Predators

Sometimes a movie falls off my radar: a combination of friends going to the theatre without me (I'm not bitter) and me being too lazy to rent/acquire when it is released for home consumption. It doesn't help that people were talking ill of Predators, although now that it's been so long my memory could be fooling me. For all I know, everyone loved this film and I was just jealous that I didn't see it, hence, skewing it into the negative. Or people really did hate it because quite frankly, nothing can compare to the originator, and it's upsetting that Hollywood keeps trying, with futility (i.e. AvP).

When you go into a show expecting failure, it's so much easier for said show to impress you. So long story short, this Predators entertained me. I didn't care that we got a modern day mix of stereotypes, it's cliched yes, but it's standard now. And I guess it does make a bit of sense: this alien race collects the finest specimens from all walks of cultures and plops them into a hunting ground for their own amusement. Here's a problem though: midway through the movie, as the humans are trying to figure out what's going on, they declare themselves "predators" and by extension, the actual Predators are now just "jerks."

Could the same be said for Alien and Aliens, of which I assume this Predator sequel is trying to rip-off in the naming scheme? In Alien and Predator, we have one alien, and one predator. In Aliens, we have a whole host of them; again, in Predator's we have a couple more, hence the pluralization. But if we are to presume that the title characters in Predators are actually the humans, can we think of the humans as the actual aliens in Aliens? I'm going to respond and say "no" and will have to say it's just an oversight (of many) on the makers of this Predator sequel. It's also nice that they pretend nothing else happened in the Predator line of movies: they make mention of Arnold's character but of none other (I think, it's been fifteen years since I've seen Predator 2). They certainly don't make mention of an underground ice compound used by predators as a hunting ground.

My biggest problem with this film are that the Predators are no longer interesting: they don't really bring anything new to the table here: they have the same old weapons, the big blades attached to their arms and the same gaping mouth-fang-things. I do give credit to them for updating the imagery: when the shoulder cannon fires off, it's a spectacle of light and sound, as it should be. They rip out spines and skulls in true form and use their various visions as you would think. Special effects just make them nicer on this go, but they certainly lack the substance of the '80s. Also of note is how the modern action star has changed, although this is obvious. Instead of the pillars of muscle crashing through the jungle, we have a larger group of smaller people here: their skill with their weapons is their true strength.

And that's it; this movie wasn't special but it wasn't horrible by any means either. I like that they keep it pretty simple; although some of the characters are ridiculous and the Predator's themselves seem to have been "weakened" there was some good entertainment value here.