Predator: PREY - New Movie - spoilers inside

[Dream Team]

I watched it and I didn't like it. It was even worse than expected.

And I agree with the negative reviews on imdb.

This is not a Predator movie. It is not about the Predator, he just happens to be there. The whole movie is about "see? Women can do it too!!"

Nobody takes the girl seriously, nobody believes her and she is always right. Men are all portrayed as dumb.

Not to mention she beats an Indian guy one on one and no comment about the final fight. There is so much ridiculous, ludicruous stuff about the movie and so much that could be said negatively about it that  I am amazed that it is even ranked 7.2 on imdb.

Predator kills everyone in less than a second, but the many opportunities that he had to kill the girl.. well.. I guess you can't kill the main character, right?

Rather than a Predator movie, I feel that this is almost like a Disney movie for feminists.

Sorry but you have horrible takes.

[Zantera]

Yeah that has to be one of the worst takes I've seen in my 13 years on the forum. 

[gmillerdrake]

I feel that this is almost like a Disney movie for feminists.

Nah.....they checked that box off with the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

[ErHaO]

I watched it and I didn't like it. It was even worse than expected.

And I agree with the negative reviews on imdb.

This is not a Predator movie. It is not about the Predator, he just happens to be there. The whole movie is about "see? Women can do it too!!"

Nobody takes the girl seriously, nobody believes her and she is always right. Men are all portrayed as dumb.

Not to mention she beats an Indian guy one on one and no comment about the final fight. There is so much ridiculous, ludicruous stuff about the movie and so much that could be said negatively about it that  I am amazed that it is even ranked 7.2 on imdb.

Predator kills everyone in less than a second, but the many opportunities that he had to kill the girl.. well.. I guess you can't kill the main character, right?

Rather than a Predator movie, I feel that this is almost like a Disney movie for feminists.

Sorry but you have horrible takes.

I was trying to enter a discussion with some counter points, which probably does not matter/have any effect.

But for the record I agree with you.

[Volante99]

Saw it and enjoyed it quite a bit, good to finally have a film in this franchise that doesn't suck again.

Since the original Predator movie there hasn't been a single film that was even close to being good.

So if Schwarzenegger who was XXX years in the army, had lots of training, with huge muscles could barely beat a Predator.. a teenage female warrior will beat one? What an insult to the original film.

I'd be even happy if they made a remake of the first movie.. but this.... is a joke.

WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

While I found the movie entertaining, and easily the best Predator sequel- I had similar issues.

The fight/action scenes were just way too over the top- giving the heroine Kill Bill/Matrix/“god-mode” abilities just kind of killed any sense of danger or suspense the movie built up.

Putting on my writer/director hat, I would have striped the second half down- instead of reintroducing her brother and his tribal friends back in the mix, keep the focus on Naru vs the Predator. Woman vs beast. Nature vs high tech gadgetry. And her transition from hunted to hunter. That’s the compelling story.

It also would have been MUCH more interesting to see her use more of her knowledge of the forest/medicine/animals/hunting etc rather than cheesy movie-fu fighting skills to defeat the Predator (and French trappers). The movie sets her up to be survivalist but that barely comes into play in the last half.

But she does use all of that to win? A combination of traps, plants, knowledge of the forest lay-out, teamwork with her dog, analysis of the Predator's behaviour/tech allows here to come up with a final plan. Sure, there are some flashy moves, but she does in fact use all of that. Like a good chunk of the film is establishing her disovering things about the predator and weaves that all together in her final set up.

It really isn't like she arm wrestling a predator to it's death here. In fact, it is heavily weakened by the end of the film and she did not win alone. And even with the flashy moves, it isn't even remotely close to Beatrix Kiddo and she straight up loses, with mortal danger as a result several times in this film.

Warning MAJOR spoilers again:

She utilizes the plant that lowers her body heat and the mud bog, which she found completely by accident, not necessarily from “knowledge of the forest”. I guess I was hoping for a bit MORE of her nature/forest skills to come into play. Her use of the Predator tech to finally defeat the (already weakened) Predator seems like a cheap ending too but I guess you could say that demonstrates her cleverness. I just didn’t find it particularly compelling.

And she TOTALLY turns into Beatrix Kiddo during the fight with all the French trappers. Again, I get it; it’s 2022 and movie goers like that John Wick style of action, but frankly it took me out of the movie and, as I said in my previous post, neutered a lot of the danger/suspense. I would have liked a bit more gritty realism, but that’s just me.

Don’t get me wrong- it’s a good movie, but, in my opinion, these are some of the things that keep it from reaching greatness.

And yeah- ChuckSteak just sounds like he just doesn’t like the fact that the protagonist is a woman. All the complaints he gave could easily be said about other female centered action movies like Aliens or Terminator.

[lonestar]

Oh, I'd bet any amount of money that if the internet was around, there would undoubtedly be tons of misogynistic keyboard warriors calling Ripley and Sarah Connor a 'Mary Sue' etc...

