Some PREDATORS Reviews From AICN Readers!!

Merrick here...
We've received a few PREDATORS reviews...and they're decidedly mixed. A representative sampling appears below. This said, and to be fair, we're also hearing some rather positive word of mouth (literally...word of mouth, not written reviews) out of press screenings in L.A. So, this may end up being one of those highly divisive titles. The AICN crew will be seeing the film over the next several days and offering our own opinions when we do. In all probability, I won't write-up a review myself - but will certainly offer a few thoughts via my Twitter feed by early afternoon tomorrow. Onto our reader reactions: First up, Dutch...who liked the film quite a bit. There are a few spoilers in Dutch's piece...nothing terribly surprising but those wishing to remain pure may wish to avoid this one. If this means you, then here's what Dutch thought in brief: he feels that the first two thirds of the film were carefully constructed and really tight, but the ending of the movie feels too rushed and leaves too many plot holes. Here's Dutch...

Last night I was treated to a wonderful surprise in Ann Arbor when my girlfriend was supposedly dragging me to a late show of "Twilight", her way of getting revenge for seeing "Underworld" with me, and it turned out to be a sneak peek of "Predators." The place was going wild and many a Predator one liners were being shouted throughout the room as the lights went dark. My favorite being "I'm a Goddamn sexual Tyrannosaur!" Let me just start by saying that any leftover bad taste from the AVP films has been completely wiped away as the film references the first Predator film while none of the other films even seem to exist. And anyone who doubted that Adrien Brody was a poor casting choice is flat out wrong! The casting is very good, even and effective and Robert Rodriguez's talent comes through as the story actually develops plot, character and a new element to the Predator realm. Adrian Brody falls from the sky and is fixed with a parachute of some kind. He runs into others like him and while they are all confused as to what's going on, they are not only smart, but as they quickly find out, deadly. As we are told in the trailers the group consists of killers. Yakuza, Military (Brody), a sniper and others. The idea could just add up to a mixed bag group, but they each have their purpose and as they realize that they're being hunted, they were chosen for a purpose by the Predators and they begin working together to discover the strategy being used by the Predators to hunt them. Their talents make for the best challenge for the Predators which is what they want. The movie contains traditional horror elements as each death is written specifically for their own talent and the Predators attack the ones who they feel are their greatest challenges. Rodriguez clearly wanted to make not only an action movie in the style of the 80's Predator, but he wanted to continue with the evolution of the Predator world. The Predators have other creatures on their home planet which they unleash on our heroes. The relationship with the dangers of the Predators and the humans is the underlying point of the film. Humans are the most dangerous game of all as was stated in the "Most Dangerous Game." These two stories are similar, relatively shipwrecked humans being hunted by those who wish to hunt the best. Ultimately, "Predators" is filled with great action and gore and Adrien Brody kicking ass in an authentic way. We have memorable one liners during a tight first two thirds of the film. "They're hunting us, that's part of the game. It's time to get off the bench or we die." The film is saturated with gore as you would expect and as the film moves forward, the action builds, and ultimately is where the story unravels. I felt the AVP movies ended very quickly, especially the first one. This film is no different. Obviously we know Brody lives to the climax, but the others who make it are a surprise which I will not spoil. However, the end comes and goes too quickly and I felt somewhat disappointed that there was so much careful creation for the film's beginnings only to ignore plot holes in the end. I have to say "Predators" was a great surprise and Laurence Fishburne and Danny Trejo clearly enjoyed doing this as they are my new heroes and rival Ventura and Duke from the original for machismo. Brody pulls off his part and a sequel is inevitable. However, the Yakuza warrior killing the Predator with a samurai sword is the best moment in the film. A definite step up from all the other sequels!!! See this film, it will make you "A God Damn sexual Tyrannosaur!!!" If you use this, call me Dutch.

GreekGeek also took time to send in some thoughts after catching a screening of the film. He calls it a "walking-and-talking-through-the-woods"-fest, and evokes Ken Thorne's score for SUPERMAN II when talking about John Debney's work on this picture (uh oh!) Here's GreekGeek...

Hi there, GreekGeek here! Just saw PREDATORS at a press screening here in Hamburg, Germany. (and as always, please excuse my English) I planned to write a longer review for this "reboot" of a "never-really-working" franchise, but after this boring, uninspiring mess of a movie, I just can't find any words. There isn't any spoiler in my quick review, because there isn't anything new or surprising in this rehash. This is a plain simple retelling of the 1987 John McTiernan movie. Only this time on another planet. But why? The forests look exactly like northern California. There is nothing on this planet that looks remotely alien. Except the Predators, some tiger-things and that's it. A bunch of criminals, who aren't menacing in any scene of this lame movie, against an enemy who is 15% of the time onscreen. The sparse appearances of the titular character are the only thing reminiscing of the good parts from the first movie. Everything else is just booooring. Lawrence Fishburne's "guest-appearance" is laughable, he is some crazy guy, surviving numerous Predator attacks and gone crazy. And why is he looking like Yaphet Kotto in MIDNIGHT RUN?!? Adrien Brody as an action star? That's the only thing that didn't went wrong in this one. I was afraid this would be like his KING KONG turn, but it's way better. He hasn't anything special to do on this one, but isn't - like I said - the worst thing here. The only thing that bothered me (and the rest of the journalists): Brody's Character knew everything and had an answer to anything. Don't get me started with the female character starting an in your face exposition about the happenings 1987 in Guatemala. (I hope she meant the McTiernan movie at her local drive-in cinema...) And by the way Topher Grace's Character (another copy of every PREDATOR and ALIEN movie) sucked! The other guys in the gang weren't that memorable and Machete's part is way too short and his disappearance too unspectacular. I hope that the original 1995 Rodriguez Treatment is completely different than this "walking-and-talking-through-the-woods"-fest. No scares, no suspense, no thrills, no gore (two lame shot decapitations of Predators), no interesting characters, no story development whatsoever. Even the terrible ALIEN VS. PREDATOR movies have more plot. I was never a PREDATOR Franchise fan. I liked the first one, mainly because of Alan Silvestri's Score, and that's it. Oh, and this score: I'm a big John Debney fan, but this score sounds like Ken Thorne's SUPERMAN II Score all over again - mimicking Silvestri's Jungle Sounds and using the PREDATOR Theme as if the Predator was an action hero. Sorry guys, I thought this reboot would make me a PREDATOR Fan... Visit my filmnewswebsite http://www.greekgeek.de

