Director: Nimrod Antal
Adrien Brody – Royce | Topher Grace - Edwin | Alice Braga – Isabelle | Walton Goggins - Stans | Oleg Taktarov – Nikolai | Laurence Fishburne – Noland | Danny Trejo – Cuchillo | Louis Ozawa Changchien -Hanzo | Mahershalalhashbaz Ali – Mombasa | Carey Jones – Berserker Predator / Tracker Predator / Falconer Predator | Brian Steele - Black Super Predator / Falconer Super Predator | Derek Mears – Classic Predator
————————————————————-
This film excited me with trailers and hype and my own anticipation.
Then I saw it.
Now?
Now I just want to watch the original and remind myself of what it was like to have a great Predator film.
When I first read Robert Rodriguez was doing the next Predator film I was sure the franchise would be in safe hands. He’s an accomplished director with a distinctive style and no stranger to hugely creative and over-the-top gun fights (guitar case rocket launcher!). As it turned out, Rodriguez wrote and produced the film with directorial duty handed over to the curiously named Nimrod Antal. Still, Rodriguez wrote it so not too much to worry about.
Then, after reading a three star review of the film on Empire’s website my excitement (and expectation) was curbed a little but I was still convinced I’d see a worthy rebirth and/or advancement of a franchise that had captured the imaginations of viewers and had an established universe thanks to some fantastic novels (‘Prey’, ‘Hunter’s Planet’ & ‘War’) yet had been criminally short-changed in the TERRIBLE Aliens Vs. Predator films.
Sadly, Empire was right. Predators is utterly unambitious and sits squarely in the exact same ‘fun-mindless-action-watch-once-and-forget’ genre of cinema occupied by its AvP forebears. It’s by no means as bad a film as either of the AvPs but it is big disappointment for anyone expecting originality or, at the very least, some development of the Predators culture and character.



