Don’t be confused, it has an “s” at the end of the title,
alas there is no Arnold. Phew, now that
we have that cleared up, it has Topher Grace (not a fan of) instead! Now if you’re looking for a way to make a
movie less watchable he would be a good starting point. The general idea of having the “worst of the
worst” abducted from earth then mysteriously transported to an unknown planet
is a well enough premise. All of the
humans that eventually end up comprising the band of survivors make sense
except for Edwin (Topher Grace). He is a
doctor. At first I wonder why the
predators would want to hunt a doctor, what kind of sport is that? I came to the conclusion simply enough that
perhaps the predators were being helpful by at least supplying their prey with
someone capable of healing their soon to have wounds. That thought never registers at any point in
the movie and Topher Grace explains how much of a weirdo creep he is that fails
to convince why he was supposed to be a twisted character.
The
cast, as a whole, was not fit for the movie though. Danny Trejo, who plays Cuchillo, should have
been one of the last to die, instead he goes first. Why?
He has that tough attitude and rugged appeal needed for such an action
science fiction flick. He didn’t even
get a worthy death scene, sad. Adrian
Brody, who plays Royce, does well enough; but I’m not convinced. He is a loner type and then falls for
Isabelle (Alice Braga) blah, blah he saves her.
I mean that’s not what predator movie scripting is about, mercy and cliché
attractions to the opposite sex.
Laurence Fishburne (Noland) gives the best performance but considering
he is one of the few cast members that can act it’s no surprise. His double personality brought on by being
alone for so long is done very convincingly.
His character also manages to explain the whole background and plot for
you so you know what is going on. Before
he entered it was becoming quite a bland affair. He was a tremendous welcome at the halfway
point and then of course dies soon after his introduction, go figure. He saved the band of survivors just as he did
the flailing movie. He reengages you
into the plot and gets you ready to undertake the last half of the story which
gets cut short. I do thank him for
picking the movie up and making the second half watchable.
I can’t
believe I made it to the third paragraph without mentioning the true stars of
the movie, the predators. I don’t think
they received the attention they should of, true at the end they get screen
time but it’s the end you have to get them in by now. There is so much unknown about the predators
that the story could have focused more on explaining where they came from and
what drives them to hunt. Instead we get
what we’ve seen before, nifty weaponry and seeing the predators roar with that
ugly face of theirs. The bigger stronger
predators, those we have seen in every predator film up until now, go up against
a slightly different predator is an interesting concept. Thanks to the late Noland we found that out
which does provide something new to the predator story.
The
scene where the band of humans fights some mutant doglike creatures was
lacking. Let’s face brass tacks here and
not disappoint the audience by introducing some uninteresting entity. The defense as stated by Royce was the predators
essentially were flushing them out with the doglike creatures. I’m not an idiot and neither are the rest of
you, the predators are advanced enough to track down humans they brought to the
planet. Why would they run the risk of
their doglike pets killing the very prey they were to hunt? Brody slowly figuring everything out was
border line, “OK, yeah, we the audience gets it, move on.” When the audience can very well see each
moment in advance it makes you a little bored to hear it come out in the movie
next. That was disappointing and we get
often woeful dialogue and needless profanity throughout brought to you mostly
by Walton Goggins, who plays Stans. The
lines were not written well at times, if you’re going to focus the majority of
the story on the humans at least make it respectable. Stans talking about raping women and sniffing
cocaine was atrocious and such a scene killer that even Topher Grace walked
away from him. Let’s ask ourselves if we
want to hear filth like that or more predator involvement?
The
movie needed to be centered on the predators, hence the title of the film. It’s no coincidence the best scenes were at
the end, in which the predators were in.
Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov) blowing himself up was a cool twist on what the predators
did in past films. He had the best death
scene and it was true to the nature of the franchise. It was awesome to see that predator look at
him while thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding!”
The sad part was he did it to save Edwin. Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien) sword fighting
the predator lacked intensity and feeling.
They both died at the same time?
Can’t come up with anything else?
How about the predator manhandles him and takes offense to being
challenged straight up by a mere human?
The explosive death of Edwin after being in the entire film, somehow,
helped the movie somewhat but you still wanted him to die long before that. I do make the film sound not so inviting but that’s
the truth. The predator vs. predator
battle was great! I was hoping the two
would hash it out and it ended up being one of the best moments in the movie.
The
ending of the movie doesn’t create anything we haven’t seen before, for
instance, like in the original predator.
Isabelle previously in the film mentions the story of Arnold and how he
defeated the predator years ago. Royce
copies that style which is still what anyone would attempt since it’s worked
before but you want a new finale not one you’ve seen already. Watching
Royce literally hack to death the final predator with its own weapon was thrilling
surprisingly. Although I would have
liked to see Royce’s head get lobbed off and go rolling down a hillside as the
movie faded out. I do like the fact the
survivors ended up being stranded on the planet anyway even after the predators
all were killed. It’s like they win but
still lose. Will more predators come to
finish them? That’s a nice thought to be
left with while the credits roll. Not
enough predators, nor Fishburne, too much Topher Grace. I am a fan of the predator series and still
enjoyed the scenes they were in as well as it being a science fiction
film. It does disappoint but I would
still watch it again. I can see why many
people would turn their nose up at this one and rightfully so.
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