MyRating: YYDirector: Nimrod Antal
Cast: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
MPAA: Rated R for strong creature violence and gore, and pervasive language
Royce (Brody) finds himself falling fast from the sky with a parachute to be opened behind his back. He lands in a jungle he does not know where. First of all, he doesn't even know how he suddenly fell from the sky. But he is not the only one, as he meets with a number of people who also experience the same thing. They all don't know each other and they don't know where they are. And why they are here.
As a mercenary, Royce quickly knows that this group of people are mostly professional soldiers and mean killers; an Israeli markswoman (Braga), a Russian soldier (Taktarov), a cartel bandit (Trejo), a murderer (Goggins), an African warlord (Ali), a Japanese yakuza (Ozawa), and a doctor (Grace), the only person who doesn't seem to fit into the group profile. When they explore the planet, they find out many strange things and they come into a conclusion that this is not their planet. They also find out that there are many empty cages, which were being dropped in this planet in the same way, with let loose beasts that are now roaming the jungle. And when they start to get attacked, not only by the beasts, but also by other mysterious unseen predators, they know that they are in the hunting ground, and they are actually chosen to be there for a reason.
Everybody knows that Predator is one of the iconic movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 1987 and the beginning of the Predator's franchise, followed by Predator 2 (1990), Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem (2007). And this movie is the direct sequel of the original one. The film has a very promising start. Putting a group of people into a mysterious place, without their knowledges, is always a good start for a story. And when one by one of the (interesting) characters were being introduced, I told myself that this will be interesting, as it is better to know your characters well, before you see them one by one being killed by the predators. It's the connection with the characters, that the audiences need, before you throw them into actions.
But somehow this movie fell into the same old routine pit of this kind of movies. I have seen so many Predators, Aliens and other similar monsters like movies, and this one offered nothing special. The actions were quite intense in some parts, but it was predictable, as you will see one by one of the characters was finally being killed, leaving the ones who you know that will not be killed. You may say, "What did you expect? It's a Predator movie." But I still think that the script was not good enough. The promising start of the story was turned out to be a mediocre one as the story rolled, and never recovered till the end. Halfway through the film, I actually started to feel boring. The thing that differentiated this with AVP and AVP2, besides a slightly better story, was the higher profile stars, with Adrien Brody in the lead, and Topher Grace and Laurence Fishburne in the supporting. That was the most selling point that made this movie look interesting.
I also felt that the scene of the predator fighting the predator near the end of the movie was absolutely unneccesary. What's the point? I don't think we need to see a 'good' predator fighting a 'bad' one. It was dumb. And the scene when the Japanese yakuza fighting a predator with a samurai, yes, it was something new and interesting, but I felt that it was like a ninja movie and a bit too force.
I didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would. I enjoyed the first half, but not the second half when the same old routine rolled till the end. I think it was just another mediocre Predator movie, as it offered nothing new. (MJ)
