Two and a Half Predators
Hm, how do predators feel about third parties? If one came upon a decidedly unfair fight, might they intervene on behalf of the underdog?
Only if the underdogs were more honorable than the favorites, I would think.
Predator: Tracking Down the Kardashians.
Finally, a feel-good movie!
Some of the kills in Prey definitely seemed like ones Jason would applaud like shanking a dude through the head and then lifting him overhead in order to shank another dude without taking the first one off the claws. Or the bear trap to the dome. Or the ricochet off the helmet to kill a dude with his own musket ball. Or using a net to turn a dude into ground beef. There were some nasty kills in Prey but since the gore shots were surprisingly discretionary said kills were also awesome.
Since this is basically a Disney movie, did anyone notice the Predator was basically killed by Yondu’s arrow? Naru even whistled in the same scene. And I can’t see the dog rescue scene as anything other than some John Wick action.
I have seen interviews where the producer or director admits there is some God of War influence with Naru’s weapon. I also see some Horizon Zero Dawn influence with the sliding and the attempt to hide in tall grass. The bear makes a noise straight out of Skyrim when it is first coming after Naru.
Of course, there are also some human societies that just kind of … disappeared. Predator vs. Roanoke Colony? Predator totally won that one!
Yeah, if you want to give the Predator a win have him hunt Nazis.
Scene: Predator’s landing craft comes down in the middle of Auschwitz. The Predator steps out, and looks around.
Predator: “Aw, hell no!”
Nazis: Intense screaming.
All The Predator’s Men
We saw it this weekend and I really liked it. The film did a good job of setting up the narrative – Naru fails early but her intelligence and persistence is also set up early. The story was fairly simple and straight forward – we don’t need a secret alliance with the Predator or some fake out along the way. I wish the CGI animals were a little better but really the only thing that I wish they did better was the French trapper scenes and when Naru returns home at the end.
The movie makes it pretty clear that the trappers are terrible – they all look terrible with bad teeth and poor hygiene and they seem to hang out next to the one field that is all burned out with wrecked trees and stuff. I don’t see why they had to be so bad – maybe rough guys but ultimately decent folk making a life on the land just like the Comanche tribe. I’d empathize with them a little more as Predator wiped them out.
At the end Naru was triumphant and that should be celebrated but she just lost her brother and other members of the tribe but there wasn’t much of a moment showing how physically and emotionally exhausted she was even in her victory.
But these are minor quibbles, imo. It was also interesting to see that flintlock pistol and the “hide painting” in the end credits hinting at more Predators coming in.
Was the flintlock pistol in Prey the same gun gifted to Danny Glover at the end of Predator 2?
Yup. The paintings during the credits kindof explain what happens afterward.
At least they didn’t rape her. That may have actually happened in a real life scenario back then. At least the producer was decent enough not to add (or infer) that to the story line. Good call.
I’m not fluent in french but I’m pretty sure they did infer it. At least something about her being female as a reason to keep her.
Watched it last night, and had on the subtitles throughout. The subtitles for the trappers were in French, as well, which was somewhat frustrating, but I agree with the poster above who said we were meant to view them as “outsiders,” almost as much as the Predator was an outsider.
Anyway, my two years of college French are 30+ years in the past, but if I understood some of the subtitles correctly, one of the trappers wanted to kill her, but another said something like “She’s a girl. We can use her.” So rape was implied, but not specifically stated (as far as I could tell).
And yeah, this was a very well-done Predator movie. I didn’t think the Predator was necessarily handicapping himself with his weapon choices so much; I think we were seeing the difference between that society’s technology in our 1700s as opposed to what that society would have developed by our late 1900s (when the first Predator movie was made). They had 200 years to improve on their hunting gear, just as we had 200 years to improve on bows and arrows and flintlock weapons.
While the suggestion of rape is pretty clear, there’s also a practical matter - they used her as bait for the Predator. Her being a girl made that easier, because they didn’t realize how much of a badass she’s be. They thought she’d be easier to use that one of the male natives.
I also thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
Yes to the quibbles of Naru’s lack of reaction to losing her brother and tribe members, a bit of animal CGI, the French trappers being all horrible, lower body temperature. Yes. But.
I LOVED this movie. I agree that keeping everything in French to get the Comanche pov was a good choice. In fact, it seems as if the French did worse than the Comanche in fighting the Predator to me. Sure, predator had a shield for the guns but the Comanche hit with arrows AND melee weapons. Really liked that.
I also liked the ending animations and hints. I thought the actors did well and liked Naru.
I love the movie ideas this thread has had! Explaining some lost colonies or things. I also like the idea of having it through the ages, always going after people in their prime. Maybe the ones where the Predator lost are when they avoid us for a century or two?
I saw P2 and enjoyed it mostly, also notice that in that movie, they don’t kill pregnant woman, hunters or not? If I have seen any of the others, they didn’t stick.
Oh, what the hell:
Downton: Predator
Exactly. It works.