Next: a write-up from AotD, who asserts that the movie is a 5.5/6 out of 10. He says Fishburne gives "one of the worst performances" he's ever seen, and that this film is on par with Stephen Hopkins' PREDATOR 2. Which...I had a lot of fun with. Was it McTiernan's original? Not even close. Did it work in a macro sense? I'd argue that it had a distinct personality and was a completely worthy entry on its own merits. Here's AotD...

First time writing in, I was pretty lucky to nab a press screening of Predators tonight and thought I'd give everyone the heads up with as little spoilers as possible. Right off the bat, this isn't a franchise savior along the lines of Batman Begins or Star Trek. What it is, is a fairly solid if unspectacular action flick with some decent performances as well as one truly horrendous one. The Good - Adrian Brody I was pretty surprised by how effective he was in the lead role, they don't play him up to be a bad motherfucker to rival Arnie, instead they go for an isolated, cold angle, and for the most part it works. -- The Predators Definitely dug the new breeds, the costumes are pretty great, especially the jawbone on the "leader". -- The Score It borrowed a lot from Alan Silvestri's work on the first movie and new composer John Debney does some good work in matching the new with the old. - The action For the most part, it was well handled and Antal picked up some great shots along the way, no handicam shakey bollocks here. Now, The Bad -- The predadogs Awful, unconvincing CGI, not remotely scary and actually reminded me a lot of the creature in 'Lady in the Water' -- The Topher surprise I don't want to go into what happens as I don't want any spoilers, but man, this part was unconvincing as hell. -- The story Although it was handled well, it wasn't as thrilling as the original and a lot of parts seemed like direct rehashes of the 87 classic. And the worst part of all... -- Laurence Fishburne Holy shit. Hands down one of the worst performances I've ever seen. I know you're buddies with Robert Rodriguez, dude, please ask him what the thought was behind this character. It was a truly appalling attempt to add some sort of Apocalypse Now psychosis into the movie, but actually came off more like Ace Ventura at the start of "When Nature Calls". The people I was watching it with were either laughing at him or squirming at how terrible his entire part of the movie is. Verdict It's a step in the right direction at least, a massive improvement on the AvPs but still nowhere near as good as the original. If i was being generous, I'd put it on par with the Danny Glover sequel. A solid 5.5/10...6/10 if I'm being really generous. If you use this, call me AotD.

Finally, here's Bospherous Bill, who says PREDATORS "almost took off, but never quite ignited", its effects "weren't that special" , and feels the project is "not really worth it." He scores it 2 1/2 out of 5, and says he's glad he didn't pay to see it.

I've just seen a preview of Predators at The Apollo in Lower Regent Street in London. If you use this I am Bospherous Bill; Lord knows why. I saw the first Predator on it's release and loved it. I remember going in with pretty low expectations but was thoroughly psyched by what was on show. It felt fresh and imaginative and suggested so many future possibilities. Predator 2 I felt barely delivered; it wasn't a complete waste of time but it was at heart preposterous in light of the logic of the first film, the only thrills coming from the gore and the Alien nod at the end. And we all know the multiple clusterfuck that resulted from the Alien/Predator series spawned by that nod. By the way; you know how in the first AvP the Queen is dispatched to the bottom of the Arctic deeps? Surely, surely a beast untroubled by the vacuum of space would be only mildly put out by this? In no time Queeny would have been messing with the fauna of the depths and a great line of 'Whalien' films could have played out for us but for the lack of a bit of imagination... Anyway, to Predators; it's not Predator but it's not AvP either. And Lord knows it's no Whalien, but what is eh? All in all it's about a 2 1/2 out of 5. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it, it was better than the AvP films but not better than Predator 2. It almost took off, but never quite ignited. As an audience we knew too much and the film making wasn't sophisticated enough to deal with this. We all know it's a Predator movie, we know Earth's toughest have been dumped on an alien game reserve as prey, so why take so long to reveal the reveal that we all know before buying the tickets? Because they couldn't be bothered to be creative enough? Possibly. For a run and gun film the middle really lagged too. A lot of dramatic tension seemed to be thrown away for a lack of patience; there was no time to settle and no time to get spooked as everything was done at a sprint. And the ending? Well, it felt like it was ad-libbed on the day when they were told the money had run out. The special effects weren't that special and the new breed Predator looked piss poor; like a bored student had been given the job of updating the original but came up with only one (bad) idea; I know - a mouth guard! A bit like the Spartan helmets from 300 but with teeth!! There are a couple of flagrant steals from Aliens as well (tunnel crawling and "Don't worry, I'll do us both if the time comes.") which only act to make you think; why? All in all not really worth it I'm afraid.

I'll say it again... As far as I'm concerned, if it's as good as PREDATOR 2? That gives us a bit to work with. I guess we'll see for ourselves soon enough...