Why Predators failed to make the grade

12 July 2010

John Howell

If you've watched the original 1987 Predator movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know the drill: alien Predators are technologically advanced hunters who get a kick out of tracking down and fighting alien life forms, humans especially it seems. They're hard to kill, frequently invisible, hunt by infrared, and are not exactly what you'd call attractive. This time around Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal have enlisted some heavy-duty acting talent, in particular Adrien Brody, in an attempt to kick some life back into the Predator universe, without the addition of Ridley Scott's aliens. The last two Predator films were Alien Predator crossover movies: Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

Can significant acting talent (Academy Award winning acting talent from Adrien Brody no less), a larger budget and a heavyweight producer like Rodriguez take a B-grade science fiction horror film and transform it into an A-grade Hollywood blockbuster? The extremely short answer is no.

The premise itself is fantastic and the opening scenes beautifully executed. Royce (Adrien Brody) wakes up in free fall, a parachute strapped to his back, understandably desperate to get it open. He survives the drop into an alien forest and is quickly joined by other falling (fallen?) men and one woman. They have all been extracted from various war zones, with no memories up to the point where they found themselves in free fall. Are they dead? Who has brought them to this place and why? And where's Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The band of killers includes a Russian Special Forces soldier, Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov) carrying a 100-pound mini-gun, an Israeli sniper (Alice Braga), an African warlord (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), a Yakuza killer, Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), and in direct contrast, a timid doctor, Edwin (Topher Grace). Laurence Fishburne makes an appearance later as Noland, a human who has managed to survive on the planet for years. Unfortunately though, if you blink, you'll miss him. He has about 10 lines, a massive waste of such a talented actor.

While Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem didn't take themselves too seriously, Predators is a sombre affair apart from a few really off colour jokes (they don't even skim the surface of political correctness). Ex-military man, Royce, reluctantly leads a band of dangerous misfits on a world designed to kill - a game reserve where the Predators have the upper hand.

While the acting is superior to that of previous Predator incarnations, the plot loses it completely just short of half way. After a lengthy and impressive set up, Predators quickly drifts into all too familiar territory, failing to either surprise or inspire. A revelation regarding the doctor at the end of the film never rings true and Brody's climactic fight scene appears a hollow attempt to mimic Schwarzenegger's mud covered finale from the first Predator film. Given that both the producer and director set out to create something bold and new, why not actually write something bold and new?

Strangely too, for a big budget movie, there were some very poor special effects. Was it just me, or did the crashed spacecraft, where Laurence Fishburne's character lived, look like an early Doctor Who model?

The film certainly wasn't a disaster. It was entertaining and efficient. It just wasn't a great improvement on what has come before.

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