Prey

Criticisms first: The most unbelievable thing about this movie is the yo-yo tomahawk, not the 7 foot alien. This is something an 8 year old thinks of, tries it, then realizes that their imagination wrote a check that reality can't cash.

A trend in sequels lately is frequent and in your face callbacks to the original, like in Top Gun: Maverick (great movie, but too much in my opinion). There's a few in this movie that could've been done without. I just like a sequel to stand on its own more. Some people will disagree, just my preference.

Aside from that, it's probably the best Predator sequel to date. The bar is pretty low, but I really enjoyed it. It's not the woke movie early reviews says it is, just don't expect oiled body builders wielding machine guns. The Predator in this movie is big fan service and not the big headed clunky versions in previous sequels, but a deadly, agile, killing machine.

Great soundtrack too, it's got hints of Last of the Mohicans vibes.

For a period piece too, it's pretty accurate...except for the yo-yo tomahawk. I'd love to see a follow up!

Confession: I'm the guy who watched the original Predator way too many times thanks to the magic of VHS...but then never watched a single sequel afterwards. As far as I'm concerned "Predator" = jungles and body butter. So I fully admit that I have limited context here. That said, this movie kicked butt. I cared way more about Naru and her brother (not to mention her dog) than I did about anybody in the original. I found the cinematagrophy breathtaking, I found the characters compelling, and I'm kind of all in on seeing what happens when we transport modern franchises into different historical/cultural contexts. Plus, the callbacks were delightful. Nobody's going to give this movie an Oscar, but I'd rather watch a story like this than most movies with capes and poorly staged action sequences. I was sucked in from moment one, and Amber Midthunder completely captivated me for the whole runtime. It's nice to know that movies like this can still surprise me, not to mention make me stand up and cheer.

Set in 1719 in The Great Northern Plains, Naru (Amber Midthunder) is a young Comanche woman who while trained as a healer has aspirations of being a hunter like her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers). When Naru sees what she thinks is the "thunderbird" in the sky, she takes this as a sign she is ready to prove herself a hunter. As she joins a group lead by her brother set on taking down a mountain lion, they soon come across a creature more dangerous than they've encountered before.

Prey marks the first Predator movie made and released since Disney bought Fox and the first entry in the series since the underperformance of 2018's The Predator. The film began development under the working title of Skulls when director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison approached series producer John Davis with the initial concept that would become Prey. Trachtenberg hasn't directed a feature film his breakout hit in 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane with a number of projects he's been attached to either moving on without him or getting cancelled with Trachtenberg's largely being on TV. Prey marks both a welcome return for Trachtenberg as well as the Predator franchise as it's probably the best entry we've had since the first one.

Much like prior films Predator and Predator 2 which took established film staples such as commando and cop movies and turned them on their head with the inclusion of an alien trophy hunter, Prey takes a set of characters in its Comanche natives who could've easily sustained their own movie independent of The Predator and make for an engaging mashup with the established monster much as they did with the characters in the first and second films. Amber Midthunder is our lead Naru and she's really good in the film as she's capable in the fight scenes but also is very green which helps sell the rougher edge to the fight scenes which include some of the clumsiness you'd expect from such skirmishes. The other actors are solid performers and lend themselves to some entertaining and very brutal sequences in the film, including a sequence in the third act which had a nice nod to the ending of Predator 2. The Predator design is really unique featuring a cruder version of the helmet that more resembles a skull than the one we're used to and it works in context. We also get a solid dog character in Sarii who's pretty much a co-lead in the film and they're every bit the character you'd expect from a human actor.

Prey is solid genre fare in its own right, but it also brings the Predator series back on track after getting derailed with the mess of 2018's The Predator. Amber Midthunder is a great lead as Naru and the action and spectacle delivers. The third act runs a bit long and maybe could've been streamlined, but aside from that this is great enetertainment.

I've watched Prey twice over the weekend, once in English and the second time in full on Comanche. I know that might turn off a lot of English speaking people (myself included) but the dialogue really shines through in the all Comanche version. Amber Midthunder did an amazing job point blank, and also a big shoutout to Dakota Beavers who was probably my favorite character in the entire movie. I wish they would have developed some of the other characters more even if they're just there to be slaughtered by Predator. The director manages the film at a fast yet reasonable pace, even for the 1 hour 40 minute run time I was never bored. Stunning visuals, great cinematography, and some pretty solid action scenes (even if it is just the predator beating down on whatever is in front of him). Fans of the franchise will appreciate the nods to the original, the variety of weapons, and the gruesome kills. The CGI is mediocre at best, and I can really do without it. I get the animals had to be CGI for obvious reasons, but some of it is so Video Game-like it's laughable. And also wtf was that ending? Did the Predator forget he wasn't wearing his mask? Is there not a manual aim option for his weapons? Seriously flawed ending but all in all this is one of the better streaming exclusive movies I've seen and wish I could have seen it in theaters!

The concept is good and the main idea is great. But atrocious execution and screenplay and writing.

That was really bloody waste of time. What a silly joke this movie is.

That was awful on every aspect. It was really unexciting and empty to the point that I was fast forwarding and skipping through it to reach the end of it and eventually I wasn't even interested and I closed it 20 minutes before it ends.

That was soulless bland shallow and plastic and cheesy and fake and pretentious and devoid of acting skills or story or interesting characters and suspense and scare and fear and excitement. It was really nothing but some visual plastic visual effects and technology that looked more like toys.

I don't know in what sense exactly this has a 7 rating and the original movie has 7 too.

The original desreves 10/10 and this 1/10 at most for the plastic fake visual effects.