I, like many others, consider Predator from the 1980s to be one of the best action movies of all time. It’s a near-perfect film, in my opinion. It has thrilling action, memorable characters, some of that grade-A ‘80s cheese, great music, fantastic special effects, and some of the most iconic moments in film. It single-handedly started the franchise with a bang that couldn’t be topped. It’s so good that, even though the sequels have failed to match its success, people are still just as hungry for another Predator film, much like the Alien franchise. Predator 2 was an okay sequel that leaned more into the horror aspects, as well as gave us more insight into the Predator culture and technology. Predators was another middle-of-the-road sequel that had a strong first half but was ultimately forgettable. The Predator from 2018—which I have not seen, nor intend to—is infamously terrible on a different level to the point that I’ve seen hour-long breakdowns showing all the ways it fails—from the plot, to the characters, to the dialogue, to the direction, and especially the editing, it’s all bad. And the Aliens VS Predator movies were so mediocre or worse, I barely remember them at this point. Listing all those sequels just now also made me realize there may not be another franchise with a worse naming convention—but then again, there are the Amityville movies.

With the last Predator entry being such a ridiculous blemish on a stagnant franchise, Hulu has taken on the task of repairing what was broken. They’ve produced a new Predator movie, which some people are praising as a true return to form and others are cursing as the worst thus far. Despite being apathetic towards the idea of watching any Predator movie other than the original, I decided to see Prey for myself and find out what all the fuss was about.

Pros

Brilliant cinematography with stunning shots and interesting camera angles for both the quiet and action-packed moments
Action scenes look great, are well-directed, and shot well
Predator design is interesting and new in a way that works for when this movie is supposed to be taking place
Lots of gory battles with many humans who are woefully ill-equipped
There is a Comanche-dubbed version of the movie available, which is pretty unique

Cons

Characters are dull and forgettable with little to no growth
The best actor, Dakota Beavers, is underutilized
Mixing of English and Comanche words in the dialogue creates confusion in some ways, especially with the arrival of the French hunters
CGI animals don’t look good
Script has a lot of the same issues that modern movies have, like focusing on a political agenda over the story, haphazard reuse of ideas and iconic lines, deus ex machina solutions to problems, etc.
The way in which the final conflict is resolved and the movie ends is stupid

Plot & Thoughts

Naru (Amber Midthunder) is a young woman in a Comanche tribe living in the wilds of America during the 1700s. Her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) spends time with her and acts as a hunting mentor that she doesn’t need because she’s already really good at everything. Naru wants to be a hunter like her brother and the men of the tribe, but as the trailers and first few minutes of the movie suggest, this is not something that the tribe expects or wants of her. That being said, when she goes out with the men hunting of her own accord, everyone pretty much just accepts that she’s breaking tradition with little protest. There is a scene later where the jerks of the tribe finally try to force her to submit, but it’s more of a thing at the moment rather than a transgression that she’s committed.

Regardless of whether her hunting is accepted or not, Naru starts to notice odd things like animal corpses and strange tracks. After a group hunting mission goes bad, and Naru demonstrates that she has a deep knowledge of the healing capabilities of some local flora, she goes hunting alone. Out on the hunt, she encounters a bear (that behaves nothing like a real bear would) and an invisible creature that swiftly knocks the grizzly out with a haymaker. It doesn’t take long after that for it to start hunting something other than the local wildlife, of course.

I’d say my favorite parts of Prey mostly consist of the scenes in which no one is talking. In fact, if the filmmakers and writers had taken a more tactful and reserved approach to the dialogue, I think Prey would greatly improve. That’s not to say the dialogue is so awful it drags down the quality of the movie, just that most of the dialogue is spent talking about things that don’t really matter or do much to make the characters more interesting. Some moments happen that seem to only occur just so a character can say a line that someone thought was cool. For example, they just had to use the “If it bleeds, we can kill it” line, but the use of it feels as fake as fan service often does. When Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) says the line in the original, he says so with the macho bravado of a soldier who needs to inspire will in his team after having already lost several men. It’s the closing line after a dark and dooming discussion about the thing hunting them, immediately followed by a montage of them setting a trap, allowing the line to sit on its own and be poignant without being excessive. In Prey, it’s just inserted into a scene where Taabe and Naru are trying to get out of a bad situation. I guess we’re lucky nobody called the Predator an “ugly mother-fucker” this time around.

