PREDATORS Post-Release

Good review, but it's disappointing that the movie isn't necessarily that great.

The description makes me think of Pitch Black though. A bunch of random people get dropped onto an alien planet, and get hunted by mysterious aliens. Spoiler, not everyone is what they seem!

Just got back from a midnight show. I'd put it on the same level as Predator 2, some really, really good moments and some shit that I really couldn't stand.

What I liked:
-Adrien Brody and Walton Goggins are awesome.
-The action delivers. Nimrod Antal definitely didn't fuck it up, that's for sure.
-KNB did a bang-up job on the effects. The cloaking doesn't look cheap and the CGI was well masked, if not used sparingly. Seeing the original Predator again was a treat.
-The fact that "Long Tall Sally" plays over the end credits. God, I nerded out at that.

What I didn't like:
-The Laurence Fishburne scenes were a chore to sit through.
-Compared to the first two, the dialogue was terrible. There's nothing on the level of "I ain't got time to bleed!" or "Stick around" or "You are one ugly motherfucker" or "YOUR MOVE, PUSSEHFACE!" Completely bland, not as bad as Terminator Salvation's excuse for dialogue, but this was my biggest problem with the movie.
-Topher Grace was way out of place here. The fact that he basically turns into a clearance-bin Dexter villain made him even more disposable. Would have much rather have had him been a Burke-type douche who only cared for himself.
-Not enough Trejo, and even worse his death is off-screen.

It may seem more negative than positive, but just a little fine-tuning and this would have been great. But it's good. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. A solid 7/10 or *** out of ****.

So it's not to far off from the script I read especially in regards to Spoiler: Danny Trejo being the first one killed, and offscreen. Good news. I'm still hyped, yet keeping my expectations in check.

Too bad someone doesn't call them pussyfaces or as Hunter just put it in Gloverspeak "PUSSEHFACE"

Hopefully going to see this tomorrow. I'll be taking my girlfriend to see the next action packed hyped movie of the summer after the success we had watching the awesomeness that was The A-Team.

Fuck me but I enjoyed the hell out of this. There were times that I felt that the movie was a little bit too "fanboy"-ish, but it still meant I got a pretty decent fight between a Predator and a Yakuza with a a samurai sword. I was always aware that it just geek wish-fulfillment but I was fine with it.

I thought Brody handled himself really well and there was never a time I scoffed at him being a badass. The rest of the cast got the job done with Walton Goggins as usual being the stand-out. I actually didn't mind his "bitch raping" speech and found it to have just the right amount of dumb vulgarness to make me chuckle.

One thing I loved is it used that blue 20th Century Fox font that you saw before films such as Predator and Aliens in the 80s. It made things start off with a smile for me.

I'd put this on the same level as The A-Team.

Great review. Always love it when you guys tag-team.

Fun but sort of just there. I don't feel any particular need to watch it again.

It's sort of the opposite of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. While that was a terrible flick built around awful characters that happened to have an excellent Predator in it, this focuses on a bunch of good actors (Brody's seriously really good) and keeps you invested, but the Predators themselves are a bit weak.

Just got back from a full fucking house and the new PREDATORS sucked. Prior to going in to the theatre, an AMC lady and a fat rent-a-cop asked for I.D. and ticket stub. Ticket stub, fine - but I.D. - they should've done that at the box office. Pffft.

This movie just didn't click w/ me. Brody never came off cold and was actually hero-like and the ''jungle setting'' didn't seem dangerous at all. The rest of the cast was funny-as-fuck to represent the baddest killers from Mother Earth. Trejo looked like a damn plumber and Yakuza guy had the raw nerve to take off his shoes, you're on a hostile alien game preserve, buddy. There could be thorns and shit. Oh, fucking Toper Grace! The non-movie geek crowd I was with was like, ''WTF?'' The Predator Falcon was never used and the actual Super Predators didn't appear to be threatening at all. They used dogs and someone in the crowd was like, ''Why use dogs? A Predator is a badass alien killer.'' Interesting to note.

Great crowd moment was when we all LOL'd at Laurence Fishburne. God-damn, we LOL'd at his pudgy fucking face (keep the damn mask on, playa). Fuck you Morpheus.

