Right off the bat the movie opens with Adrien Brody plummeting through the air towards a thick jungle. He frantically is trying to open a parachute, that does so at the last possible moment, he crashes through foliage, slams hard into the ground and boom “Predators” engulfs the screen; not a bad opener for a sci-fi action horror flick.
The movie picks back up right away as more characters drop into the jungle and eventually all come together, some more peacefully than others. We have guns-for-hire mercs, shady military ops, convicts, mafia soldiers and any other form of stereotypical Hollywood human trash. It’s established pretty early on that this is not a likeable ensemble of people.. yet they all start to immediately take to the idea of working together; all but Adrien Brody’s character, who is confusing as he’s the one rounding them all up and assuming the role of leader, yet frequently states he’d rather go it alone… it’s not quite Bella Swan mixed signals but it’s still a glaring character inconsistency.
Okay, it needs to be said right away: this movie takes itself way too seriously. Yes it is a dramatic story, but the script and the way most of the cast give their lines is so over the top serious that it borders on parody; if the delivery was trying to hard then the script’s over-abundence of cliches would be much more forgivable.
Thankfully we have Topher Grace. He plays Edwin, the nerd stereotype and bumbling comic relief. He knows way too much about everything and has some of the more realistic dialogue as far as his responses to what happens throughout the movie; the movie even states how he doesn’t fit in with this array of bad-asses, which does lead to intrigue of his character. I spent a lot of the movie wanting to know more about his character, because these were clearly cold-blooded killers that were gathered together, so where does the quiet nerd fit into the mix? Every time his character was in trouble, I actually would be thinking “they can’t kill him yet! I want to know more about him!” Topher was fantastic in this film, his delivery was brilliant and his character’s evolution throughout the story made him feel more like the main character than Adrien Brody’s. Sadly though, the nerd stereotype did feel overly pushed though.
That was a glaring flaw in most of the movie; stereotypes were just too overdone. From the Russian soldier named Nikolai (because we all know Russia only had one male name) to the Yakuza soldier just happening to be honed with the samurai sword, there were times that the stereotypes felt obnoxious.
Laurence Fishburne also helped the story with some key acting; his character was minute and really the movie could have done without him, but he made the most of his character and it was enjoyable to see him on screen while he was there.
So, over the top acting and not the greatest scripting leaves really one thing: the story.
The story goes that the Predator species gather the most lethal killers of other races and bring them to a planet and hunt them as a means of becoming better killers themselves… that’s really it, from there on out it’s just the Predators hunting down these humans; there is a bit of extra intrigue thrown in as we’re introduced to another species (or class) of Predators and we see there’s a sort of civil war going on between the two factions, but like Laurence Fishburne’s character it just felt tacked on and really contributed nothing to the overall story except that now there was a bigger and badder enemy to face! Oh nose!
Something else that hurt this movie was how often it referenced the other films, specifically the original Predator. It’s one thing to pay homage to your predecessor, it’s another thing to excessively borrow from it to make your own product better, and that’s what this movie felt like it was doing by the end, which is why some could argue that it’s a reboot except that the characters specifically reference the first movie so we can’t even really say that.
Plus Adrien Brody trying to act tough and do Christian Bale’s Batman voice really wasn’t doing it for me, I always see him as the writer in King Kong, so picturing him as a badass tough guy, just wasn’t happening.
Again, thank God for Topher Grace, he really was the best thing this film had going for it with his great delivery and subtle, but intriguing, character development.
This isn’t a bad movie, as far a B sci-fi action horror. The story is predictable and feels rushed and the acting is over the top and campy in most instances, but the budget for special effects was put to good use!
But yeah, if you’re a fan of the previous Predator movies or just looking for a fun action movie with no need of thinking, then totally go catch this film; bit if you’re looking for something with a little more meat on its bones, then this may not be at the top of your “to watch” list.