Very simply, Alien had a lot more going on under the hood than Predator – mostly as an exploration of gender and sexuality in horror – much as Cameron’s Aliens was bristling with ideas and insights that there simply isn’t room for here. Predators isn’t going to stand up to comparison to Aliens, but I’d suggest that John McTiernan’s Predator would not survive comparison to Ridley Scott’s Alien. There’s a lot of talk comparing the Predator franchise to the much more successful Alien franchise, and this perhaps would seem a logical companion to Aliens, James Cameron’s contribution to that science-fiction saga. Once the film has settled in, it never really matches that level of anticipation again, but it does keep you engaged. Tension builds up and we begin to suspect that not everything (or everyone) may be as they appear. Bit by bit we discover exactly what is going on (it’s easy enough to intuite, but smartly enough constructed to be interesting). Unlike all the other films in the saga, save the first, the movie makes an event of revealing the situation and the hunter. We are, along with the characters, dumped straight into the midst of things and it’s perhaps in the opening half hour that the film succeeds most. The movie is smart and economical with its cast of characters, and introduces each one quickly and efficiently in an opening sequence which effectively sets the stage quite well. Which is a smart choice and probably the braver one. There is, of course, a respect there – the soundtrack appears to have been directly lifted from the original, but it still works – but never one that over powers the film. Similarly, the movie shapes its finale around that of the original film, but also inverts it in a fashion. Remember that moment in the original where one member of the party decides to stand his ground to leave the others to escape? McTiernan’s movie cut away from the scene (giving us only a scream echoing through the jungle to let us know how that worked out for him), but here director Nimrod Antal takes the risky decision to show us a similar fight scene – a conscious attempt not to treat the original as sacred, but a thrilling challenge to up the ante. More fundamentally than that, this sequel has the guts to play with the expectations of the original. The characters are consciously modelled on the archetypes of the original film, even down to their weaponry, but there’s always a subtle nuance – replacing Arnie as a muscle-bound leading man with Adrien Brody, an actor so physically light you fear a wind might carry him off, is a risky move, but it works. On the other hand, its homage to the original film is more in spirit – it’s offered with a wry smile and a defiant fist pump. The tried and tested series catchphrase ( “You are one ugly mother…”) is decidedly absent, as are alien skulls or other conspicuous examples of nerdiness. It helps that the film treats its legacy as something cheeky to be played with, rather than an altar to be worshipped at. Which is, in fairness, really enough and puts it solidly above the slew of disappointing films which have featured the iconic critters – Predator 2, Aliens vs. What it is, however, is consistently and solidly entertaining. It’s not the best film of the year and I don’t hold out hope for it even being the best blockbuster of the year. Channelling Brando’s unhinged Colonel Kurtz, a well-padded Laurence Fishburne pops up halfway through as a surprise sole survivor, a striking cameo that nods to his youthful debut in ‘Apocalypse Now’.Predators isn’t a masterpiece. Alice Braga’s svelte sniper is a tough yet tender foil for the buff, brainy Brody with one notable exception, the remaining ‘dirty half-dozen’ are merely disposable. “) insists that their survival depends upon pooling their own killer instincts. Faced with an evolved generation of super-Predators, Adrien Brody’s Hemingway-quoting, self-appointed leader (“There is no hunting like the hunting of men. Armed to the teeth but unknown to one another, a multiracial group of military/criminal killers (plus Topher Grace’s anomalous wimpy doctor) find themselves on a Predator hunting planet where they are the game. Forget the official sequel and the lame ‘Alien vs Predator’ spin-offs, this ‘Predator’ sequel deserves one of its own. This is the sequel that John McTiernan and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 original deserved, as director Nimrod Antal delivers enough hard core sci-fi, explosive action and monster mayhem to justify its belated arrival.
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