[Zook]

I enjoyed it, but I think the soundtrack hurt it a bit. The music didn't fit the action scenes and the movie felt lifeless for it. I'm glad they didn't try to force every possible callback like recent sequels to 30 year old movies do. The origin of the gun from Predator 2 was neat.

[Zantera]

Oh, I'd bet any amount of money that if the internet was around, there would undoubtedly be tons of misogynistic keyboard warriors calling Ripley and Sarah Connor a 'Mary Sue' etc...

That definitely would have happened today. Alien reviews would be all about how the men have to take the backseat so that a woman can save the day and Terminator reviews would be about how of course a woman is the most important person ever targeted by killer robots.

Going back to Prey/Predator though, I actually did some revisiting of the franchise recently and I kinda feel like it gets undeserved hate? Alien and Terminator are good examples of franchises that really went off the rails and things went really bad but I would say this about the Predator franchise:

Predator 2 - IMO great fun 'typical' 80s/90s action movie with faces you like (danny glover, bill paxton, gary busey). Does not get enough appreciation for the expanded lore of the Predator IMO. In many movies they try to overexplain or add too much lore but IMO Predator 2 gets it perfectly. Changing it to be set in the city is also fun IMO. Yeah it's not as good as the original but for me this is a sequel I would kinda compare to like Die Hard 3 where it's different enough yet familiar enough to hit a sweet spot.

Predators - So it's kinda the same movie again with some twists but I think it's pretty decent. Some great scenes like the yakuza guy fighting a predator with the samurai sword in the field, i would say the weakest aspect is the characters but overall i would say it's a decent movie. Not the original but not bad.

Prey - great for many reasons we already discussed.

The AvP movies are neither here or there for me, the first one is okay and the second one is worse but a lot of it mostly because of how dark it is. Like seriously, brightness settings? Hello? Surprisingly I would say that the worst one is the Shane Black one (which I had the highest hopes for) and that's last by a landslide for me. But I do think Predator 2 and Predators seem to be unfairly lumped into "bad sequels" when IMO they are pretty decent movies. Yeah the original is a 5/5 so you gotta temper the expectations a bit.

[Dream Team]

Predator 2 is awesome and I’ll die on that hill.

[Volante99]

Predator 2 is awesome and I’ll die on that hill.

Predator 2 has a lot going for it but it’s biggest flaw is miscasting Danny “I’m too old for this shit” Glover in the lead. He’s just not credible going toe to toe against the Predator and, moreover, he’s no Arnold (quite possibly THE most charismatic action star in Hollywood history), so the movie is already at a disadvantage from the get go.

I

[ErHaO]

Saw it and enjoyed it quite a bit, good to finally have a film in this franchise that doesn't suck again.

Since the original Predator movie there hasn't been a single film that was even close to being good.

So if Schwarzenegger who was XXX years in the army, had lots of training, with huge muscles could barely beat a Predator.. a teenage female warrior will beat one? What an insult to the original film.

I'd be even happy if they made a remake of the first movie.. but this.... is a joke.

WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

While I found the movie entertaining, and easily the best Predator sequel- I had similar issues.

The fight/action scenes were just way too over the top- giving the heroine Kill Bill/Matrix/“god-mode” abilities just kind of killed any sense of danger or suspense the movie built up.

Putting on my writer/director hat, I would have striped the second half down- instead of reintroducing her brother and his tribal friends back in the mix, keep the focus on Naru vs the Predator. Woman vs beast. Nature vs high tech gadgetry. And her transition from hunted to hunter. That’s the compelling story.

It also would have been MUCH more interesting to see her use more of her knowledge of the forest/medicine/animals/hunting etc rather than cheesy movie-fu fighting skills to defeat the Predator (and French trappers). The movie sets her up to be survivalist but that barely comes into play in the last half.

But she does use all of that to win? A combination of traps, plants, knowledge of the forest lay-out, teamwork with her dog, analysis of the Predator's behaviour/tech allows here to come up with a final plan. Sure, there are some flashy moves, but she does in fact use all of that. Like a good chunk of the film is establishing her disovering things about the predator and weaves that all together in her final set up.

It really isn't like she arm wrestling a predator to it's death here. In fact, it is heavily weakened by the end of the film and she did not win alone. And even with the flashy moves, it isn't even remotely close to Beatrix Kiddo and she straight up loses, with mortal danger as a result several times in this film.

Warning MAJOR spoilers again:

She utilizes the plant that lowers her body heat and the mud bog, which she found completely by accident, not necessarily from “knowledge of the forest”. I guess I was hoping for a bit MORE of her nature/forest skills to come into play. Her use of the Predator tech to finally defeat the (already weakened) Predator seems like a cheap ending too but I guess you could say that demonstrates her cleverness. I just didn’t find it particularly compelling.

And she TOTALLY turns into Beatrix Kiddo during the fight with all the French trappers. Again, I get it; it’s 2022 and movie goers like that John Wick style of action, but frankly it took me out of the movie and, as I said in my previous post, neutered a lot of the danger/suspense. I would have liked a bit more gritty realism, but that’s just me.

