I had pretty low expectations going into Predators. I'm sorry to say that I have never seen the original Predator film, though I feel like I know a surprising amount about it. The Governator goes into the jungle with a bunch of commando buddies and watches as one by one they are picked off by some kind of invisible hunting animal that turns out to be an alien. It's funny how you can just know these things about a pop culture item. Imagine if that extended to everyday life: you meet a person and can instantly tell them that you thought their escapades in Padre last summer were funny but a little tasteless, but you'd love to have their recipe for that bean-and-chorizo casserole they made for Thanksgiving two years ago. Wouldn't that be fun? Or terrifying?
But I digress.
By the time I got around to seeing Predators (as in, only about two weeks after it came out), it had already whittled down to only showing at a single theater in town. The theater in question is located far south, on the side of the interstate where stopping to ask for directions is a great way to get yourself mugged. This only lowered my expectations further, which, ironically, probably helped the movie.
Predators begins by showing a drowsy Adrien Brody waking up to find that he is inexplicably skydiving. What a way to start a movie, eh? He fumbles around with the pack on his back, swearing and cursing and tumbling, until finally he pulls the cord mere seconds before crashing through the jungle canopy and smacking hard into the ground below. He comes across seven others (eight if you count the poor bastard whose chute didn't open) who seem to have experienced a similar fit of amnesiatic thrill-seeking. No one has any idea of how they got here, and even less of an idea of where "here" is. It doesn't take the characters - and yourself - very long to realize just how politically correct their little ragtag band of misfit heroes is, and soon, Adrien Brody makes the key realization of the film: all of the humans, with one exception, are the predators of their society. There's an African fellow (R.U.F. - death squad from Sierra Leone), South American (Los Zetas cartel enforcer), a Russian (Spetznatz Alpha Group), an Asian (Yakuza in the Dawokei), an American (Death Row inmate), an Israeli (Israeli Defense Force - and the film's ONLY woman!), an American doctor (the exception to the "predator" theory, unless you are a wallet), and Adrien Brody, who is hinted to be some kind of American black-ops. This is why the film is called Predators (plural) and not Predator 3 (singular). In this film, everyone is a hunter, not just the aliens. I thought this was pretty nifty myself. But then, I am easily impressed. Oh, and for the record, this film is a follow-up to to Predator and Predator 2, not Alien v. Predator.
A few scenes into the movie, the band of merry travelers ran across a dry riverbed, and with a start I realized that I knew the place myself. As it turns out, 20th Century Fox worke with Troublemaker Studios, which is Robert Rodriguez' studio based right here in Austin. The scene I recognized was a local park a few miles out of town. This made me very excited (again, I am easily impressed). Aside from obvious things like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben, it's not often that I see something on screen that I've seen in person. It made me feel like, had I timed things right, I could have made a surprise cameo.
Though the script did not exactly call for the widest range of emotions, everyone involved was cast well and did their jobs serviceably, if a bit stereotypically. The Russian carries an enormous gatling gun (fun side fact: the gun he uses is actually American; the film crew couldn't find the Russian model that they wanted). The convict talks about how he wants to get back home so he can snort some cocaine and rape a few women. The African starts sentences with "in my culture" and "in my land". The South American is Danny Trejo. And so on. You never do learn a whole lot about anyone's backgrounds, but each character definitely had his or her own flavor; if you saw a line of dialogue written down, you'd be able to tell which character spoke it, which I think is the mark of some decent writing.
One of the surprising characters is a human who has survived several of these "prey drops" before, played rather well by Laurence Fishbourne (aka Morpheus from The Matrix, or, alternatively, Dr. Larabee, Akeela's mentor from Akeela and the Bee). This is a man driven positively bonkers by the reality he faces. Ever imagined Morpheus giggling and holding a whispered conversation with an invisible friend? Neither had I, yet Predators fulfilled that unknwon dream. And for that, of course, I am truly thankful.
But this isn't a movie about character development. It's about character removal, and boy does it do that well. One or two of the deaths range on the level of Mortal Kombat in terms of visual creativity. Every single character - human and alien alike - has at least one trademark scene where they are featured, which I think is sorely lacking in movies like this nowadays. Whether it's a spectacular death, or a heroic stand (or both), or whatever, everyone gets their moment, and I loved that. However, there was one "feature" scene that I did not agree with. I won't tell you if he survives it or not, but it features the Yakuza guy, so those of you who have seen the movie should know which one I'm talking about. It did make me laugh a bit, but it was completely out of place with the rest of the film. It was almost like Quentin Tarantino guest-directed for one scene: I kinda liked it, but, again, it felt out of place, like the scene was spliced in from a different movie (since Adrien Brody starred in Splice earlier this year, I felt like I just HAD to use that word somewhere).
Predators was surprisingly fun and engaging. You won't be bored, yet the action isn't cheap or canned. The characters were interesting, and the twists here and there were unexpected but sensible. Rent this when it hits DVD and watch it as part of a movie marathon featuring the likes of Predator, Conan the Barbarian, Bloodsport, and all those other 80's and 90's films that came out back when the size of the lead's arm was more impressive than the size of his vocabulary. They should make more movies like Predators: explosive, bloody, simple, and fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment