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Predators
Running time: 106 minutes
Starring: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Alice Braga
Rating 3 out of 10
Relative newcomer Nimrod Antal (Vacancy, Armored) helms this reboot of the Predator franchise, supervised by cult auteur Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Sin City) with an aim to take the series back to basics. Is this much-hyped duo the wonder cure for a franchise that has been unfairly bastardised throughout the last decade by studio-heads looking to make some quick cash? How does it measure-up within the Predator timeline?
In Predators, a group of soldiers, mercenaries, gangsters and prisoners are kidnapped and dropped in an alien jungle, where they are being studied and hunted by a technologically advanced species of alien. As the bleakness of their situation becomes all too apparent, the group must resolve their personal differences to work together and survive.
Antal has made his name so far with some fairly solid b-movies, both Vacancy and Armoured did a lot with not a little and also contained some inspired casting choices. It’s a shame then, that here he feels painfully out of his element. For all the talk of the back to basics approach, there’s an abundance of poorly-executed ideas swirling around in Predators and Antal is unable to reign it all in and contain it into a tidy story.
For a start, there’s too many boring, unused characters with unsurprising revelations, there’s no attachment to this underdeveloped lot who solely exist to be cannon-fodder. Royce (Brody) the mercenary who quickly positions himself as group leader just doesn’t have the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator or the vulnerability of Danny Glover in Predator 2 to feel like a worthwhile foe to the Predators. Surprisingly, even the Predators themselves don’t have much of an imposing presence throughout the film and never feel like much of a threat.
Crucially, Predators takes far too long to lead to anywhere worthwhile and there’s not enough decent set-pieces to sustain the audience's interest. For an apparent sci-fi movie that wants to go back to its stark, brutal roots, it’s all rather boring and has been done far better, either retrospectively in its prequels or elsewhere in other films.
In short it’s a huge disappointment, not only as an apparent reboot of the series, but also as a standalone film. While this will not do much for Antal’s resume, we expect far more from Rodriguez. It’s a film sorely lacking in tension and action by a director who, whether out of his depth or uncomfortable working within the confines of a new genre, has completely dropped the ball this time around. Predators isn’t quite as terrible as Aliens v Predator 2, but sits within the swirling mediocrity of Aliens v Predator. My advice, stick with Predator and the grossly underrated Predator 2, in this CGI / 3D era of cinema, both titles stand out as classics of the action sci-fi genre.
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