After the movie, people were talking and I observed what their thoughts were. Majority said it was just ''OK.''

Had a lot of fun with this last night, it was probably as good as a 21st century Predator flick has to be. Didn't change the world, but a good time at the cinema.

Few too many callbacks for my liking (did Goggins AND Brody need to get a 'DO IT KILL ME' moment? Shouldn't one have been enough), and what was the deal with the predator bird things? Were they there just to have that long crane shot with the heat blur?

It looked tremendous most of the time, the matte painting (?) of the alien skyline was pretty ace. The only human who I felt got the short changed was the Sierra Leone RUF dude. Was he added just for some colour to the gang?

...and yeah, the CGI fire was piss poor.

The orginal was on Film 4 last night and It made me realise just how big the shoes are Preadators has to fill. From the looks of things it looks like it fails at that but is still worth a watch.

So I just got back from the big midnight show...

THINGS I LIKED

-Adrian Brody. He does a great job with Royce. He's not huge like Arnie, but he has the jungle knowledge and hunting chops that make him his own kind of dangerous. He's not a threat to the Predators because of his big muscles. That point was already made in the first film, so it feels right here.

-The hound scene. It's probably my favorite sequence of the movie. Despite the awful choice to do a big CGI close up now and then, they worked fairly well. The brutality of them being blown apart was fun.

-Anything involving hunting lingo, or strategy or theory. For some reason hearing about flushing and killing techniques feels very natural in this movie.

-Goggins killed it whenever he had the chance.

"Somebody give me a gun... Cmon! You have two!"

"I'm going to do... SO much Cocaine. And rape."

"Don't talk to him." "I know."

-All of the characters were almost as well defined as you could hope for. They're given simple traits, jobs and qualities to set them all apart.

-Topher Grace continues to prove that he has excellent comic timing and deserves to be huge.





THE THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE

-The Predators. Something was seriously off once the Predators were more than just hanging out around the edges. They were too skinny? Too cheap looking perhaps? The presentation of the creatures in the first two films is 100 times as iconic, for reasons I can't fully describe.

The design of the new Predator is interesting I suppose, but the whole different races of Predator thing didn't really work well. It's an interesting problem. The Predator has penetrated pop culture, and you have to do SOMETHING to get around the fact that the Predator is so familiar. It didn't work well here.

-It was probably a terrible idea to to have three Predators. By the very nature of having three Predators they look like bumbling morons compared to the creatures in the first two movies. I understand the desire for bigger and better and all that, the whole Aliens syndrome, but it didn't work here.

-The Hawk. I guess this was cut? There's a scene in the script where the Predators hunt down the survivors using the previously established hawk, and Royce realizes this and blasts it. It sucks to have set ups that don't end up paying off. I guess it was cut.

-The third act. Is pretty close to the final act of the script, and it's still shitty. There's an established status quo from the third act of the first two movies, and it works well. Hero finds himself alone, many or most of his friends dead. It's just him, and the creature. Mano a mano. The last act should be dedicated to the cat and mouse.

Royce is the PERFECT character to have this showdown with. He's got the survival and hunting and tracking knowledge to make an interesting show down. Instead what we get is Royce running up to the predator and hitting it a few times, the sniper shoots it and then he chops its head off with an axe? What the fuck is that? What is supposed to be the best most entertaining part of the story fucking sucked.

-The Script was kind of poor. The pacing is weird, slowing down too much too often. After Planet Terror I was hoping Robert would be able to churn out a script that was fast paced and fun. But this script feels like it was written in 1995 and then never touched up.

-Oh, and that Yakuza guy was awesome, but that Billy reference was laughable. They even started up Billy's theme with an Asian tint. The whole sword fight was awkward and horrible. A predator, a bad ass killing machine got taken down by a sword! Come on!

Ultimately the concept sounded awesome, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I still believe Predator 3 set in Afghanistan starring Dwayne Johnson would have been the best choice.

First of all Adrien Brody is terrible in this. Like unbelievably terrible, clearly he is not a leading action man. I wanted to like him in this, but I cannot lie. People would spontaneously laugh at certain lines delivered by Brody. Also the female lead, whom looks slightly demented, is pretty stale, in fact the two leads are the least interesting of all the characters.

