Directed by:
Dan TrachtenbergScreenplay:
Patrick AisonCinematography:
Jeff CutterComposer:
Sarah SchachnerCast:
Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, Stormee Kipp, Michelle Thrush, Julian Black Antelope, Stefany Mathias, Mike Paterson, Nelson Leis (more)VOD (1)
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Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago, Prey is the story of a young woman, Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries. (Disney / Buena Vista)
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Just my sort of Disney movie. No need to make a live action version of Pocahontas... Trachtenberg slowly but effectively builds the atmosphere in the style of the original Predator and carefully calculates where to pull out the trumps just at the right moment in the story. The camerawork, production design and the overall atmosphere swallows you up and doesn’t let you go for an instant in the second half. Midthunder is completely convincing as the young Indian girl and carries the entire movie effortlessly on her shoulders. Although the message that technique and details are much more important for killing than strength is rendered invalid with the pistol handed over at the end, which indicates what then had to happen in the epilog, but maybe the filmmakers are just preparing the ground for a sequel, who knows?
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Prey is a high-octane adventure with pleasant Indian poetics and the spectacular return of the second-best movie monster ever. The screenplay flows and contains nice details and surprises, and the action is beautifully fluid and kinetic. The woman-power element is natural and believable, while the attractive “savage versus savage in the wilderness” motif is put to excellent use. The actors and costumes are respectable, and the unknown Amber Midthunder puts in ten times more effort than the Oscar-winning Adrien Brody (in Nimród Antal’s otherwise solid Predators). There are a few minor things in the film that could be open to criticism; for example, the final fight could have been better thought out and less rushed, but these are just details in relation to the general level of viewer satisfaction. No film franchise is ever dead; it’s just waiting for the right guy to come along. Within this one, Dan Trachtenberg went the farthest in choosing his own path, put his heart into it and achieved the greatest success. This is a film by a talented filmmaker and movie fan, made for movie fans.
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I’m thrilled! Thiis is exactly the kind of story Predator needed. As much as I love Black's last foray, the western concept is a hit, and there are plenty of beautiful parallels between the alien hunter's quest and the lives of the Comanche heroes. The film doesn't rush anywhere and I liked how mysterious and suspenseful it is even for the viewer who knows what's going on, who landed in those woods and what they're after. Everything makes sense (the Predator gradually raises the bar by what he hunts and how he hunts, the protagonist also gains abilities, and she's not alone, although the trailers made it seem so), it's fun, clever, original, imaginative, action-packed and mysterious... It easily keeps up with the original and the second one. And I want the second part, because it's definitely on the cards and the end credits hinted at it. PS: I would like to single out Sarah Schachner's music, which easily made do without the Silvestri theme.
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Dan Trachtenberg has revived the Predator brand and even though no one believed in the film after the first trailers, it is a success and I am happy with it too. I appreciate that Prey is set during the Comanche era, it has an Apocalypto feel to it and we don't get many gritty films with Indians, much less in the horror subgenre, so I applaud the period and the setting. I liked that the first half is like survival flick where we watch a bunch of animals hunting each other (cougar, bear, wolf, snake, rabbit). I could easily imagine a whole movie where a bunch of CGI animals eat each other in the jungle accompanied by a dense R-rated action, it would probably drive me crazy (so hopefully I'll get to see it one day). The Predator slowly gets acquainted with a new planet and a lot of time is spent hunting, which I enjoyed. The second half turns into a decent action inferno where the Predator attacks the French colonizers and that is one of the best scenes of the film, the final duel is also good. There are some impressive deaths, though the gore could have been more nutritious, but it's sufficient. Amber Midthunder is likeable and surprisingly skilled in combat, so I had no problem believing her. The music and atmosphere were also good. The only minor issue I have is with the Predator's invisible camouflage, which didn't make a good impression on me, but once the hunk showed up in full glory I was satisfied. For the new generation that probably won't put on the original Predator anymore, I think Prey is a cool notch in the franchise. Story 3/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 3/5. 8/10
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I have no problem declaring that I'll probably still like the first one better. But the comparisons that an awful lot of people are wallowing in this case will only serve me further to argue how great Prey is as a completely different and separate work that could have been a great original to the whole series. While the original Predator carved out an almost individual sub-genre in which 80s blowhards stumble upon a space villain who unexpectedly kicked their asses (it was more of a humorous inversion of the established action patterns of the time), Prey takes a bite out of various genres within its narrative and historical lineage. It is a precursor to the colonial western, when the indigenous inhabitants were far from facing only wild animals and were confronted with a far more dangerous invader, the white man. It's a smart emancipation horror film, where the teenage heroine has to slay the scariest creature imaginable to prove to the cocky guys that she's a force to be reckoned with anywhere but in the kitchen. And unlike the first film, in which the dense jungle was for most of the time a rather anonymous backdrop from which the Predator gradually emerged, Prey is a film about the hard hand of Mother Nature. The female lead literally flounders and nearly dies in the mud and is almost torn apart by a bear, as she is far from being the master of creation from the start. The fearless macho narcissists in the first film played at being such masters and would probably have punched the lion, here the nervousness is built up during the initial walk through the forest and the "hunter-prey" motif is developed on both sides – in the wilderness of that time you were both hunter and victim at the same time and you only came of age when you set out to take down an opponent who could just as easily have taken you down. In this regard, the introduction of the Predator is also great, including an endearing and at the same time disturbing scene where the top link of the food chain is corresponded (a rodent eats an ant, a snake eats the rodent and the snake is eviscerated by a watching Predator). The first one was probably more entertaining in sum, more uncompromisingly directed and the final confrontation was more thrilling, but Prey is at least a more complex and better paced film. At the level of scenes, the sub-psychology, relationships or impulses that will soon play a key role in the heroine's decision-making are well established. The rather bland plot sparks a gripping survival storyline, supported by the aforementioned approach to the setting and director Dan Trachtenberg's precise eye. It makes the most of the beautiful scenery, presents the action in a variable way, and personally gave me no room to moan about the weaker CGI or the improbability of the young girl's encounter with the alien giant, because the film is so consistent in its handling of important motifs that no physical confrontation and its development feels silly. Though it doesn't look as majestic, and the smaller budget is probably noticeable in places, Predator: Prey is a better and more fulfilling film for me than the period-related The Revenant, which dabbled more in pretty pictures and told less of a worthwhile story. And I really find strange the dismissive reception from some people, who have probably already bought into the idea that Girl vs. Predator is stupid and that the first two episodes are just classics. The stubborn attitude of this era is really fucked up sometimes, and the thing I regret the most is that it's me, born in 1995, writing this.
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