Prey - Cal’s Review - 6/10
I hate to review this so low because it is definitely the better of the recent predator movies, but there was just too much working against it for me to be able to fully enjoy it.
The first what feels like half of the film is a bunch of excessive build up and exposition which felt needless at this stage in the viewers understanding of Predator, I get that it's a prequel, but it was just slow and played out, it wasn't necessary and it immediately sets the movie off to a start that you don't feel any care for.
I liked that the progression throughout the film for predator as well as the leading actress and tribe member was almost mirrored in them both learning how to survive, figuring out new ways to battle and fight etc. However I found myself not really caring at all about the human/tribe element, it felt basic, not very authentic and kind of cheap looking, it felt like watching a drama class dressed up as a tribe acting out a scene a lot of the time, it was dull. The locations and settings were awesome, but the performances and general story was 'meh' at best.
There was too much reliance on the predator reveal as if we hadn't seen it before, it was still sort of cool and he of course looks fairly different to usual, but it felt like they wanted a big 'boom' moment when really it was just like an.. 'oh, nice' kinda feeling. The CGI for his invisibility and jumping about later on in the film was also pretty poor, and then with the bear... If you know you know, my good lord, it's not world ending but it does pull you out of the immersion.
The action in the latter half was pretty dope, some of the kills that happen around the end of the film with predator absolutely decimating people with an array of weaponry was epic, it was shot really well with some awesome settings and scapes, and even earlier in the film, any time you see predator battling it out somewhere, it's cool man! It just felt like these parts of the movie were just about the only good parts, everything else felt like a complete drag-through that you just have to slump over to get to the cool action sequences. It was 'simple' and granted the latter half of the movie picking up the pieces left by the start of the film is good, it just feels like too little too late, it's around 90 minutes of runtime give or take, and I think I enjoyed maybe like 20 minutes of it, tops.
I think the ending culmination/fight will be a coin flip for whether you like it or not, I didn't. I loved the way it was shot, very handheld/close to the action, some awesome ideas, I guess.. it just felt super convenient, it didn't feel like they had built up the humans skills enough in the film yet for her to somehow take on this big invisible alien beast that can hunt and destroy almost everyone and every thing else in this movie with advanced weaponry and instincts as if it is light work, and then suddenly she bamboozles him with a somehow perfectly set up trap involving his own equipment, a dog that consistently turns up out of nowhere, and some basic tribe weapons. It was very 50/50 for me, it *was* good action, I just didn't *believe* in it, I didn't feel like that would truly be how that fight would go, it was an ending they needed and they did anything to get it.
But eh, it is what it is, some people seem to be loving this movie and I'm glad they are! It has a lot of positive elements if you kind of brainlessly watch it and want some dope action, but if you're expecting a great film, this isn't it.
6/10.
