Prey

Dan Trachtenberg has revived the Predator brand and even though no one believed in the film after the first trailers, it is a success and I am happy with it too. I appreciate that Prey is set during the Comanche era, it has an Apocalypto feel to it and we don't get many gritty films with Indians, much less in the horror subgenre, so I applaud the period and the setting. I liked that the first half is like survival flick where we watch a bunch of animals hunting each other (cougar, bear, wolf, snake, rabbit). I could easily imagine a whole movie where a bunch of CGI animals eat each other in the jungle accompanied by a dense R-rated action, it would probably drive me crazy (so hopefully I'll get to see it one day). The Predator slowly gets acquainted with a new planet and a lot of time is spent hunting, which I enjoyed. The second half turns into a decent action inferno where the Predator attacks the French colonizers and that is one of the best scenes of the film, the final duel is also good. There are some impressive deaths, though the gore could have been more nutritious, but it's sufficient. Amber Midthunder is likeable and surprisingly skilled in combat, so I had no problem believing her. The music and atmosphere were also good. The only minor issue I have is with the Predator's invisible camouflage, which didn't make a good impression on me, but once the hunk showed up in full glory I was satisfied. For the new generation that probably won't put on the original Predator anymore, I think Prey is a cool notch in the franchise. Story 3/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 3/5. 8/10 (2022-08-08)

Predator set in a time when its adversaries couldn’t sharpen pencils because the CIA hadn’t been founded yet. The pros are its straightforwardness and its ability to stand alone without adhering to the rules of McTiernan's 35-year-old universe (I didn’t even catch a single note from Silvestri). On the downside, it doesn’t quite play with the atmosphere of unknown danger, the blatantly digital fauna is disappointing, and there’s a lack of attention to details that would provide the patina of place and time, à la The Revenant (from language to well-maintained nails). As for how the great-great-great-grandmother of tracker Billy made a naive fool out of the dreadlocked hunter, I’ll leave that without comment. By the way, with the current heroine trend, when will we see oppressed antagonists get their moment? How about a female Predator who triumphantly fights in the Ardennes in 1944 against a racist SS unit and a chauvinistic American Marine commando? P.S. If you wait until the end of the animations during the final credits, you’ll see a hint of how Danny Glover’s gift ended up in the hands of its giver. Let’s hope they behaved better than the white colonizers. (2022-08-07)

A straightforward intimate period survival "from the mud to the puddle and back to the mud again" that would stand on its own, especially when it is functionally, and not just for show, set in the Predator universe. It's not without many "buts" (the atmosphere should have been thicker, it could have done with even more reliance on practical effects instead of digital, at times it feels like an adaptation of a rebooted Tomb Raider, and the English language didn't need to be so overused), but who cares when it works so well. (2022-08-05)

Just my sort of Disney movie. No need to make a live action version of Pocahontas... Trachtenberg slowly but effectively builds the atmosphere in the style of the original Predator and carefully calculates where to pull out the trumps just at the right moment in the story. The camerawork, production design and the overall atmosphere swallows you up and doesn’t let you go for an instant in the second half. Midthunder is completely convincing as the young Indian girl and carries the entire movie effortlessly on her shoulders. Although the message that technique and details are much more important for killing than strength is rendered invalid with the pistol handed over at the end, which indicates what then had to happen in the epilog, but maybe the filmmakers are just preparing the ground for a sequel, who knows? (2022-08-05)

Finally a sequel to Predator that is very similar to the legendary first film. It doesn't trump it in the depressing, sometimes even horror atmosphere, and of course not in the originality of the initial creative idea either, but Prey certainly doesn't put it to shame. The plot is relatively coherent (similar to the scheme of the first one), the hunter himself has plenty of space and a couple of scenes are really delicious. There’s the bear scene, already mentioned here, which is OK, but too digital. Paradoxically, the best scene IMHO is not led by the Predator, but by young Amber Midthunder, who at one point dispatches a couple of smirking sleazebags, and she does it nicely without a single cut, in a perfectly clear manner and with the right amount of explicit violence. Overall, the creators are not afraid of brutality, on the contrary. It's still a B movie, but it's ambitious, suspenseful, and for once even the average viewer can enjoy it. (2022-08-08)