Fortunately, Predators is a very good and highly enjoyable film. It is easy to see what director Nimrod Antal has gone for here. He has brought the franchise full circle, back to its roots - a bunch of tough guys sporting over the top weaponry running around in a jungle from an invisible Predator. It was this concept which made the original great, so whilst it offers nothing new in the evolution of the Predator universe, nor does it enhance our understanding of these creatures, it does stick with what it knows best. And with that, makes it very difficult to balls up.
In this outing we are not subjected to the jungles of Earth, rather, Predators sees eight humans - military personnel and criminals - abducted and air-dropped onto an alien world. These people, representing humanity's own most vicious predators, quickly band together to ensure their survival, all the while being stalked by an invisible enemy. What comes next is a myriad of suspense punctuated by loud gunfire as one-by-one the humans are picked off.
Upon first glance at the cast one might raise an eyebrow at the casting of Adrien Brody as main tough guy. Certainly, Brody nowhere near fills Schwarzenegger's extra large fatigues, but when the shirt finally does come off it is clear that the otherwise scrawny figure has logged some serious gym time. Other than Royce (Brody), the supporting cast are not particularly fleshed out, as would be expected with this kind of movie. Given that they're all there merely to die anyway, this is understandable. Subsequently they all fall into generic archetypes. Further, to add some sense that these humans represent all of Earth rather than just plucked from the United States, they all come under painfully clichéd stereotypes. We have the South American member of a drug cartel (Trejo), the humongous beast from the east sporting a fuck-off chain gun (Taktarov), African Death Squad murderer (Ali), the silent Japanese dude who is instantly obvious as a member of the Yakuza (Changchien) and redneck serial-killer on death row (Goggins).
There is also a brief cameo from Laurence Fishburne who plays a crazed survivor from a previous hunt, but the only other character in the film to gain a bit of character development is Alice Braga's heroine IDF sniper. Otherwise the film focuses on Brody's lone-gun efforts. As for the Predators themselves, again this film misses an opportunity to explain them further. We still don't know why an Alien species which has achieved space flight is so obsessed with big game hunting. Consequently, the Predators are merely conceived in terms of how bad-ass they look.
Predators is never dull and bounds along at a frantic pace. One of the more interesting scenes was where the Yakuza character Hanzo takes on a Predator with his samurai sword. Whilst in one sense it is quite cool, it does require you to suspend belief over how ridiculous it is. Equally, and perhaps more humorously is where psycho-murderer, Stans, uses his prison shank on a Predator screaming "die, space faggot!". Unlike the 1987 Predator, Predators relies more on short bursts of intense violence rather than making it one big gore feast. This is producer Robert Rodriguez's influence, who back in 1994 penned the film's script before handing it over to Antal to refine further. What Predators amounts to is essentially 'Predator 3'. However, unlike anything previous post-Predator, this is actually a very welcome addition to the franchise.
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