Predators Review

Predators, a 2010 American Science Fiction Action film portrays a group of killers selected for their capability to take life without conscience. They must attempt to win out against the alien race of Predators that have set out to target them as prey. The film begins with Royce (Adrien Brody) awakening from unconsciousness to find himself spinning out of control only to open his parachute moments before crashing into an unfamiliar jungle. There he meets several other Earthlings who have arrived there the same way. All curious and confused, the vile lot include a Russian soldier (Oleg Taktarov), a fighter in a Sierra Leonean death squad (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), a serial killer (Walton Goggins), a Yakuza assassin (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a Mexican drug gang enforcer (Danny Trejo) and an Israeli sniper (Alice Braga, the lone woman). When they journey to higher ground, they get a view of an unfamiliar sky and conclude that they are no longer on Earth. Dropped into the vast jungle of a distant world, these human Predators must learn just who or what, they are up against, and that their ability, knowledge and wits are tested to the limits in the battle of survival of kill or be killed.
All of the characters carry heavy weaponry except the warily well-to-do doctor (Topher Grace), who of course is not as he appears. Laurence Fishburne makes an appearance as an earlier visitor to the planet who boasts of surviving “10 seasons” in the strange jungle of poisonous flowers and waterfalls where the sun does not seem move across the sky. The visitors are lead in a life-and-death struggle with an evolving race of invisibility-cloaked extraterrestrial hunters — the resident Predators — who have picked them as game on a hunting reserve. The plan is to toy with them, and then pick them off one by one.

Some people might not like that the first half of the movie doesn’t have much Predator action. However the story develops at a natural pace; allowing time for the killer soldiers to form an uneasy alliance and seek the answers to the questions they all have: Who pushed them out of the place? How did they end up in this jungle? Who is hunting them? And, how do they get back to civilization?
Each character has the unfailing ability to kill any of the others without flinching. You never really know when one might turn against the other and there are many opportunities for that to happen. As a fan of the original film, it was exciting to see the relocation of the new film to a different planet and the mysterious origins of the various characters recaptures as well as increases the tension posed in the first film.
Predators might be taken as a karmic morality tale whose human predators finally get their retribution. But as the plot unfolds and the momentum accelerates, and its special effects transform it into a spongy cartoon, Predators loses its fine edge and judgment and turns into a frantic, clichéd chase film. The chaotic stew of fire, blood, mud and explosives is so completely devoid of terror and suspense that any metaphorical analysis is debatable.
Tabetha

Tags: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Predators, Science Fiction