“Predators” (2010)
Rating: 
The good news is that this is the best “Predator” movie since the original … though still not quite as good as the first. It’s well made and well cast, there’s plenty of action, and it’s not a gawdawful special effects orgy.
The bad news is that, despite the production values and strong cast it’s still … well … kind of boring.
The story is that a bunch of mercenaries, soldiers, convicts, and more or less the worst people on earth get scooped up by the Predators and parachuted onto their game preserve on some planet. There they figure out that they are the “game” and are being hunted, from which point it’s the classic hunter vs. hunted kind of deal.
Adrien Brody is pretty good as the de-facto leader of the earthlings. He’s got that detached violence kind of aura down pretty well so he works in the role. But he’s almost too dry … it’s tough to give a damn about if his character lives or dies. Especially since we all know he’ll make it since he’s the lead actor.
Laurence Fishburne appears about half way through as a survivor of ten seasons of the hunt. He tries to play as if he’s gone nuts in the jungle, but that kind of acting isn’t his forte and it simply doesn’t work.
Topher “Spiderman” Grace is the real surprise. I won’t give away the hook but he had me fooled the whole movie.
There are a bunch of inconsistencies in the film. Like how the alien ship was able to lift off when no one in the group knows how to fly it. Like how they possibly expect to get back to earth when none can fly a space ship nor work the alien navigation nor work the ships weapons so they can deal with the other alien ships which no doubt are flitting about. Like the whole “two races of predators” thing. Like how the predators are so advanced yet don’t even set up motion detectors in their own camp after the earthlings penetrated it once early in the film.
The biggest problem still is that it’s tough to care about anyone in the cast. Walter Goggins who plays the convict “Stans” is probably the most interesting of the cast to watch, but he’s such a despicable character it’s hard to care about him getting offed. All the characters have seen the worst of warfare, yet being “the hunted” doesn’t seem to affect them much personally.
If there’s nothing else new showing, this isn’t a bad flick to see. Very good production values, a couple of surprises, and a good cast make this a solid 3-star showing.
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