Predators is not the typical reboot that asks fans to forget about previous entries, it goes the extra yard by actively working to destroy its predecessors’ legacy. So, how does it manage to do this?
Directed by Nimród Antal, Predators throws a group of elite soldiers into a mysterious jungle. Leading the pack are Adrien Brody and Alice Braga as experienced soldiers. The rest of the gang (introducing yourself by name isn’t popular with this crowd) comprises of mob enforcers, psychopaths, and worse. Each parachute into an unfamiliar jungle, learn to trust each other, and find that they are farther from home than originally thought. Not only are they on a distant planet, but they are part of a hunting preserve stocked by honor bound extraterrestrials.
Predators is strewn with references to the original ’87 film Predator, so it is fitting to further the comparison. The original film served up two motifs: raw masculinity, and nature trumping technology. The casting of Predators is too gender neutral too evoke the original’s message. The average member of Dutch’s team would wipe the floor with the best offered here. Adrien Brody and Alice Braga are not terrible actors, but this series is not a place or genre they should be calling home. Characters in Predators have no history outside of this situation. We never see their “normal” lives, and this takes a dimension away from them because we cannot see how the hunt has changed them. At least the original film had a scene introducing the team to the jungle. Starting a movie with such a simplistic plot in the middle of the perceived story is a screenwriting no-no. As presented the characters go well over twenty minutes oblivious to everything the audience knows at the point of ticket purchase. We know the mentality of the alien creatures, we know these people are on a distant planet, we know they are being hunted—having at least one human character privy to this knowledge would have shaved dead weight. Regardless, you see the redundancy of the Predator franchise and why there has only been one film that people care to talk about.
I struggle to find an original thought in Predators. Again, the ’87 original is a template for what to do next. Need to get characters to safety? Well there’s a waterfall for them to slide over. Music? Just lift the original tracks and periodically add some rock elements. Can’t write a line? Take your pick from the now famous memes generated by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When a situation can’t be fixed with a Predator reference, it gets even more predictable with bullets magically not killing living creatures, heel turns, and the obvious going unnoticed. To its credit, the action is easy to perceive and the atmosphere appears related to the franchise, even if the infamous POV “heat vision” is not in HD.
My initial impression was that the change in creature design signaled a reboot, but I’m ultimately baffled since the change is more of an introduction. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. No one was complaining about the initial creature and there was no kernel of evidence to suggest that the original Predator needed to be one-upped. In Aliens, the discovery of a colossal queen makes sense because the original film’s creature had a dynamic lifecycle that took center stage. From what I’ve seen of the Predator creatures across several films (I’ve forgone viewing Aliens vs Predator – Requiem), there has been zero evidence to suggest that the familiar Predator is an inferior creature among its own family. This implication is strong enough to negate the grandiose drama of previous films. Schwarzenegger’s epic struggle with Predator Classic® is such a downer when all this time he could’ve fought New Predator®—but only if you allow history to be rewritten. Had there not been such a heavy handed effort to nod at the original, there would be no gripe; fans could write this off as a different take on the franchise. Instead Predators is an unnecessary, scene-lifting, “homage” laden letdown with its only contribution being an effort to lower the bar placed before it. *½
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