Predators by Danika Klyve, NMTV The newest installment of the Predators series has the power of Robert Rodriguez’s twisted mind behind it, and it really works. Sure the man only produced the film, but somehow I’m positive that him being involved turned this film from average to pretty great. Directed by Nimrod Antal (Vacancy, Armored) this cast stars Adrien Brody (The Pianist, The Darjeeling Limited), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, 21) and Topher Grace (That 70’s Show, Valentine’s Day)…. Not exactly the cast the average person would pick for an action flick.
This movie starts as Royce (Brody) wakes up after apparently being thrown from a plane. He falls through the air panicking, only for his parachute to open about as late as possible. He sees another half dozen people fall from the sky and slowly meets each one of them. They come from different countries, and have different backgrounds, but it’s clear that each of them have some sort of military or mercenary career. Half of them are in possession of automatic weapons as they fall from the sky. Slowly they figure out that they are on a different planet: a planet where the Predator is …well… the predator, and for the first time in their lives, they are the prey. What this movie truly succeeds in is great suspense and killer action. What this movie doesn’t really succeed in is natural dialogue and believable characters. Now, to be fair, I haven’t met that many serial killers, murderers, or mercenaries, but I do assume that they are more interesting than the people who feel the need to use curse words for no real reason. I assume that they, like most people, still retain the ability to communicate in a fashion that feels natural. But no one goes to an action movie to hear intelligent, thought provoking dialogue, so I’ll let that point slip to the back burner. Short of the poor dialogue, this flick rocks. It makes fitting potential conclusion to the Predator series, and will easily please any action fan and any Predator fan. 3.5 out of 5 stars.