Predators: Spoiler-Free Review!

One of the earliest and most poignant movie experiences I had as a kid was watching the first Predator movie, where Arnie foiled the technologically- and physically-superior Alien with mud and big yelling. That and Arnie (again) cutting off most of his skin in Terminator 2 and the fact that velociraptors are chillingly intelligent. 1987's Predator also introduced me to the idea of infra-red vision and might have been one of the first times I heard the F-bomb dropped.

Infra-vision and F-bombs aplenty in the 2010 installment of the series, produced in part by Robert Rodriguez. I loved Desperado and Sin City, but then this follows Alien vs Predator and Alien vs Predator: Requiem, and so I didn't really have my hopes up for the film, especially being the huge fan of the franchise itself. Sort of like Transformers, come to think of it. And we all know how that turned out.

Watching it at Cineleisure Orchard, the first thing that struck me was the fact that the advertisements and trailers were craptacular. Sure, there's the Inception one that everyone has seen and loved about fourteen times the past week, but other than that, meh. Not really the fault of anyone to do with Predators itself, so I'll move on.

I'll start with the good. The best part of the movie, for me, was the fact that just about all the music seems to be from the original Predator film. Even at the end, as out of place as it is, I really liked it No "Get to tha choppa!" but there's the music from the other choppa, so that's good enough for me. That and the very early re-introduction to chaingun carnage in deep forest vegetation already scored some points. Of course, music and bullets will never make a film, and Adrien Brody is no Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm not even sure if that's how you spell it.

The characters involved in the film aren't totally developed, but that can be forgiven, seeing as how you'd expect as much from a film where one expects most of them to die off really quickly anyway. Early on you'll be able to tell who are the "main" ones and which of the others are really just fodder for the shoulder-cannon-toting extraterrestrials.

Trivia: The term "Xenomorph" is used to describe the "Aliens" from Alien (duh) and AVP, but there are no definitive term for Predators. However, "Yautja" is used in some books I have read, and I believe another one is "Hish".

Early on, I turn to my buddy and go "That's Eric Foreman, right?" "Yeah, Venom.". Still weird.

Many new things are introduced to the Predator universe in this movie, not least the "dogs" that are seen in some early shots that a few people have seen a while back. Writing this now, it strikes me that they look alarmingly like Felhunters from World of Warcraft. This, of course, must surely mean that Warlocks will be able to spec into Predator come the newest expansion. Hmm, tempting.

No classic things like self-destruct mini-nukes or Xena flying discs or telescopic spears though. Pity.

The plot isn't the strongest, but then when has a Predator film been based on one? That being said, though, it isn't stupid, though a few spots will leave you scratching your head in confusion. Think about it later, however,  and most of it makes sense. Some things like the rather convenient placement of certain weapons may raise a few eyebrows, but one could probably jot that down to some reasonable explanation, but still. That and the aforementioned Felhunters seem to have god-like endurance. One or two other things other than character vitality can be guessed early on, but that doesn't detract from the film too much. I actually called something the minute it happened, and was rather pleased when I was right, but then the manner of which it played out was a nice surprise, though admittedly strange.

Final verdict? If you're a fan of the Predator universe, you'll probably like it. It's still a long, long way away from the first one, and if you take the whole crossover universe into account, it would rank fourth, behind that and the first two Alien movies (singular and plural).