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von_geisterhandI went to see "Predators" last night. People had already warned me that it was fairly mediocre but continued exposure to the trailer (and a curiosity about what Robert Rodriguez what make of the material) made me go nevertheless. It is... not very good. In terms of bangs for bucks, you are pretty much better off watching the 1987 original, possibly as a double bill with "Con Air". Yes, effects are a bit better these days (although I found some of the CGI in the new film pretty unconvincing) and as the title already implies, this time round there is more than one Predator but somehow the action sequences failed to grip me. Another problem is that while the characters in either film* are relatively one note, they were just that bit more entertainingly OTT in the 80s, while the 2010ers just come across as clichés. Sadly, that also goes for the Predators. Yes, I am enough of a geek to actually care about the motivations and character of large gribbly creatures, and the new Predators had neither.
But let's talk about the humans for a bit:
(I assume that you will have seen the trailer and/or read a wee bit about the film from here on. Plotwise, there are no spoilers.) A significant point is made in the film that the human prey dropped on the Predator planet are in their own right "monsters" and at least as bad as the creatures hunting them. And it is true that for the most part they were snatched from one field of war or another and that all of them are very proficient with their chosen weapons (which handily the Predators supplied them with). We have a russian soldier (carrying a mini-gun but he ain't no Jesse Ventura), an african death squad member (who gets to say sentences starting with "In my country..." but lacks the military skills to tell anybody that he saw something moving in the trees), a Yakuza (essentially this film's Billy), a redneck death row inmate/serial killer (think Steve Buscemi minus the charisma but with added jokes about inbreeding. We'll return to him in a sec), Danny Trejo (okay, so he's a mexican drug cartel enforcer but Danny Trejo only ever plays variations of one role anyway), a doctor (Basil Exposition) and our hero couple.
Adrien Brody is a taciturn American, trained in battle, not necessarily a team player and for some reason, people accept him as group leader without much argument (yes....). Alice Braga is a female sniper, identified as part of the Israel Defense Force but the token Latino woman of the franchise in every other way. And while she is quite capable in battle, it is hard to shake the feeling that she is mainly there because any group in a Hollywood film needs a woman for a bit of sexual/romantic tension. All she has in common with Vasquez is the apparent ethnicity and the large gun. Beyond that, she might as well be just another bloke (Which would make one line in the film a fair bit funnier, though).
And yes, if you want to read as much subtext into the film, you could point out that we have a group of POCs, a redneck and an academic led by an Israeli soldier and somebody who is most famous for playing a Shoah survivor. Not quite "Starship Troopers" but seeing that I am already overanalyzing, why stop now?
So here we have our "monsters" and truth be told, for a group of monsters and considering the trailer still contained the line "Does this look like a team orientated group of individuals to you?", they do work together very nicely without all that much intragroup tension. No racism and no sexism ("Alien 3", anyone?) Which might be a desirable state of affairs in reality but smells of an author not putting the effort in here. Or possibly trying to actively censor characters: The first we see of African Death Squad and Redneck Psycho Killer is them being at each other's throat and throughout the rest of the film they retain their animosity towards each other. But does either of them think of maybe using some racist language towards the other? No, let the audience fill that one in. You can't even claim that this was done in order to make the characters more sympathetic. ADS is merely the sketch of a "Noble Savage" and RPK gets to show the group naked pictures of his sister and (Are you ready for this?) make the following statement:
"Man let me tell you, if I get out of here... I'm going to do so much fucking cocaine. I'm gonna rape so many bitches... Yeah, it's after 5:00? Time to do some coke and rape some fine bitches". So he really isn't the guy to root for. But even he as arguably the least likeable member of the group does not exude any real danger or edginess, nor are you really certain about why exactly he was included in this film (or this hunt, for that matter). He certainly does not add anything to it.
Possibly I am too harsh on a film that only wants to be a slice of brainless entertainment but the fact that I actually had the time and brainpower to notice all these aspects about the film might give away that I found the film not exactly thrilling.
*Just for the record and in case anybody is interested, I thought "Predator" was fabulous 80s cheese, "Predator 2" a worthwhile sequel, while "Aliens vs. Predator" failed to fulfill the comics'/books' promise but was still about sufficiently entertaining.
But let's talk about the humans for a bit:
(I assume that you will have seen the trailer and/or read a wee bit about the film from here on. Plotwise, there are no spoilers.) A significant point is made in the film that the human prey dropped on the Predator planet are in their own right "monsters" and at least as bad as the creatures hunting them. And it is true that for the most part they were snatched from one field of war or another and that all of them are very proficient with their chosen weapons (which handily the Predators supplied them with). We have a russian soldier (carrying a mini-gun but he ain't no Jesse Ventura), an african death squad member (who gets to say sentences starting with "In my country..." but lacks the military skills to tell anybody that he saw something moving in the trees), a Yakuza (essentially this film's Billy), a redneck death row inmate/serial killer (think Steve Buscemi minus the charisma but with added jokes about inbreeding. We'll return to him in a sec), Danny Trejo (okay, so he's a mexican drug cartel enforcer but Danny Trejo only ever plays variations of one role anyway), a doctor (Basil Exposition) and our hero couple.
Adrien Brody is a taciturn American, trained in battle, not necessarily a team player and for some reason, people accept him as group leader without much argument (yes....). Alice Braga is a female sniper, identified as part of the Israel Defense Force but the token Latino woman of the franchise in every other way. And while she is quite capable in battle, it is hard to shake the feeling that she is mainly there because any group in a Hollywood film needs a woman for a bit of sexual/romantic tension. All she has in common with Vasquez is the apparent ethnicity and the large gun. Beyond that, she might as well be just another bloke (Which would make one line in the film a fair bit funnier, though).
And yes, if you want to read as much subtext into the film, you could point out that we have a group of POCs, a redneck and an academic led by an Israeli soldier and somebody who is most famous for playing a Shoah survivor. Not quite "Starship Troopers" but seeing that I am already overanalyzing, why stop now?
So here we have our "monsters" and truth be told, for a group of monsters and considering the trailer still contained the line "Does this look like a team orientated group of individuals to you?", they do work together very nicely without all that much intragroup tension. No racism and no sexism ("Alien 3", anyone?) Which might be a desirable state of affairs in reality but smells of an author not putting the effort in here. Or possibly trying to actively censor characters: The first we see of African Death Squad and Redneck Psycho Killer is them being at each other's throat and throughout the rest of the film they retain their animosity towards each other. But does either of them think of maybe using some racist language towards the other? No, let the audience fill that one in. You can't even claim that this was done in order to make the characters more sympathetic. ADS is merely the sketch of a "Noble Savage" and RPK gets to show the group naked pictures of his sister and (Are you ready for this?) make the following statement:
"Man let me tell you, if I get out of here... I'm going to do so much fucking cocaine. I'm gonna rape so many bitches... Yeah, it's after 5:00? Time to do some coke and rape some fine bitches". So he really isn't the guy to root for. But even he as arguably the least likeable member of the group does not exude any real danger or edginess, nor are you really certain about why exactly he was included in this film (or this hunt, for that matter). He certainly does not add anything to it.
Possibly I am too harsh on a film that only wants to be a slice of brainless entertainment but the fact that I actually had the time and brainpower to notice all these aspects about the film might give away that I found the film not exactly thrilling.
*Just for the record and in case anybody is interested, I thought "Predator" was fabulous 80s cheese, "Predator 2" a worthwhile sequel, while "Aliens vs. Predator" failed to fulfill the comics'/books' promise but was still about sufficiently entertaining.
