a home inside a derelict spaceship. A whispering
nutcase, the character is here to remind our heroes why they need to exit the
planet as soon as possible, but Antal lingers on the protracted insanity,
puncturing the pace of the film to stick to a subplot that adds little to the
story. It’s a longish diversion the film never quite recovers from, despite a
final act that brings out the Predators in full force, hacking and blasting
their way through what’s left of the team. The creature work is expectedly
seamless, modifying the monsters to represent three distinct tiers of hunter,
including the classic design that slapped Arnold around 23 years ago. The
multi-jawed ghouls aren’t in the film for an extended amount of time, but when
they hit, they hit magnificently. I only wish Antal and Rodriguez would’ve
torched the chloroform second act to streamline the adventure.
Despite pacing problems,
Predators is a wildly entertaining picture that bends the franchise back to
more captivating quandaries, erasing much of the bad taste left behind by
previous installments. It took a few too many years to reach this point, but
thanks to Robert Rodriguez, the Predators have finally been restored to their
original tribal roar.
GIVEAWAY: You can win a
copy of Predators on DVD today. Find out how
here.
- Brian Orndorf
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