Predators

Just came back from seeing Predators and my first reaction is Wow! Having seen so many new movies recently I felt things were merging into one another and could not see the difference with with them.

Till this afternoon having read positive reviews about this and was in good spirits about taking my seat in the cinema what I had not expected was how good an action movie it really was.

Adrien Brody had a tough act to follow after the 2 earlier Predator movies with Arnie and Danny Glover, I dont count the AVP movies as proper Predator movies due to the fact that they strayed too for from both the Alien and Predator movie worlds. His performance here seemed believable and a character you could root for unlike some of the other characters who felt like fodder for the predators. His inclusion here brought weight in my to the movie. In the past he has worked with directors of the high calibre of Terrence Milack, Roman Polanski and Wes Anderson in the fantastic Mr Fox and The Darjeeling Limited.

Story wise the movie is about a group of dangerous individuals including a sniper, a criminal on death row, a yakuza et all that the Predators have chosen to become their prey in a deadly hunt. There is not much in the way of exposition the movie as throws you in to the action from the off it disorientates the viewer for a while as you wish you could have seen what happened before that point. As the movie progresses we find out the background of each individual for a few odd moments.

The move then steps up a pace when you see the first action set piece with the Predator dogs at first it reminded me of the Hulk dogs from Ang Lee's 'The Hulk' this kinda sucked and I wished it had not happened as it seemed like the writers had thought what would be cool and the answer was this.

When the characters find out what they are up against it's here the movie takes flight and starts to get a whole lot better as plot is thrown out of the window and the action starts. The pacing here is spot on and as the movie races to its conclusion you find yourself caring what happens to the characters . Its one of the many strengths of the movie along with the action set pieces and the over all tone of the movie.

As for the down side to the movie Laurence Fishburnes character was pretty much non essential as well as topher grace's character he seemed to be there just to get killed off or act as bait for Adrian Brodies Royce character.

The Predators looked too stylised for their own good and I would have rather'd them to look gritty and battle worn. The CGI loooked bit iffy in places but you cant have everything all the time so its only a minor flaw.

Over all Predators acts as a great reboot of the Predator series with great action set pieces believeable characters and a great story with a lot of scope for further Predator movies.

8/10.