PREDATOR sequal .. a 'real' one...

[Loredoctor]

Well, I saw Predators last night, and I was rather unimpressed. It works as a sci-fi action movie, if you are into Predators and action. However, it fails in a number of other ways.

For instance, we are told that the sun doesn't move in the sky, yet the planet clearly has a day/night cycle. And why is it when they reach the edge of the forest and see the planets and moons in the sky, they don't see this earlier when they reach the clearing where the test the planet's magnetic field?

The opening sequence where we are introduced to the characters is weak - too much too soon and we don't get to find out much about them. They are simply archetypes. Also, there is absolutely no character development. Additionally, the doctor fails because there are no hints he is the murderer - it just gets revealed towards the end. There should have been hints to foreshadow.

The Predators are really weak villains. Sorry. Yes, they look amazing and have a great concept, but other than that there is absolutely no character. They are essentially the ultimate hunters. I would have liked to see some characterisation or learn more about their culture. Oh, and they seriously underused the falcon predator.

Lawrence Fishburne's character was too weird, and was just a plot device.

What's with the patronising treatment of Asians? Why is it that a Japanese character has to be an expert with Samurai swords? There was nothing at the start to indicate that, and he was pretty boring - the silent Yakuza. Further, I hated what they did to the female character - she became the helpless female to be rescued by the hero at the end. I hate bringing female empowerment into my critique, and I acknowledge what role she played at the end, yet she was still largely powerless and designed to make us dislike the doctor.

Having said all that, I still enjoyed the movie. Not a film to be taken seriously.

3 stars.

[Orlion]

Excellent review, Lore! I find that I agree with many of the points (like the flacon predator, they might as well have not had it in the movie).

That being said, I think they foreshadowed that the doctor was a murderer from the very beginning... I mean, why would he be there? Though I'd like his abduction story to have been better. All the others were abducted in such a way that those back on Earth would just assume that they were dead. The doctor's sounded like he was abducted when he was window shopping.

As far as night cycles, couldn't one of the moons have blocked the sun and caused a night (kinda like in Asimov's Nightfall)?

[Loredoctor]

As far as night cycles, couldn't one of the moons have blocked the sun and caused a night (kinda like in Asimov's Nightfall)?

The planet or the moon they were on would still rotate - even if tidal-locked by the nearer world. Hence, the sun would appear to move in the sky. Now, if it was the case that the planet blocked the sun, then the night would not be as long, nor would there be a twilight - as we saw following the first fight with the predators.

As for the doctor, well, you could put two and two together, by why assume he was a murderer?

Thanks for liking my review!

[ItisWritten]

That day/night cycle needed some kind of explanation. I can also come up with a scenario where the sun doesn't appear to move but there's still a night, but that's not the point. Instead of watching the movie, you're thinking about other things.

Instead of inventing a Predator race conflict, some development of Predator culture would have been nice. There hasn't been anything significant added to the Predator since the first sequel, and that was pretty mundane.

As for the doctor, well, you could put two and two together, by why assume he was a murderer?

For one thing, none of the others hid what they were. Second, the objective of the abductions was pretty clear. Every one of them was lethal in some obvious way except him. The only question was how was he lethal?

The comment from Royce (Brody) early on, "which one doesn't fit" was, IIRC, the only time anyone openly questioned the doctor's meekness. Still, there wasn't a huge amount of trust between the characters, so the sudden revelation wasn't that sudden. The movie used the "room full of strangers" premise which makes every character a mystery. It was a cheap excuse to not develop them, but I wasn't watching for a character study anyway.

Predators could have been better, but it was a good popcorn flick. This is all despite the inherent flaws of this type of movie. Just from the casting, you could tell which characters would survive to the final scenes.

[Loredoctor]

I don't deny that the mystery as to why he was there was a clue, but my issue is that that was all we had. He acted pleasant up until then - there should have been more variation to his character, and perhaps finding someone who had been killed from a sharp instrument.

Anyway, I had been told he was a serial killer way before the movie had come out, so I guess during the time I was watching it I felt that they needed to expand on that a bit more.

[ItisWritten]

I don't deny that the mystery as to why he was there was a clue, but my issue is that that was all we had. He acted pleasant up until then - there should have been more variation to his character, and perhaps finding someone who had been killed from a sharp instrument.

Anyway, I had been told he was a serial killer way before the movie had come out, so I guess during the time I was watching it I felt that they needed to expand on that a bit more.

Yet another reason to avoid movie spoilers. For me, not knowing that the convict wasn't the serial killer mentioned in the blurb I read before I saw the movie kept me in merely suspicious mode, rather than anticipating the reveal.

Another question that wasn't answered. Why were each of the characters chosen? Some are obvious but the convict and the doctor didn't seem to fit the fighting preferences of the predators. It's almost as if the doctor was put in the script for the human conflict, and not any real hunter reasons.

[Rigel]

Just caught this last night in a second run theatre, and really enjoyed it. Sure, it's not as good as the original movie, but it's also much better than the others (P2 and the AVP series).