Predators review.

I went to see ‘Predators’and was very excited. The film hadn’t had much press, and there wasn’t even a poster for it on the outside of the cinema; hell I only even got wind of it a few months ago, so I was a bit suspicious to say the least. I have just read that it didn’t have a great budget, but saying that it is 2010, 23 years after the first one, and the special effects were better in that! At first when I heard the soundtrack I was happy that it was all the recognisable jungle stuff , but then as the film progressed I started to get annoyed that there had been no addition to it whatsoever; even the song over the credits was ‘Long Tall Sally’. It made me think that the film had literally just been made for die hard fans, that had a gaping hole in their lives where there hadn’t really been a decent Predator sequel ever. Some scenes were literally cloned from the first movie, which again was nice as a homage, but there were far too many. The actors weren’t believable enough in their roles; a couple were supposed to be some really nasty characters, but here they just appeared as quivering wrecks. Also, 2 of the characters being in the film didn’t make any sense whatsover. Firstly the Lawrence Fishburne character who not only could have been left out of the whole film, but for someone who had made it through “10 seasons” without being killed, died very very quickly and far too easily. Then there was the doctor, who it sounded like was brought in, with all these macho types, to be on hand when one of them needed medical attention. This wasn’t the case however, and at the end of the film it is revealed that he was some sort of mad person; what the hell was that all about??!! At no other point in the film was this suggested or hinted at, so for what purpose did they put it in? Then there’s the fact that they are on another planet, and not once does anyone say ‘bull****, there’s no such things as aliens and alien worlds’ they all just accept that they are in a “game reserve on some far off planet”; not even a mention of “it’s gotta be a dream”. Special effects, oh my, I haven’t seen fire like that since some of the early Disney animations; I even heard several people in the audience laughing because it was such a cheap effect. Unlike the first predator, played by the sadly deceased 7’ 2” Kevin Peter Hall, these predators were only around 6’ 5” – 6’ 7” in height, and it showed. The only thing that kept the film slightly together was the use of the oscar winning actor ‘Adrien Brody’, who if it wasn’t for him, this could have gone straight to DVD as far as I was concerned