On the streaming platform Hulu released a fantastic movie “Prey”. The uninformed viewer will not recognize the Predator prequel in this title, but that’s exactly what it is. After an unsuccessful sequel in 2010 and a controversial 2018 remake, Cloverfield 10 director Dan Trachtenberg apparently decided not to associate his new work with the famous franchise, so he released a film with a neutral title. What came of it and whether the picture is worthy of attention, read the reviews below.
Genre Fantasy, Horror, Action, Thriller, Adventure
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
Cast : Amber Midthunder, Dane Dillego, Geronimo Vela, Stephanie Mathias
Hulu release
Release year 2022
IMDb site
1719. Great Plains of North America. A Yautja spaceship appears in the habitats of the Comanche Indian tribe. The alien object flies away almost immediately, but leaves the Predator on Earth. A guest from distant stars is on this planet for the first time. His goal is to hunt local life forms. Starting with snakes, wolves and bears, the Predator moves on to humans. To stop the elusive killer and save her tribe, the hunter girl Naru (Amber Midthunder) has to use not only strength and dexterity, but also cunning and ingenuity.
After the official announcement of the start of work on the painting, Dan Trachtenberg spoke of a return to basics. Director and screenwriter Patrick Eison (Wayward Pines, Kingdom, Jack Ryan) decided to take the original 1987 Predator-hunting human film and set it back 300 years. Instead of a masculine protagonist, they took a fragile but savvy girl whom the Yautja does not even consider a threat, the Vietnamese jungle was replaced by the wild nature of America, and the US soldiers were replaced by Comanche Indians and French colonists.
In addition to the well-known antagonist, “Prey” has retained all the familiar elements of the franchise and clearly works in the field of fan service. The 300-year-old Yautja, although it looks slightly different, is sure to show the audience his famous weapon with three laser dots, infrared vision and taking the target into a triangle, self-healing and luminescent blood. The sound elements have not been forgotten either, so here and there the characters hear the familiar chirping of the Predator.
At the same time, the authors showed the viewer more shots with the Yauja and even revealed the details of his hunt. We see that the alien spends the night in a cave, collects the skulls of his victims and kills small predators first, gradually moving on to larger victims. So he more effectively explores a new world for himself and makes hunting as safe as possible.
The first trailer for The Prey wasn’t impressive, so expectations weren’t high. The strong main character was also embarrassing, which meant that a fashionable agenda was outlined about an omnipotent woman who copes with all problems no worse than the stronger sex. The beginning of the film really showed a young girl, Naru, who wants to become a hunter of her tribe on an equal footing with men. But apart from a few phrases about gender equality, there were no fem agendas. Naru’s desires did not coincide with reality – it turned out that she was significantly weaker than the male hunters. Therefore, the heroine trains a lot, ties axes with ropes so that it is easier to throw them and takes the enemy not by force, but by ingenuity.
Prey has a relatively small cast, but all the parts are well-played and the characters are as empathetic as a genre can be. The main character, played by Amber Midthunder, has Native American roots, as do the other actors who play Comanche roles. As the story progresses, Naru makes a number of mistakes, and sometimes behaves completely illogically. Most likely, in this way the writers wanted to show the Predator’s clear advantage over the main protagonist, as well as raise the stakes for the girl herself.
The new Predator film is, for the most part, briskly and spectacularly shot. True, the first half hour of events unfold too slowly, so you have to be patient, admire the epic nature of North America and get to know the customs of the Indians better. From the second third of the film, events are gaining momentum and rush at a spectacular gallop until the finale.
“Production” passed the wide release and was immediately released in digital, which indicates a modest budget. The picture is definitely inferior in terms of graphics to the two previous films in the series, but it definitely outperforms them in the game of actors, the script, the adequacy of the plot and the production of fights. Worst of all, the creators turned out to be drawn animals, and the larger the animal, the more painful it is to look at. Against this background, the Predator himself looks realistic and ominous, but his image sometimes lacks little things.
The tightness of money affected the quality and atmosphere of some of the film’s violent scenes. At the moments of the bloody murders of the Yauja, the camera seems to step aside, showing only a part of what is happening or only making it clear what happened. Past films of the franchise could afford to highlight such moments and, conversely, zoom in on the camera in the most ruthless scenes. Such murders even became a kind of element of all Predators. In “Production” they tried to convey them as best they could, but it turned out far from what we would like.
