The origin story of the Predator in the world of the Comanche Nation 300 years ago. Naru, a skilled female warrior, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly-evolved Predators to land on Earth.
This is indeed the weirdest movie in an already weird franchise. The Predator movies have never been the absolute box office hits but always been in the second row of Hollywood action spectacles. Still they are on everybody’s mind. We know them. They are neither horror, scifi, nor alien movies. As shown pretty obviously in this latest installment.
The monster/hunter/alien, his abilities and modus operandi are well-known. Also his motivation, which is a rather weak one: You see for the predators this is but a hunting safari on godforsaken strange planets, where they seek out their prey. It’s a bit like like spoiled rotten American lawyers are driven on a African game farm where their trophy lion is presented to them on a silver platter. All they gotta do is pulling the trigger.
Ok, compared to that the predators give their victims a fighting chance, albeit a small one. Then they go on, killing their prey with vastly superior technology and a handy stealth mode. So in this movie a bunch of French trappers/bullies in 1719 are no match for the predator.
But maybe an even more primitive hunting party of comanche indians? Not really, no. But maybe the erroneous little girl which kinda sneeked her way into the hunting party?
Bingo! Naru (Amber Midthunder) and her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) are indeed capable of almost killing the superior professional trophy hunting predator (Dane DiLiegro). Taabe is getting himself killed so the final honour falls to Naru. Convenient, innit?
Yes, it’s all a bit weird and completely unrealistic. But at least does Naru miss the Mary Sue trap at hairwith but falls victim to a woke screenplay and more or less only takes care of the predator killing himself in Naru’s smart trap. \o/ YAY! for human female intelligence! \o/
CONCLUSION: A silly flick. Even in this basically silly franchise. It fails to tick any boxes but still I found it well worthy of spending 1.5 hours of my not so valuable time with it. I’m a fan of technically good filmmaking, and since the director Dan Trachtenberg and DP Jeff Cutter created a visually and atmospherically tight movie, that appeared at times like a anthrophologial documentary and was filmed in original locations in the great northern plains in Canada. Also all the Indians were real and there exists a full Comanche language version somewhere. But then the 21th century slang and diction of the young cast contradicts all the attempts for authenticity. And the wokeness killed it! 😦
So in the end Prey is a mixed bag.
Thar She Blows! 
I loved it.
Lifelong Predator fan. Like really.
My first cosplay when I was 13, at a sci Fi con was Predator. My main cosplay I built that cost close to $1000 in equipment to make, Is Predator.
I’ve won many awards for my costume. I have written Predator fan fics, and I have even tried to get an AvP script submitted to Fox many moons ago.
Many people will just tell you flat out “anything is better than 2019’s The Predator”.
Yea, OK. Fair point.
But taking Prey on its own, without comparing it to the abysmal 2019 movie, Prey is outstanding.
The visuals are incredible. The aerial shots, wide panning views… Just lovely.
The characters are interesting. I liked Taabe maybe a little more than Naru. I think most people liked the dog the most, and he was pretty awesome.
It does start off a bit slow, developing the characters without much action . But when the action starts…. It doesn’t let up for a minute.
Are there some unbelievable elements? Sure maybe, I guess. Naru figures something out in the movie that many people think she shouldn’t have been able to figure out, but I don’t see why. She’s intelligent enough to connect A to B.
(actually that happens more than once).
I will never understand why producers and art designers continually to choose to redesign the Pred face. I get it, they want different, but I feel like they continue to move farther and farther away from the perfect standards of P1 & P2, which does upset most die hard fans of the character.
Overall, I loved Prey. It’s a fantastic installment to a struggling franchise.
Hope they make another one.
And if Trachtenberg wants to have a discussion with me about my AvP movie script….. I’m available!
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I only remember having watched one Predator movie yet, the one with Adrien Brody and Laurence Fishburne. Hubby claims we’ve watched another one, I can’t remember at all.
You shouldn’t give up submitting scripts for further Predator movies, god knows they need better material.
Overall the idea was what I liked most about Prey, the anthropological angle of it deserved a better, less woke, less cartoonish screenplay.
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Nope… I went to high school with the very first person to die in the very first Predator film*, so that will always be the best to me.
*Shane Black, now super famous director. He also wrote Lethal Weapon.
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“the very first person to die in the very first Predator film*, so that will always be the best to me.”
So, you hate that guy with a passion?
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No. I love the start of a career he very much deserved.
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😉
I, of course intentionally, misunderstood your post in the sense that you liked that movie best because that guy was deaded in it. :)))
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Sorry… my senses of humor and irony seemed to be off.
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