Released: August 2022
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Rated R
Run Time: 99 Minutes
Distributor: Disney/20th Century Studios/Hulu
Genre: Science Fiction/Action
Cast:
Amber Midthunder: Naru
Dakota Beavers: Taabe
Dane DiLiegro: Predator
Stormee Kipp: Wasape
Michelle Thrush: Aruka
Julian Black Antelope: Chief Kehetu
Stefany Mathias: Sumu
Sometimes a movie franchise gets too big it loses its way. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen. It happens to some of the most beloved franchises like Star Wars. The sequel trilogy was a mish-mash of bad ideas and sometimes worse execution. But it’s also happened to franchises like The Fast and the Furious. I even see the same thing happening to Marvel’s MCU with Phase 4. There’s nothing wrong with a franchise being incredibly successful. I celebrate that. But sometimes that success can get in the way of good story-telling. Studios with successful movies are always looking to make sequels that are bigger and better than the previous film, and sometimes they get hit with some cold water when those films don’t work. Alien is a perfect example of this. After one successful sequel, the franchise got not just one bad sequel(that I actually really liked, by the way), but two and two prequels that just didn’t quite work. Predator is the other big sci-fi franchise that went astray. I personally enjoyed the last film in the franchise, but by no means was it a good movie. In fact, it was the worst the franchise had ever seen. It left the door open for a sequel that people just weren’t going to have. After Disney bought 20th Century Fox, people were understandably worried about was going to happen with Alien and Predator. Well, I can tell you that with Prey, I think the franchise is in good hands.
Prey is set over 200 years before the events of the original Predator and follows young Comanche woman, Naru as she attempts to prove herself as a hunter. After discovering mysterious tracks, she decides to track whatever made them and encounters a creature unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. She also discovers that this beast is also a hunter, so it becomes a cat-and-mouse game to prove who will survive. THIS is the kind of story that we need from a Predator movie. It’s a simple and straight-forward kind of film. But it’s also an underdog tale and a coming-of-age story. The first 30 minutes are dedicated to character development, setting up conflicts within the tribe as well as the world around them. It was incredibly smart of Dan Trachtenberg to take this movie and set in the early 1700s. That way, you can’t cheat and have humans being to able take on an alien hunter with giant guns. Making the Comanche the center of this story was also a good idea. These people were born hunters that had to rely on what nature gave them. So using that and human ingenuity makes for a surprisingly exciting film.
Casting actual Native Americans in this movie was really the only option for this kind of story. This Amber Midthunder’s film, through and through. Seeing her struggle to be more than what her tribe demands her to be is one of the most compelling aspects of the movie. Everybody loves an underdog story, and this is about as underdog as you can get. She has to rely on her smarts and the environment around her to outsmart the alien hunter. Dakota Beavers plays her brother, Taabe, who obviously cares about his sister, but doesn’t feel that she’s ready to become a hunter. This dynamic also sets up other conflicts within the tribe that are interrupted when the Predator comes callin’. The guy they got to play the Predator brings a menace to the character that we really haven’t seen in a long time. Dane DiLiegro is almost 7 feet tall, but the way he carries himself in the film makes him kind of scary, and that’s what we’ve been missing. I don’t think anybody’s going to win an Academy Award for their performance in this movie, but they’re all fantastic.
Again, giving our hero disadvantage of not having technologically advanced weaponry was smart. Naru had to rely on an axe that she swung around with a rope, which was really cool, but also bows, arrows, and the environment. That said, Arnold’s crew from the original movie had serious firepower but that didn’t really help them at all. Not against an alien that outsmarted them every step of the way. Bringing that kind of back-and-forth to this new movie was the right move to make. But they also made sure that the Predator didn’t rely on his gadgets a whole lot for a majority of the movie. A lot of the time, you see this Predator just using his bare hands, especially against a bear. That’s how bad-ass this thing is. The action is really good and boy is it brutal. While there’s a number of off-screen kills that happen, the kills are really creative here, especially with the weapons that the Predator has. This is a very violent movie in the best way possible. Seeing the Predator take on multiple groups of people single-handedly is awesome. It also helps that the cinematography here is outstanding. It’s one of the most beautifully shot movies I’ve seen. The landscapes are breathtaking as this movie was shot on location in Alberta, Canada.
There are a few small issues that I had with the movie. The third act of the film isn’t the strongest, but it’s still pretty good. Some of the CGI, though, isn’t that great. The bear in particular is painfully obvious. There is also the issue of releasing this movie straight to Hulu. I have an inkling of an idea why they did, and it’s understandable. The response to The Predator(the fourth film)was brutal. Nobody like that movie. It was badly written, the editing was horrendous. It wasn’t necessarily Shane Black’s fault that the movie was essentially taken from him. Yet, I think Prey could have benefitted from having a theatrical release. Maybe not super-wide, but in a more limited capacity. Honestly, I hope this movie finds its way to Blu-Ray/DVD because I would love to have a hard copy of this movie to add to my collection. As it stands now, it’s only available on Hulu. So, for the price of a gallon of gas, you get a month’s worth of Hulu goodness and Prey. Overall, I LOVE THIS MOVIE! It’s fantastic. It puts a Native American culture in the fore-front while making it a brutal sci-fi spectacle at the same time. I was not excited about this movie for the longest time, but then the trailers and the images started coming out, and I became more and more intrigued. Prey is the best Predator movie we’ve gotten since the original. The original film is still the best, mind you, but this is a close second. Bravo, Disney. Bravo. I can’t wait to see what they do next with the franchise. This is HIGHLY recommended, especially for Predator fans.