When I first saw the advert for the new predator movie, the wave of excitement I had felt was suddenly overcome by one of dread. After its original outing starring Arnold Scwarznegger, there has been a series of lame sequels which do no justice to the ‘Aliens’ or ‘Predators’ franchise. It seems that there has been a lot of dumbing down taking place in Hollywood at the moment and only semi-independent movies such as Avatar (though even this has it’s own faults) has tried to tend to the flame of creativity in modern film making. Either that or we have just outgrown so many of the franchises we used to love. There seems to be a lack of creativity in the movie industry at the moment with every new release being a remake, sequel, comic book/ video game adaptation or just a gimmick like the soon to be released star studded ‘expendables’ movie. The latest outing of the ‘predators’ franchise has been anything but hot, set on the predator home world (or maybe a jungle in Hawaii) it follows the story of a group of misfits and their struggle to understand where they are, how they got there, and how to “kill those goddamn things”. It introduces new concepts such as the predator hunting dogs and the super predators that hunt your normal tough-as-nails ones. Guest appearances like Ali Mahershalalhashbaz from the television series ‘the 4400s’ and Laurence Fishburne of ‘the matrix’ fame are a sure treat. One could not help but feel a hollowness to the plot however, a series of comic books have been planned to tie in with the movie and this might just give the story the depth it desperately needed but will probably only be read by hardcore fans and still leave casual movie goers scratching their heads. All in all, I was entertained and would indeed recommend the movie to science fiction and action movie fans alike, just don’t expect too much from this predator outing.

by Kelechi Udeala

Share on Facebook