Review #3: 'Predators' (2010)

It's been a long-time coming. Every since 1987's Arnie classic Predator and it's less impressive sequel, a franchise continuation has been frequently discussed and considered by many a director. It's strange that it's taken such a long time to arrive. The fanbase is already there, waiting intently, and the fact that the star is the beast itself means waiting for a big name actor to sign up doesn't really come into the question. When it fell into the hands of Robert Rodriguez, I had mixed feelings. He can do action well (Desperado (1995)) and not so well (Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003)), but apart from the odd dodgy film choice (The Adventures Of Sharkboy And Lavagirl (2005) - seriously, why?) his films have been at a good standard. But then I found out he was only going to write and produce it, and a director called Nimrod was going to direct instead, so my expectations lowered slightly.

The film opens with a buffed-up Adrien Brody awakening as he falls from a plane onto a strange landscape, to be later joined by other characters unaware of where they are and how they got there. The characters eventually reveal themselves to be members of various elite forces from across the globe, including Israeli sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga), Spetnaz grunt Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), and nerdy doctor Edwin (Topher Grace), whose inclusion confuses the group. It soon dawns on the group, after some keen observation by mercenary Royce (Brody), that they are a subject of a hunt and are being tested as they are the best of the best at what they do.

Whereas in the original two, it was one Predator hunting Arnie, Danny Glover and the huge teeth of Gary Busey in our environment, in Predators they have been dropped on an alien planet seemingly set up to train young Predators, and unluckily for Brody and the gang, there's three of the horrible bastards. So they must combine their own specialist skills and work out how to combat invisibility, high powered weapons, super strength and an annoying character in Stans (Walton Goggins).

It's nice to see the Predator back in it's own movie after being raped by Paul W.S. Anderson in Alien Vs. Predator (2004), and back in similar terrain as the original 1987 film. Unsurprisingly, it's not as good as the original but it does have it's moments. A pretty cool sword fight between one Predator and the mysterious, silent Yakuza Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), and a welcome return for the 'classic' Predator, the same kind that battled with Arnie in the first film. But these are few and far between and are ruined by stock archetypal characters and an ill-advised 'Predator dogs' attack which are basically crap CGI inventions, and an excuse to put a bit of action into the film.

Fans will no doubt enjoy it, but I feel the talent of Rodriguez could have added something different about the film. And a bit of nasty gore wouldn't have gone amiss. The film just seems a bit too tame. It's practically a retread of the original with different actors and more Predators. At least it does try and devlop the mythology, and it's nice to see Adrien Brody tackle a different type of role and pull it off confidently.


Directed by: Nimród Antal
Starring: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie