Forum Member Reviews of Predators *Use Spoiler Tags!*

[fitzley]

With Predators coming out in a couple days, I figured it would be a good idea to make a thread where we can all post our reviews and thoughts on the movie.

When revealing plot points or major happenings in the film...don't forget to use those spoiler tags! (Out of respect to those who might not see it right away or hasn't been released in their area)

Only a couple more days for some of us!

[RaNdAlL]

Damn, its only coming out here on the 22nd of august  Judging from the reviews its looking pretty good, and I believe this thread will be full of them! 

Spoiler tags

^use 'em 

[fitzley]

Oops...forgot that posting in the news board puts it on the main page! Moved it here.

[Thedus]

I just made plans to see this on Saturday (July 10), so I'll share my thoughts over the weekend. 

[fitzley]

If all goes well, I will see it tomorrow night at midnight! Question is...should I have a couple beers before?

[Sebastian]

I'm faced with the same dilemma...
It's my girl's moving in party on Saturday, of which I will return to after the movie is over (which will be like 2AM). So I'm unsure wether I should have a few drinks before or not.

Probably won't though.

[Hubbs]

No drink!! it will fog your judgement

[dude]

As an alcoholic I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't encourage those to drink.

Depending on how pissed off or elated I am, it's not likely I'll be posting anything huge. But when the DVD comes out I'll definitely try to do a really lengthy behemoth review. I've contemplated doing it with one of the other films, but anything new I could provide would be in dot point.

[fitzley]

Tickets bought for tomorrow night...so I am going. The theater is right next to a bar and my friend insists on going there first...so poor judgment it is...my review tomorrow will be slightly suspect. 

[Hubbs]

5 and a half hours till I go now, omg! omg! omg! I'm actually nervous bahaha

[armlessman]

I'm not a good review writer but here you go.   

Predators was a reasonably enjoyable film. I was quite underwhelmed, mainly because I had high hopes but I think there was no way it could have measured up to the original. It also seemed like it was rushed.

The acting was good, special effects were also good and it was overall not too bad. I wasn't keen on the changes to some of the Pred's technology, you'll know what I mean when you see it.

The fight scenes were a little sloppy and left a feeling of disappointment.
The battle between Super Black and Classic Pred was pretty nice but the fight between Royce and Super Black started off well then ended up looking tacky when the loser was 'finished off'.

Fishburne's acting was excellent but Nolans role in this film ultimately felt completely unnecessary and pointless, the Classic Pred was a great addition but not really essential.

Most of the characters never really got to show what they were capable of and their deaths were predictable. There were a few things which made the film that much more entertaining as well as a surprise or two.

The references to the original I liked because they weren't overused and fit in quite well. Not a 100% sure but I think I noticed the skull of a queen and some aliens in the trophy camp. 

I would say it’s an ok film, nothing special but worth a look. I think I'll need to see it again some time just to make more sense of it.

[dude]

I've been sitting here for half an hour and I can't think of a way to put my thoughts down coherently.

The worst thing straight up was that we where not given the characters names aside from Nikolai, Roland Noland, Isabelle and Royce and with the last two, we find out their names during the third act. Which compared to the easily list-able original is a fucking disgrace. We learn the name of Goggins' sister but not his.

Walton Goggins was excellent and by far the best character and performance in the film. Honestly, I would've loved to have him in Dutch's team, you can tell Walt improvised most of his dialogue.

Runner up goes to Laurence Fishburne who plays a schizofrenic Col Kurtz. When he takes his Predator mask off to reveal his face, the entire audience burst into laughter because Morpheus was under the Predator mask and he had the biggest shit eating grin I've ever seen.

Third place is Alice Braga's sniper with a heart. Although, having fired a sniper rifle (Don't ask), it pissed me off that she did keep pressing her eye up against the scope, there was no recoil when she fired and that her left arm didn't shake with lactic acid build up after about ten seconds.

The rest are all solid and acceptable, but not without their faults. Trejo's epic "Does this look like a team orientated group of individuals to you?" was omitted leaving him with little to do. Topher Grace plays Eric Forman again, I kept expecting and hoping for Kurtwood Smith to show up and threaten to break his foot off in some asses. Oleg Tarktakov and Ali have good presence but aren't given much dialogue.

I guess it's time to address the white elephant cast member in the room. Adrien Brody. He's well.... good. He's more believable than old man Glover was, but he sure as shit doesn't even touch Arnie. I think a lot of people's minds will think Christian Bale when they hear his voice, but to me he played an American born Jason Statham without the swagger, hangover or screen presence. But again, I can't stress enough, that I didn't hate his performance, it was good.