Thats the movies problem that it focuses mostly on these two shitty characters whom happen to be the most boring. But its awesome that its got Topher Grace and Walton Goggins, both of whom are great, but neither have significant roles.

If there was more banter and group dynamics the movie would've been so much better, but instead its Adrian Brody and Sniper Girls movie. Its too bad the other characters had so little to say.

Oh and Nimrod can handle action, not all of it is great or even good, but most of is it decent. The samurai battle with the Predator was awesome, and well shot. Nimrod combined long and short shots in this instance, and it worked very well.

It's fun, the action is mostly solid, Brody sells hardened bad-ass really, really well and Topher Grace is fantastic as usual, with Goggins bringing up the rear (I like Braga, she's a bit pinched, but she brings a sort of soul to what is essentially a very thin role), but it spends such an inordinate amount of time paying homage to the original film that it never shakes the vibe of being a fan film writ large leaving its own identity in question.

It never really hits the holy fuck moments of the McTiernan film even though you can see it reaching for them, and as the, I guess, official third film in the franchise, the actors behind the new Predators show exactly why Kevin Peter Hall is such a tough act to follow (my apologies to Derek Mears).

Maybe I'll see it again someday, but I'll not be marking the calendar.

Time to check movie times.

I'm trying to avoid reading too much, but I think I am going to like it.

The one thing that has been uncovered during this whole process that surprises me is how many people have serious issues with Predator 2. Maybe its because I was 12 when it came out, or maybe its because of the fond memories I have of my late grandmother and I watching Morton Downey Jr when I was in jr high, but I still think that movie kicks ass. I'm shocked to see how many people think it totally sucks.

Topher Grace twist was awful....

Yeah, Goggins had the best lines. This movie's Hudson.

So it's better then the last 2 AVP films, but not good enough to get it out of the niche market and back to Mainstream.
Let's hope Ridley has better luck with his Alien prequels.

I agree with the overall "OK" sentiment. I will say there is a refreshing lack of shaky cam in the action scenes. One thing I really wish is that the planet had a more exotic or alien feel to it. With exception of the skyline shots, it just felt like straight jungle (one of the many homages to the first).

I did like the cold open in freefall, and the pacing moved well. I'd put about on level with "The A Team", overall.

It's a pretty solid action flick. I don't think it'll stick with me very much but I had fun with it.

I love Topher Grace and he was really good, but I just groaned when he started monologuing. I already knew the twist, but the scene just feels lazily written or something. He plays it as well as you could ask for, but it's just a face palm kind of moment.

Best credit music? I think so.

Considering that they're all tough guy killers and all, why doesn't anybody question why the hell he's there? I mean they think the predators just made a mistake and picked up this guy instead of his psycho killer cousin?

They do question it (at least Brody does), and for all they know he could have been chosen specifically because he'd be dead weight to the group. Personally, I think Brody's character is suspicious of the guy from the get-go, but decides to concentrate on the larger issue at hand. Edit: Also, even if you don't know the twist going in, (which I did) the fact that this "doctor" is carrying around a scalpel in his civvies is a dead giveaway. The one thing that really rang false was Grace's character wanting to stay on that planet, it's a very Zaroff-like sentiment, so I guess it's appropriate, but it doesn't hold together for me.

Why did Alice Braga have a TV remote attached to her sniper scope? Someone takes those "Kill Your Television" bumper stickers too seriously.

I wish that instead of cutting from Brody's "I know how you can be useful" to Grace running for his live from the odd looking predator there was a scene where he goes "Look Doc, I want you to run as fast as you can into the jungle. Run until a beastie smells you, run until the beastie starts chasing you, then keep running until our lady sniper gets the chance to kill said beastie. You cool with that?"

"Sure thing"

I gotta say I loved the shit out of this movie. Someone made the comparison that Goggins is the movie's Hudson and that fits perfectly because he steals every scene he is in. There are a few scenes that just don't click but it has a Yakuza / Predator Samurai sword fight. That is worth the price of admission alone.

Predators is...Awesome! Finally, a proper sequel to the Schwarzenegger Classic! Adrian Brody, ROLLS as...ROYCE!

