Movie Review - Predators

Movie Title

Predators

Year

2010
Genre
Action, Sci-Fi

Story

A group of the most feared & dangerous people on Earth - Mercenaries, murderers, gangsters, convicts and the criminally insane - free-falls individually onto what they eventually discover to be an alien planet, to be hunted as game by, who else, the Predators. They soon realize that they need to work together, albeit reluctantly, in order to survive the ordeal and get somehow home.

The group includes:

- Mexican gangster Cuchillo (Danny Trejo)

- Israeli Defense Forces veteran Isabelle (Alice Braga)

- Mass murderer Stans (Walton Goggins)

- Russian Special Forces member Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov)

- RUF death squad member Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali)

- Strong & silent Yakuza Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien)

- Disgraced physician Edwin (Topher Grace)

Mercenary Royce (Adrien Brody) is reluctantly plays the role of their leader and prepare for their fight for survival.

When they encounter the mysterious but resourceful Noland (Lawrence Fishburne), a lone human who had somehow survived (well, he wasn't exactly alone - go watch the movie to know what I mean, and NO, it's not a robot or android...) on the alien world for some time because he had successfully killed several Predators on his own! They soon learn a few tricks from Noland and prepare for the fight of their lives!

Acting

The ensemble had big names like Brody (from The Pianist, The Jacket and King Kong), Alice Braga (last seen in Repo Men) & Topher Grace (Venom from Spider-Man 3), whose performances provided some depth to the supposedly unlikeable characters (they're all extremely bad people, remember?) and made the movie more than just an all-out alien-monster mayhem flick. There were a few relatively less wellknown actors thrown in but who still delivered believable performances (OK, Goggins' mass murderer and Grace's Edwin characters were irritating at some points).

Overall

I agree with most of the existing reviews that had already concluded that this is the best Predator installment since the first 2 (without the pesky Aliens). Of course, as with most of the other movies of this genre - audiences expect most of the original crew to not survive the experience, hence there is a degree of predictability there.

However, this installment would mark a milestone because it introduces a significant new element into the Predators lore - there are more than a homogenous type of Predators, unlike what we had previously thought, perhaps alluding to a class/caste system, mutations or even different sub-species!

This opens up a floodgate of future possibilities like a Predator civil war (with perhaps other creatures like the Aliens or humans being caught in between.) I foresee a movie along those lines in the next 2-5 years. Remember, you read it from here first!

This is a MUST-WATCH for fans and even for non-fans, this movie is a great summer action flick!

Rating: 7/10
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Predators ( + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]