Another reason why I think cutting a lot of the dialogue would be an improvement would be to let the audience soak in the beauty of the movie. Prey is a gorgeous film with stunning shots of nature and the landscape. The CGI animals that inhabit the environment don’t look good or behave like real animals, but the beauty of the wilderness and how the camera is used to play with the colors in the scene are fantastic. It’s somewhat similar to the look of movies like The Revenant and The Winds.

When things pick up, and the Predator starts his slaughter, the action scenes are all shot well. You can tell the director—despite only having 10 Cloverfield Lane as his other major motion-picture directing credit—has a natural eye for making the action look good. That being said, some fights are a little too choreographed, as Naru manages to avoid serious injury in every fight, being able to take out guys or groups of men twice her size with little effort. I know she’s an unstoppable badass woman who don’t need no man, but at least make her work for it so I can be a little concerned for her safety.

If you haven’t been picking up on my not-so-subtle remarks by now, the main problem I have with Prey is its main character. It’s not that she doesn’t have the potential to be a good character, nor is it that the premise of a young Comanche woman, who aspires to be a hunter, having to protect herself and her tribe from a killer alien isn’t interesting. It’s that Prey tries to tell the story with the same level of subtlety and skill that every other modern action movie with a female protagonist does. Within a few minutes of the movie, we see that Naru is already skilled with her weapons and knowledge of herbs, despite not actually being able to hunt a majority of the animals. It’s as though the filmmakers weren’t sure whether they wanted to show her as inexperienced or a master. When it comes time for her to fight, she avoids getting hurt every time except in the one instance where someone has to actually sucker-punch her to do so. It removes tension in the fight scenes because she’s practically invincible—it reminds me of a certain lightsaber-wielding protagonist of recent memory.

Likewise, there’s no growth when it comes to her personality. Not to mention, her motivation in this movie to be good at hunting is just because everyone else tells her she can’t or shouldn’t. There are moments that could change her trajectory in the story, or compel her to grow and have a different and more compelling motivation than her self-centered “I’ll show them” attitude. However, the movie does not set her up as someone capable of improving. This goes against basic storytelling and characterization because the point of a protagonist IS to grow and overcome some sort of challenge to become a better or more complex person.

It’s a shame that Naru, and her brother for that matter, are such wasted characters. If the writers had just attempted to make her more vulnerable and less self-centered, it could have been an interesting progression. Show her doing more of the gatherer side of things in the beginning, but not being good at combat at first; allow room for her to grow and improve. Have an event that inspires her to hunt or learn how to fight. Show that her brother actually knows a great deal more than she does about hunting and is willing to teach her so he can serve as an effective mentor and foil for her. Dakota Beavers was the best actor in this movie and his character could have been better utilized and allowed to shine without detracting from Naru’s capabilities. There could have been a scene where Taabe teaches Naru a tracking technique and her keen ability to recognize scents or hear certain noises at a different pitch than men physically can give her the edge on tracking the Predator. There are moments where this could have been the case, but it was as though the filmmakers were afraid of letting her brother overshadow her.

The last negative I have is just how the conflict is ultimately resolved. I won’t spoil anything, but I’ll say that it really undermines the intelligence of the Predator. There were plenty of other ways for the final confrontation to go. The way it comes to an end is just stupid and unsatisfying, especially with the final shot of the film essentially disregarding the deaths of so many characters.

TL;DR

I know I railed against it for a while, but the key takeaway is that Prey is still a decent movie. It’s a sight to behold with some great quiet moments and awesome action sequences. I’d certainly rather watch it again over the last Predator sequel. However, it’s held back from greatness by the same problem that plagues so many other modern movies: boring characters. While it’s refreshing to have a modern movie in a popular franchise not do everything in its power to further degrade and destroy its intellectual property, it’s also sad that so many feel the need to celebrate a movie that is just good enough not to fall below the bar that has been set so low already.

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