Isn't that an Elcan DigitalHunter scope? That's what it looks like.

Why throwback to the first one? We all know the rules. Credit music and the like. Whatever. Take a risk and stand alone.

The first one nobody know about it and the creature design went through changes during production. It wasn't a concrete deal if it was going to be a hit. It was a chance taken by new writers who slipped their spec script under an executive's door at Fox because they had no agent and we know what happened afterwards.

There was no risk taking to make this unique.

Going to be seeing a late show, so I'm really looking forward to this movie. All this good word of mouth is making my anticipation rise even more.

A great return to the Predators franchise, even if it isn't a great movie.

God, Goggins continues to fucking rule. I loved it. I thought Fishburne was fine, certainly not a stand out, god forbid someone gain weight in their old age. I hate to pick on the only woman in the movie but I haven't been a fan of Alice Braga and she didn't really sell me in Predators--though I thought she handled the action just fine. It was disappointing to see Trejo downed so early but I didn't think he brought his A-game (not to say he's a bad actor, I thought he was fantastic in Breaking Bad).

I say if you're on the fence, check it out. It was much better than Predator 2.

A pretty entertaining film, but it's too bad it didn't push the characters to their extremes. I thought Goggins' character was played too broadly... a harmless version of a psychopath... and I think that goes for the other characters as well. With the exception of Alice Braga's introduction and a few moments with Royce, all of these characters all lacked that "killer" edge.

I thought the visual effects, makeup, costumes and set design (what little there was) were all pretty well-grounded and effective, although that fire effect was laughably out of place.

WHich is worse :Fleed's taste in movies or his pathetic attempts at puns?
Particularly since the consensus seems to be among those who like the film that Brody does not make a good action hero.

I wouldn't say Brody makes a *bad* action hero, though... he looks tough and he sells that, but he just isn't cold enough. You can't really compare against Shwarzenegger though, as it's a completely different thing.

I thought Brody did fine in the "tough guy" role. I wouldn't mind seeing him try out more action roles after this.

Please stop being the "her elbows are too pointy" guy. It's like you motherfuckers totally forgot about City of God.

Nothing wrong with Braga. She's got the rugged Hollywood third world beauty down just fine.

It was alright. The credits song alone sort of elevates it. But oddly enough, I was more interested in the first half of the film than the second. Once Fishburne shows up, it starts to drag as soon as it readies itself for a by-the-numbers third act. It was a worthy effort, but the fan service just makes me want to watch the first one where characterization was confined to muscles and one liners instead of ethnic groups (the Yakuza/Predator fight might have sounded cool on paper, but the execution was stale as fuck, though I did laugh my ass off as soon as I knew he was getting the Billy treatment).

Oh, I think she's gorgeous, but just not in this movie. Which she shouldn't be.

I've ranted in pre-release thread without going into spoilers, so here goes with spoilers.

The first twenty minutes of the film, the characters trudge around a jungle location trying to figure out where they are. The problem is the audience has figured it out 5 minutes in. The remaining 75% of the film takes place in one location - the predator camp site. It just reeked of cheapness. All that wouldn't matter if the characters were interesting- and here's the thing, some of them actually are - just not the two they focused on the most.

All I wanted from the film was to deliver some bad ass predator moments, because Adrian brody and sniper girl were boring me to tears. If you're not going to deliver cool/interesting characters like Arnie or Glover then make sure the predators in a movie called "Predators" give a good show. They barely did anything. First of all the predators aren't good at being fucking predators. The first two films had their predators stalking their prey, quickly getting their kill, taking their trophy and moving to the next one. They were good hunters. Thrilling moments and suspense was had by all.

These predators keep getting their asses handed to them by humans, over and over in the stupidest ways possible. They just show up, gut someone and wait around for some one else to blow up a grenade in their faces. Plus, They can't seem to hit shit with their shoulder cannons and all their cool weaponry introduced in previous entries in the series seems to have disappeared.
It's really goddamn sad when the Predators in the AVP series were better at doing their respective carnage duties.
Wholesale bullshit is what this flick was. Haven't felt this robbed coming out of theater since Indy 4. And the same question "This is the best they could do? Really?" keeps coming to mind. Back to rewatching Predator 1 & 2 and early Nimrod Antal flicks for me and pretending this flick didn't exist.

