Predators 2010 Review

Predators 2010

By Jose

Plot:
From the hot jungles to the concrete jungles. The perfect prey versus the perfect hunter.

Review:
Predators is the official third movie involving the creatures known simply as Predator. Now yes there has been two recent movies with this creature, Alien VS Predator and Alien VS Predator: Requiem, but regardless of how bad they were they are not true squeals to the first two Predator movies and the many Alien movies. They were stand alone failures putting both franchises in jeopardy. Then here comes Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antel. What they created seems to be quite possibly a great entry to the franchise. We have a group of earths greatest killers thrown together on a planet to be the prey to the best hunters in the galaxy. Yes many will say it feels too much like the first one. But that is what this movie needed. The first saw a Predator hunting soldiers in a jungle on earth. Then we had a predator hunting humans in a city on earth. Now we have a group of predators hunting a group of humans on their turf not ours.

Right from the start we find ourselves free falling with one of our victims Royce (Adrien Brody). Thankfully his chute releases and he lands in a jungle. Along with finding others who landed not too long before and after, although firing at someone with a mini-gun first before asking questions seems a bit much (in a good way). So here we have our main cast of prey. All badass people with either military, mercenary, or all around evil backgrounds. Some more obvious than others. Looking at you Topher Grace. But here is where the movie suffers a bit. We get this group walking and somewhat talking in a jungle trying to find out where they are. Soon finding a clearing and seeing that they are not exactly on familiar grounds. After a death or two by traps and misdirection from the Predators we actually get some physical baddies for our group of misfits to mess with. Although dog like beasts with long thorn protrusions and sharp ass teeth that can take a few bullets without dropping is something I did not expect to see at first. But man were they cool and deadly.

Then the movies starts to slow down again until we find the group meeting a predator that looks like a regular predator from the first movie tied up at a campsite. Soon after we meet the other predators who are not too happy about them being there. A fire fight starts and ends soon after. Leaving the group with knowledge of what they are facing and a couple people lighter. But now they group together to find a way to kill the three predators and find a way off the planet.

On to the predators themselves. There are three distinct hunter predators and one classic predator in the movie. The three main ones each have a different look and skill set. The Tracker predator has the tusks on the helmet controls the pred-dogs and seems to be the one who actually tracks the group. The Falconer predator has the eagle looking mask has a bird like shoulder mounted robot that disconnects and flies around. Then the main Berserker predator with the bone jaw on the mask is the main baddie of the group. With red markings and colors seems to be the alpha of the group and the fighter as well. The Berserker is the only one of the three that we see unmasked and wow does he look badass. The design of this predator is just great and well done. It is obviously different from what we have seen before while keeping the classic predator features. Which helps to suggest and agrees with what was said in the movie that there are different “races” or clans of predators. That don’t like each other. That is why we see a classic looking predator tied up at the camp.

The action is well done and entertaining. Especially at the end where we get a great predator vs. predator fight between Berserker and Classic and then Royce vs. Berserker fight. Earlier we get a cool kendo sword fight between the Yakuza guy and the Falconer predator which was short and sweet. But overall the action was top notch and enjoyable to watch on screen. The ending is badass too. I normally don’t like to reveal endings of movies, but we end where we began. With a new bunch of parachutes floating in the air toward the jungle. Setting up a another movie.

Final Thoughts:

Predators brought back what the franchise needed with a “back to basics” tone that worked. Yes many people said it was too similar to the first one. Yeah in the sense that you have humans vs. predators in a jungle. But there are more predators and the jungle is on there planet and we are introduced to different clans of predators and that they bring in non-human prey to hunt as well. In one scene the humans meet up a bug like alien that was being hunted. Movie fact: the other alien was a nod to the original design for the predator from the first movie before it was changed to what we have now. Overall I fully enjoyed the movie and can’t wait to see if they continue the franchise with the ideas and feel of this one.

Ratings: 4 out of 5