Predators

Saw it tonight, and I'm not sure what I think, to be honest.

The whole thing is obviously a love letter to the original, as it's set back in an alien tropical jungle, but there were, as there always seems to be with this sort of thing, some unwelcome additions. Firstly, the reveal that there are two types of Predator, they're similar, but different, 'like dogs and wolves'. The Predator we see in all the other films, the various games and graphics novels etc, the classic design that we all know and love... is of course, the dog. It's the smaller, weaker one. The 'wolf' (which is a stupid name because I'm sure Wolf was one of the Preds in AvP) looks similar when masked, but his skin is a little darker and when his mask is eventually off, he looks much less crab like, his features are sleeker, and he's even bigger than the 'dog' type.

Of course, the two types of Predator don't get on. There's some kind of huge blood feud between them apparently, and the wolves hunt the dogs, allegedly. All of which is an excuse to have two Predators fight each other for a meagre few seconds. Did we really need a new kind of Predator, or any notion of a deeper hierarchy? What was wrong with the established notion that successful hunts breed respect? Sorry to bang on about this, but these kind of additions smack of a writer / director or whatever trying to say 'hey, here's myPredator, and he's an even bigger badass than the original!' Totally unnecessary. Boo.

Where was I? Oh yes, comparisons to the orignal film... well, you've got a big dude with a minigun, and a fight involving traps and someone using mud to hide their body heat. Sound familiar? Yes, I'm sure it's deliberate, but it kinda feels more like a lazy reimagining of classic scenes than a loving or humorous reference.

With all that said, I did enjoy it. Despite it's 15 certificate, there's no shortage of violence, (including one more fellow getting his spine and head torn off while he's still alive), and the pace is frenetic. It doesn't really ever let up. Yes, some elements niggled and in parts it's a touch predictable, but it'd never less than entertaining and frequently thrilling. I doubt it'll be remembered with anything like the fondness reserved for Predator though. That film is a classic, this is not.

Predator 2 was the best Predator movie.

I didn't really like the original, so I doubt I'll like this one.

I hear Laurence Fishburne(sp?) gets killed off. They lucky Danny Glover wasn't there.

Danny Glover is too old for this shit.

It was decent but didn't make me too impressed. I liked how they were dropped on the planet and the new predator mask designs.

They did try make a homage to the original, and it's even set some time after predator 1 aswell.

Still a must see for a Pred fan.

You know what this film could have used? A story.

Oh, I just remembered. That sword fight was really bad. One Japanese guy with a katana, and two fingers missing, took on a wolf predator ALONE, and killed it. Ridiculous. He died too, but it's still stupid. The regular predator couldn't even defeat a wolf predator on his own. Not to mention it was just a bad scene in general.

The editing in this film was really annoying. The sword fight and the final fight were the worst offenders. Lots of rapid cuts showing the same thing from different angles about 10 times.