If you didn't have a thing for Braga's crazy jungle woman hair look I feel sorry for you.

There was a scene from the script that was cut. The original intro was a line from Hemingway I believe, and then we find ourselves in a city I think it was. It might have been the middle east. Anyways it's a lot like Predator 2, with a man running for his life, and a Predator vision watching him. The audience is allowed to believe that the Predator is stalking the man, but it turns out Royce is hunting him down. From there the Predator kidnaps Royce, and then we wake up in free fall. For some reason I missed that.

The more I think about it the more they needed to focus on one Predator and mystify him. Multiple Predators doesn't work. For my money the Lone Wolf Predator from AVP2 is the best Predator since Predator 2. He's got duel plasma casters, a bull whip with a spinning chainsaw mechanism. Lots of new toys. He's got that cool look of an older, Clint Eastwood kind of creature.

Each of the Predators in the film had a style. The original was, well, original. The second creature had a kind of exotic red tint, implying a kind of Rastafarian look that resonated with the ethnic diversity of Los Angeles in a way that made a kind of neat sense. You got the impression that he was a different race within a species. If I was making choices, I would have designed the third Predator in the series to be very similar to the wolf Predator. Make him a Clint Eastwood type, with some cool new toys and tactics, and make his face older and grayer. Give him the look of a wise and seasoned warrior, and maybe even give him that cool facial scarring to imply this guy has seen some shit.

There's no need to make him a BLACK SUPER PREDATOR or whatever stupid gimmick, and you could keep your hounds and your hawk and stuff.

Honestly, she's attractive, but she's from Brazil. The meter there is insane in terms of hot women.

Yeah, that was the original intro and it seems like it was cut for the cold open. The quote was from Deep Cover, as said by Laurence Fishburne, so it seems a appropriate, though written long before it would be Fishburne in the movie. It was also in a book, Street Players, I believe.

And that scene was pretty good, at least it showed Royce being a cold hearted son of a bitch.

I'd like to see a renegade predator if there needs to be multiple predators. At least you can up the bodycount of preds without gimping them if it's one of their own taking them out.

That's the thing. FOUR predators die in this movie. FOUR. Remember how god damn difficult it was to bring them down in the first two movies? All of the tension of the film was all about the hero overcoming extremely unlikely odds, the winding of tension. We all know they're going to succeed, but the struggle against the unstoppable force is the fun of it.

In this film, Predators are dying left and right. It's ridiculous how nonthreatening these things are.

The Prequel Dark Horse Comic did a good job of showing that.

I don't have the details, but I suspect if you want to know what happened to Royce after the film, you might like to check out the Predators: Preserve The Game One Shot thats coming out next week.

Brody does make a good action hero.

This "Brody sucks in this movie" talk in horse shit by the way.

exactly. I just rolled my eyes. I guess we are supposed to think the guy is clearly out of his mind, but really, dudes smart enough to be an MD, i think he would be smart enough to know his dream of killing mulitple people isn't going to fly on a planet where he is hunted by Predators day and night. It's not like he's some Blackwater Navy Seal Ninja guy, he'd would have been cannon fodder within ten minutes if it wasn't for the other guys around him.

what sequel truely is?

Maybe they're like the rich bourgeoisie hunters from HARD TARGET?

I got that these predators were basically the Raiders, of the Predator Hunting League. The can only win by cheating

This movie is dogshit. Cheap, dull and obvious. Seriously, when you catch this again on Starz in two years, a lot of you are going to feel really embarrassed.

Goggins was great, so there's that.

I love the swordfight between...Hanzo, and the predator with the claw blade. I almost...Skipped seeing Predators in theaters, because of Brody. He makes a...terrific action hero. Sure, he is no Schwarzenegger, but he is far better than Danny Glover in Predator 2. Alice Braga is definitely cute. I hope there is a...Predators 2.

dudalb, Some people, dislike...BOTH, my taste in films and puns.

seems to be a divide on many sites, you either like Predator 2, or Predators, not both.