By Fred Topel | Image property of 20th Century Fox
Predators
Predators is just pure awesome. From the cold open through every little trick it pulls, it’s just the kind of big, fun movie I want to see. I don’t even have any attachment to Predator. It wasn’t my favorite early Arnold movie compared to The Running Man, Terminator and Commando. Predators still made me so happy to see grown men fighting monsters in the jungle.
Review: Predators
The opening really does a great job getting things off and running. It’s a quick, hard introduction and the process of gathering the characters together begins. It’s fast, fun and I love hearing the sound of equipment clicking as they walk through the jungle.
There’s a boyish quality to all the fun action. Booby traps always make me giddy. They have to use teamwork to defend themselves and survive the hostile environment. They have to jump another waterfall. There’s some Predator on Predator in there too.
There’s more action than any other summer movie. It just knows how to move forward packing the conflicts in. When the camera shakes, it still manages to keep the actors in the frame. Then you get steady wide shots and overhead angles to establish who is there and where they are.
They’re fun characters going to extremely messed up places. They figure out their situation intuitively. It’s not all exposition. Different characters get to fight Predators with their own unique styles and you’ll love some of the ones that take front and center. They make smart decisions. Amoral ones, but smart.
Ah, the Predator vision. There’s always something special about seeing that. Any movie that ever used heat vision since is just a knock off of Predator vision. Even real army guys who use heat visors are just a knock off of Predator vision. They collect their gory trophies and go invisible just like we like our Predators.
There are cool landscapes, cool new beasts (even if they are CGI), it moves through many different environments. They just packed Predators with fun.
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