By Matt Brunson
PREDATORS
DIRECTED BY Nimrod Antal
STARS Adrien Brody, Alice Braga
It may not have seemed like much at the time, but in retrospect, 1987’s Predator now stands as one of the better pictures on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s surprisingly underwhelming resume, behind only the first two Terminator films and Total Recall. Predators, on the other hand, won’t seem like the cream of anybody’s crop; instead, time will dismiss it as yet one more belated sequel hoping to turn name recognition into cash value.
An ’80s breeding ground for future governors (Arnold and Jesse Ventura) and a wannabe governor (Sonny Landham), Predator benefited not only from powerful visual effects and brawny performances but also from the muscular direction by Die Hard‘s John McTiernan, who worked over the streamlined storyline and brought it to rippling life. Director Nimrod Antal can’t manage to do the same for Predators, a flabby new variation on that most reliable of short stories, Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game.” Instead of Zaroff and his hounds, we get the title fiends and their hounds from hell, four-legged grotesqueries employed to drive the human prey out into the open. Here, the hapless earthlings, all imported to a distant jungle planet for the amusement of the alien hunters, include a humorless mercenary (Adrien Brody), an Israeli soldier (Alice Braga), a murderous convict (Walton Goggins) and the apparent wimp of the group, a meek doctor (Topher Grace).
You know priorities are out of whack when the film’s most interesting performer, Machete‘s Danny Trejo, checks out waaay too early while the worst actor in the bunch, the perpetually hammy Goggins, is allowed to hang around. Laurence Fishburne, who I always assumed couldn’t give a bad performance, proves me wrong with a head-scratching turn as the only survivor of the predators’ previous hunting expeditions. And Adrien may have the Oscar, but he’s no Arnie, and he turns out to be a rather colorless action hero.
Speaking of the action, which of course is the film’s raison d’être, it’s dutifully handled, but there isn’t much here that quickens the pulse or jolts the imagination. In fact, if there’s a central failing in Predators, it’s that true innovation is in desperately short supply. The film comes armed with memorable monsters and a workable premise (the hunters become the hunted), but by offering little more than one-dimensional variations of the original’s entertaining characters as well as basically duplicating its lush forest setting, this one qualifies as little more than a bungle in the jungle.
This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2010.
I totally agree with the author.
In fact, I don´t understand why it has an RT rating over 60 % and is considered fresh!?
It was the most dull and forgettable picture I have seen in the last months.
Horribly superficial characters, stupid dialogues, not even that much action… damn.
And yes, that Mexican dude was by far the most interesting character. Screw Brody and Fishburn for their acting. Anyway, how on earth could Fishburn become so damn fat living on this hostile planet and then worry about six more people to feed… hilarious…
You brought up some good points in your review. Probably the best being that Fishburne was a pretty weak and mostly pointless character and performance. I am a little disappointed that as a reviewer you would make the mistake of calling Braga an Israeli though since she mentioned the whole reason she knew anything about them was because she was from Guatemala where the original movie had taken place. I’m also not sure i would agree with you that Trejo was the most interesting character. There really wasn’t anything to base that off of other than the fact he was probably going to be the same character he is in just about every other movie.
Thanks for writing, Stumbles. While Braga’s character may have been from – or familiar with – Guatemala, she herself has confirmed in interviews that her character was a sniper in the Israeli military. Two examples:
From wazzupmanila.com: “As a sniper in the Israeli Defense Force, I’ve never played this type of character before,” says Alice Braga.
From Huffington Post: Q: Your character is Israeli military?
AB: She is a sniper. She’s a special force lady.
As for Trejo, in my defense, I did say he was the most interesting performer, not the most interesting character. As you note, he wasn’t given time to establish any sort of character. But despite a limited range, I do enjoy watching him in movies!
Cheers,
Matt