Review:
Predators

Predators is a new sequel to the original Predator film directed by John McTiernan and released by 20th Century Fox in 1988. There have of course already been a number of sequels to this franchise – namely the urban-set 1990 film Predator 2 starring Danny Glover and directed by Stephen Hopkins, plus the two critically panned Alien vs. Predator films by Paul W. S. Anderson (2004) and the Colin and Greg Strause (2007). This latest incarnation scripted by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch, directed by Nimrod Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios restores many of the themes of the original Predator, including a return to the classic jungle environment.

The film begins with very little pre-amble – the protagonists awaken mid-air hurtling towards a jungle canopy and they must launch their parachutes before they fall to their deaths. These men and women gather together but they are all strangers to each other. Each of them are warriors of one sort or another, and they have been plucked from their normal environment without any memory of this transition. They quickly discover that not only is the jungle foreign to all of them but it is actually alien – this group of isolated humans is no longer on Earth, but on another planet entirely. It soon becomes apparent that they have been selected as quarry for the ‘predator’ aliens to hunt, and that they must battle desperately for survival.

The ensemble cast is colourful, but each character is bad-ass in his or her own way, and each has a distinctive method of fighting. Royce (played by Adrien Brody) is a taciturn mercenary and ex-special ops equipped with some kind of auto combat shotgun. Isabelle (played by Alice Braga) is an Israeli soldier and sniper equipped with a long-range rifle and a digital scope. Nikolai (played by Oleg Taktarov) is a Chechnyan rebel with a mini-gun harness (clearly a nod to the weapon carried by Bill Duke’s character Mac in the original film). Chuchillo (played by Rodriguez stalwart Danny Trejo) is a Mexican enforcer carrying twin sub-machineguns. Hanzo (played by Louis Ozawa Changchien) is a silent Yakuza assassin equipped with pistols and knives. Stans (played by Walter Goggins) is a convict on death row equipped with only a makeshift shiv. Mombasa (played by Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) is a warlord from Africa with his own array of guns. The odd one out appears to be Edwin (played by Topher Grace) who is an unarmed doctor, and who seems quite congenial compared to the others.