Director:
Nimrod Antal
Cast:
Adrien Brody
Topher Grace
Alice Braga
Laurence Fishburne
Danny Trejo
Rated: R
Trailer
No Schwarzenegger, no problem.
“Predators,” starring Adrien Brody, starts off by dropping its lead characters right into the think of things. Brody’s character Royce, and a number of other criminals and mercenaries from across Earth, have landed in an unknown forest and quickly realize they’re being hunted for sport.
The group quickly realizes that they’re on another planet all together and must fight to survive and escape the other worldly game reserve.
The movie, like the original, is pure action schlock. The movie kicks off with a bang and gets things rolling right away. From there, it never slows down, with the characters constantly being put into peril. While the story does have the general ‘killing a character one-by-one’ scenario, it still manages to be engaging thanks to the action and the characters having their banter.
Speaking of the characters, they work in a way similar to the latest “Rambo” movie from a few years ago. They’re a group of hardened mercs, but many of the actors bring charisma to their characters and seeing them fight for survival together was solid.
Brody is the one who really steals the show as Royce. He worked perfectly as the movie’s cold bad ass while also being hte natural leader type. The movie also featured a wildly fun performance from Laurence Fishburne.
The action in the film is over the top and quite violent, but it works in this inter-planetary battle. There’s one particular scene where a character faces a predator with a sword and it’s incredible fun.
“Predators” will probably exceed some expectations. While the story and characters are a bit generic, the execution is definitely there. This certainly isn’t a perfect action picture, for example the performance from Topher Grace wasn’t anything special. However, this is still a good time at the theater, perfect for a matinee. High 3 out of 5.
