I’m not going to do my traditional review. I just wanted to enjoy this. I’m gonna give you some thoughts and rate it.
My first impression of this, say the first 30 minutes, was “yawn, another girl power movie”. We had the smart girl who none of the men would listen to. Sound familiar? And of course, she’s gonna be this film’s version of a final girl. Her name is Naru, played by Amber Midthunder. What differentiates her from most crappy girl power movies is that you see her bust her ass to improve, think of training montages. You see her fail numerous times. This isn’t a girl who just discovers that she’s a badass, or is handed some gift. Nope. She fails, gets beat up, faces death numerous times, and keeps on going.
I was under the impression that this film was going to be in the native Comanche language, but it wasn’t. Okay, that is fine, I guess, but then why did the French dudes still speak French with no useful subtitles? Why? That’s a decision that makes little sense to me. Thankfully, I took 5 years of French and I had a general understanding of what they were saying. It just made little sense to do the Comanche’s speaking English. I wish they didn’t do that.
The story is quite good, and it feels simple, but once they throw in the French guys, it adds a layer. A much-needed layer that many of the previous Predator films sorely lacked. This story had depth and well-designed characters. Naru’s brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers), was really well crafted too for his amount of screen time. I also really liked their mom, Aruka (I think that is her mom’s name). She had a common sense about her and seemed to be a good mentor to her daughter. The dog, Sarii, was also fun.
One thing that needs to be said is that this Predator is either a wimp or stupid. It lacks the smarts of the Predators that we have seen in other films. A wolf or coyote, whatever it was, does damage to the Predator. A beat does some work. The fact that Naru could do what she did also tells us a story. I think it was probably a necessity to make this Predator weaker to make the story work. That’s okay, it was just something that fans of the franchise should probably pick up on.
I thought that this film looked beautiful. The animals, the locations, the wounds, and the kills. It was all really visually pleasing. Think about how often you think about the visuals during a horror flick. It isn’t that often. When you do notice, it’s usually one special effect of one badass death scene. This looks very good the whole way through. Props to the director, Dan Trachtenberg, and his crew for that.
Is this the best Predator movie? Nah, nothing will touch the original. Is this the second-best Predator movie? I would make that argument. I recall strongly disliking Predator 2, and that was well received. Perhaps I need to go back and watch it again. The other Predator films, including Alien Vs Predator, were mostly lackluster, to say it nicely.
Right now, this is streaming on HULU and totally worth a watch. I am not only recommending it, I am highly recommending it. This is the best recent horror film since Candyman, and this may even be better than that.
One final thought. Make sure to watch the beginning of the credits to see what the future holds for Naru and her tribe. It’s not good.
Final Rating: 7.1 – Yeah, I really liked this one and I hope that you give it a chance and enjoy it too.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- 20th Century Studios (presents)
- Davis Entertainment (production)
- Lawrence Gordon Productions (production)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.