Going into this movie, you know this is going to be a sequel of Predator, so there isn't too much depth to expect from this, and it delivers the lack of depth I expected. In addition it also delivered it's fair share of clichés, corny lines, "ten little indians" plot set-up, and an hour and forty minutes of pure entertainment, with some pretty exciting action scenes and a lot of violence.
A random assortment of confused people wake up mid-air to find that they are falling into a jungle with parachutes on their back. They all land confused and angry and ready to kill each other, but soon find that they have been abducted and taken to an alien gaming preserve where these tricky Predator creatures are playing games with an hunting down these humans. Each one of these humans were selected for who they are (mostly military men and people good with weapons), and these competent killers and tough guys strive to survive in this foreign jungle.
If you have a hard time sitting through a feature length film, this might be the movie for you. By an hour in it feels like you've only been in the theater 30 minutes. Because this movie starts off right away in the middle of action, it never has any down time and this movie zooms right by at an hour and forty, and feels more like an hour long. The briskness in this case is a good thing, because the action scenes are quite close together and exciting, with moments in the middle to stop briefly to hear amusing dialogue and learn about our characters personalities.
Adrien Brody doesn't seem much like an action hero normally, but here he is a pretty believable action star. He's a bit more beefed up than normal, and he's doing a Christian Bale Batman gravel voice like he's been smoking too much, and it's believable as are all the performances. Despite some occasional not great dialogue to deal with, the actors all play their characters well, including Laurence Fishbourne who plays a crazy character in what amounts to a lengthy cameo.
The dialogue in this movie isn't great, and it's got a lot of clichéd lines in the style of "If you want to kill me (long pause), then kill me." or "You think you're so tough (long pause), you're not!" Neither of these lines are in the movie from my remembrance, but lots of half sentences, then pauses, then clichéd ends to the statements. In addition to that for some reason everyone listens to Adrien Brody and only talks when on cue to give a short line (very clichéd of one dimensional action flicks). Clichéd shots go by where we go past several Predators and as the camera passes each one they take their invisibility shield off, for some reason on cue with the camera movement. These clichéd lines and moments don't ruin the movie, but do add a few eye roll moments.
Overall, this is a pretty effective Predator sequel. It has some cool action scenes, snappy characters and good special effects. The dialogue may be a bit contrived, and some weird camera direction used just to build hollow aesthetic pleasure, but this is still a very good sequel, and an entertaining action film that won't disappoint!
My rating: *** out of ****. 107 mins. R for violence and language.
A random assortment of confused people wake up mid-air to find that they are falling into a jungle with parachutes on their back. They all land confused and angry and ready to kill each other, but soon find that they have been abducted and taken to an alien gaming preserve where these tricky Predator creatures are playing games with an hunting down these humans. Each one of these humans were selected for who they are (mostly military men and people good with weapons), and these competent killers and tough guys strive to survive in this foreign jungle.
If you have a hard time sitting through a feature length film, this might be the movie for you. By an hour in it feels like you've only been in the theater 30 minutes. Because this movie starts off right away in the middle of action, it never has any down time and this movie zooms right by at an hour and forty, and feels more like an hour long. The briskness in this case is a good thing, because the action scenes are quite close together and exciting, with moments in the middle to stop briefly to hear amusing dialogue and learn about our characters personalities.
Adrien Brody doesn't seem much like an action hero normally, but here he is a pretty believable action star. He's a bit more beefed up than normal, and he's doing a Christian Bale Batman gravel voice like he's been smoking too much, and it's believable as are all the performances. Despite some occasional not great dialogue to deal with, the actors all play their characters well, including Laurence Fishbourne who plays a crazy character in what amounts to a lengthy cameo.
The dialogue in this movie isn't great, and it's got a lot of clichéd lines in the style of "If you want to kill me (long pause), then kill me." or "You think you're so tough (long pause), you're not!" Neither of these lines are in the movie from my remembrance, but lots of half sentences, then pauses, then clichéd ends to the statements. In addition to that for some reason everyone listens to Adrien Brody and only talks when on cue to give a short line (very clichéd of one dimensional action flicks). Clichéd shots go by where we go past several Predators and as the camera passes each one they take their invisibility shield off, for some reason on cue with the camera movement. These clichéd lines and moments don't ruin the movie, but do add a few eye roll moments.
Overall, this is a pretty effective Predator sequel. It has some cool action scenes, snappy characters and good special effects. The dialogue may be a bit contrived, and some weird camera direction used just to build hollow aesthetic pleasure, but this is still a very good sequel, and an entertaining action film that won't disappoint!
My rating: *** out of ****. 107 mins. R for violence and language.