Silly of me to be reviewing this not particularly pleasing homage before the original masterpiece, but I just watched it the other night, and it's still fresh in my mind, so what the hell. We're going back to what I'm sure the writers would optimistically call the heart of the original 'Predator' movie. With a forest and a group of badasses. But wait; the forest is on another planet, and there are a mess of aliens all over the place. Yay!
Is it really "yay", though? Sadly not, not a full "yay" anyway, just a semi. The premise is pretty cool, though fairly uninspired, but there's too much random aliens and stuff stuffed in. The plot is just a bit too convoluted, and I think it would have benefited from slightly slower pacing and more character development. The script is also pretty poor, and there are a few big casting mistakes (cough-Royce-cough). And while we're on characters, they're all basically just about every criminal stereotype I can think of, from Japanese gangster through Russian heavy to Mexican cartel enforcer. This kind of works though, in a somewhat goofy way. It fits in well with the general ridiculousness (General Ridiculousness) of the whole action movie vibe.
The scenery was also very nice to look at, and much of it was practically based. Not that view though, obviously. But the style of the forest, the predator camp, and even the downed ship is very in keeping with both the original movie and the rest of the franchise. The various settings are all distinct and have their own familiar (from the predator/alien movies) vibe, and nostalgia definitely positively affected my feelings towards 'Predators'. There's one scene that looks very nice and simultaneously induced several eye rolls, where the Japanese guy is fighting a predator is a clearing of long wavy grass. It's nicely shot, and pays homage to martial arts films in a fairly cheesy way.
I'm not sure how I feel about the mega-predators that dominate the story. I'm always rather uneasy when changes like that are made to classic characters (for the benefit of the jury I now make reference to the "pred-alien" from 'AVP2') and the classic predator only makes a short appearance, only to be brutally murdered by one of his cousins.
I'm not completely sold on the host of character cliches, the crappy dialogue, or the childish plot either. It's not a complete failure though, and I liked it more than plenty of other 'Predator' movies.
I'm not sure how I feel about the mega-predators that dominate the story. I'm always rather uneasy when changes like that are made to classic characters (for the benefit of the jury I now make reference to the "pred-alien" from 'AVP2') and the classic predator only makes a short appearance, only to be brutally murdered by one of his cousins.
I'm not completely sold on the host of character cliches, the crappy dialogue, or the childish plot either. It's not a complete failure though, and I liked it more than plenty of other 'Predator' movies.
Predators: 45.3