Don’t get me wrong- it’s a good movie, but, in my opinion, these are some of the things that keep it from reaching greatness.

And yeah- ChuckSteak just sounds like he just doesn’t like the fact that the protagonist is a woman. All the complaints he gave could easily be said about other female centered action movies like Aliens or Terminator.

I'd say her greatest ability in the film is being a fast learner. Yes, she randomly stumbled upon things, but she did put it together. How she discovered certain things can be less compelling to you and that is fair, but she did learn and use it.

An example her of learning is the trapper waking up without a leg. That is not (just) to torture the man, she tested the tool based on the other trapper she encountered before without a leg (and with the gadget). She then knows how to use it and does so on the Predator. It is not just her picking up the tech and using it during combat. I think the script did well in establishing her learning, testing and using a variety of advantages throughout. In a lot of films you will see a character pick up something Alien/foreign and use it immediately in the heat of combat. I think this film does more to establish the how behind that. She even fails with some things initially. And that is why I think it is a well-above average script/film.

I agree she does pull some John Wick moves (which is still not Kill Bill balance on sword and near-magical kungfu moves to me). And yes I could do without the backflip. But honestly it is a small part of this film and alsmost all action films I see have moments that stretch my willingless to believe. I think the film overall does a good job of setting it's rules and adhering to that. But I get the preference for a bit more grounded action.

[Zantera]

Predator 2 is awesome and I’ll die on that hill.

Predator 2 has a lot going for it but it’s biggest flaw is miscasting Danny “I’m too old for this shit” Glover in the lead. He’s just not credible going toe to toe against the Predator and, moreover, he’s no Arnold (quite possibly THE most charismatic action star in Hollywood history), so the movie is already at a disadvantage from the get go.

I

I think it's a combination of them going "who can we get in the lead? who is hot right now?" and Danny Glover kinda fitting that description considering this was right off Lethal Weapon 1 & 2. But also it feels like them going slightly against what you would expect and they cast this 'average joe' type detective to make this different than having another giant buff commando as the lead. Though to Glover's defense, he actually is in pretty good shape in this.

[hefdaddy42]

I watched it and I didn't like it. It was even worse than expected.

And I agree with the negative reviews on imdb.

This is not a Predator movie. It is not about the Predator, he just happens to be there. The whole movie is about "see? Women can do it too!!"

Nobody takes the girl seriously, nobody believes her and she is always right. Men are all portrayed as dumb.

Not to mention she beats an Indian guy one on one and no comment about the final fight. There is so much ridiculous, ludicruous stuff about the movie and so much that could be said negatively about it that  I am amazed that it is even ranked 7.2 on imdb.

Predator kills everyone in less than a second, but the many opportunities that he had to kill the girl.. well.. I guess you can't kill the main character, right?

Rather than a Predator movie, I feel that this is almost like a Disney movie for feminists.

[Samsara]

We watched this a few weeks ago. I loved it. My wife is Native American, so it was nice to see this framed the way it was.

I loved the original Predator, really have disliked the films that followed. But this one was great. The writers, director and actors should all be pretty proud. Outstanding.

[soupytwist]

Predator kills everyone in less than a second, but the many opportunities that he had to kill the girl.. well..  guess you can't kill the main character, right?

Did you even watch the movie?  I mean her Brother gives the Predator a good fight....

[gmillerdrake]

Finally watched this last night. It was good....Although, I'd personally put it behind Predator 2.....leaving the rankings for me as the Original, P2 then Prey. All the others are just equal parts of a pile of steaming poo.

[Zook]

It's called plot armor. Many movies would be over very quickly if it wasn't applied.

[gmillerdrake]

It's called plot armor. Many movies would be over very quickly if it wasn't applied.

You mean John Wick isn't as hard to kill as he seems? He's protected by the movie name....and his characters lore and the fact that 'he' is the reason the movies exist?

[MinistroRaven]

It's called plot armor. Many movies would be over very quickly if it wasn't applied.

You mean John Wick isn't as hard to kill as he seems? He's protected by the movie name....and his characters lore and the fact that 'he' is the reason the movies exist?

 

[Zook]

I don't care who you are. You aren't getting up after being hit by a car the way John Wick was. Didn't he also fall off a building from several stories? Cool movies, but he died several times over in them.

[gmillerdrake]

I don't care who you are. You aren't getting up after being hit by a car the way John Wick was. Didn't he also fall off a building from several stories? Cool movies, but he died several times over in them.

Yeah...I mean....the severe concussion(s) alone that he'd have suffered by now would make him an invalid.

Really fun movies though 

[Zantera]

To be fair in terms of plot armor I would say Prey isn't as bad as a lot of other movies. The main argument of 'she survives a whole movie against a Predator that easily kills other enemies' is a bit twisted because it's explained within the movie that from the observations of the Predator - she isn't "worthy" of being hunted and he goes after what he perceives as the alphas of this world. It's really only at the end that he comes to see her as a target and by then it's pretty clear that our PROTAGONIST of the movie will defeat the ANTAGONIST of the film. Just like in every other action movie.