PREDATORS

DIR: Nimród Antal
(2010)

(Spoilers)

Okay so the gist is as follows...

A moderate group of Earths best bad-ass' are literally dumped on an unknown planet used entirely and specifically as a hunting reserve for the 'Predator' species of alien. In that one sentence alone enter the first two problems with this film.

1. There are too many characters (all of them potentially awesome but implemented only to be killed).
2. It wasn't the 'Predators' home planet.

The movie seemed to try really hard to recreate the 'Assault On Precinct 13' theme of rivals bonding together to fight a common enemy. Which I would have guess Robert Rodriguez borrowed directly from his and Tarantino's 'From Dusk Till Dawn' franchise, though it turns out he wrote the 'Predators' early script before that film. Which leads me to another thing, I had forgotten all about the fact that this is a reworked version of Rodriguez's script (so much so that Rodriguez didn't even receive a writing credit), that to me explains a lot why it didn't have that "edge" I was expecting (such a shame).

I've heard in past unrelated reviews people describing "phoned in performances" (from well known actors) and I never really could grasp that concept as I would personally first blame the script & dialogue. But whilst watching this movie that term really hit home. ALL of the actors in 'Predators' I will say except Adrian Brody gave such boring and unconvincing performances of what should otherwise be kick ass characters. This comment especially becomes relevant regarding the humor; there were so many jokes put in throughout the 106 minutes and I think only one of them actually worked. I had no choice but to cringe every time there was silent reaction to badly delivered punchlines.

A major problem for me was the lighting, why did all of the Predator action scenes have to happen at night? Even after making a point about how long the day lasts on that planet. Many people have criticised the samurai sword fight (do modern day Yakuza outside of the Kill-Bill-Verse still use swordplay)? My problem with it was the choreography and horrendous lighting not the actual concept itself.

For a motion picture where it has been widely stated wanted nothing to do with the AVP films that unfortunately exist and came before, the ending similarly borrows from the final act of 'Alien Vs Predator' albeit with a wasted mud reference to 'Predator.' Working alongside an alien let alone a Predator is so stupid -- The only time this that concept has actually worked was in the brilliant 'District 9.' How the hell does the Predator understand the English language? Brody was barely audible in that scene and it understood him perfectly. I can grasp other higher up positioned of their race understanding (the ones responsible for kidnapping the Prey) but this was just a hunter and a low level bottom of the barrel hunter at that as it turns out the bigger Predators hunt the smaller ones. Stupid.

All of this review has been negative but that doesn't mean I hated the movie I just had very high expectations with Rodriguez's name attached. There was just so much wrong with it that its very hard to ignore. However a lot of the visuals were amazing, the fact that they showed another extra terrestrial species also being hunted was cool. Lawrence Fishburnes crazy character Noland was a nice twist even if his very Matrix-like acting [Matrix being code for sub par] almost ruined the role.

The first act was a 7.5, the second became a 7, then once the credits rolled I really couldn't give this film more than...

6.5/10