Everyone will be as happy as I was to think that it may as well have been Alan Silvestri that scored the film because John Debney does it justice. Two minor flaws, occasionally the score will be note for note with a track from the original, but it wont sinc up with the happenings on the film, that dissapears quickly, secondly the rock version of the Predator theme when the Classic Predator suits up is kind of unintentionally funny.

Speaking of unintentionally funny Long Tall Sally at the end credits is just out of place with the more serious tone of the film. Not that it lacked laughs, there was quite a few, a lot of Walton Goggins' stuff will probably be quoted as often as Arnie.

I'm going to have to cut it short here, I'll be back with the rest tomorrow.

[Hubbs]

Predators (spoiler warning!)

From the off this film is very much in tone with the original Arnie vehicle, the entire musical score is the same as the first film just alittle more upbeat and its great, brings the whole thing home and makes you feel comfortable. As the film goes along there are hints at the first film, quite along speech about it actually this obviously tells us this is set after 'Predator' but I'm unsure if its before 'Predator 2' (I think after), there is also alittle idea taken from 'AvP' with the Predator wrist gauntlet tech using holographic images as seen in 'AvP'. There are plenty of other references to the first film throughout with scenes being taken straight from 'Predator', cam angles and 'pred vision' shots, dialog being used again....'over here!' 'turn around!' and the plot of course being virtually the same, but it works, this isn't a forced cash-in like AvP.

The plot as said is reworked and very predictable, you know whats gonna happen and you know who's gonna die and survive but that's not a problem, like the first film its been made well and has that gun totting, 80's testosterone filled madness which somehow works haha this film fits perfectly with 'Predator' and 'Predator 2' as it zips along...maybe alittle too fast.

The characters are decent and well acted, Fishburne being the best for me with his crazy ramblings and Goggins being creepy as hell haha unfortunately Brody is miscast and really can't do the hard man routine, both he and Braga try way too hard to be tough or 'Vasquez-like' and its abit cringing at times, personally for me that was a misfire. You do feel some characters needed more time to grow but I guess that could be put down to good writing as you wanna see more of them, Trejo's death was too soon and surprisingly spooky too haha wanted just abit more of him but the idea of a big name going down early is cool. Some things didn't quite work though, the Yakuza sword fight was too dark (AvP2 sprung too mind ) and it seemed abit 'tacked on', Hanzo just stops out of the blue and decides to stand and fight? also the ending reveal with Edwin (Grace) was abit shitty for me, I didn't like how that character turned out. I was also disappointed with Fishburne's character, why did he smoke the rest out? simply because he was mad?? abit odd that.

As for design and looks its 50/50, the Predators look awesome and devilish hehe they come across as eerie and powerful and their new look designs are really nice, cross pred tech with tribal mercs, almost like Predator bounty hunters, very cool. The super black pred (without mask)? jury's still out on that for me, his head seemed too big and he did still look kinda B-movie-ish
Classic pred was fudging spot on, absolutely perfect and shows what 'AvP's' preds should have looked like damn it, kudos to RR and co for getting that 100%, highlight of the film 
The down side was the game planet not being very 'alien like', it really didn't come across as an alien world accept for afew minor plants n bugs, could of done more there I think and maybe alittle more of previous hunts too, we had hints at that but I was aching to see other dead alien life and possible hints at Aliens or space jockeys haha maybe some more ancient human remains too (along with the samurai sword).

End of the day I really liked this new Predator chapter, despite some niggles it was damn good and I was pleasantly surprised after much worry hehe
The main issues I had were good ideas that weren't really taken advantage of and explored, Fishburne using predator tech being a glaring example of a seriously cool idea getting wasted. But it wrapped well with the possibility of a sequel to this chapter or of course an entirely new story set in the Predator universe, maybe acknowledging 'Predator 2' this time as it deserves it.

Total WIN!

[Dan]

Just got back from watching the movie, and I have to say I loved it. The epic shot of the spy bird flying back and the reveal of the preds was awesome! But a few things annoyed me..
1. The Predators where killed too easily
2. The Predators didn't use stealth
3. The Predators couldn't hit anything with there plasma cannons
4. Not enough gadgets for the preds!

But apart from that really impressed, I thought the acting was pretty good and the effects where harf decent (The Dogs where obvious CGI)
And I liked how humans where not the only things being hunted.
Overall 7/10 

[dude]

Question for those whove seen it:

In the death camp, was that an Alien skull being burnt?