Prey

I will go against the flow. The Predator saga needed a return to the sources and uncomplicated simplicity, but this concept was completely at odds with my idea of effective filmmaking. Unlike the original, which is a textbook thriller where everything works perfectly, Prey doesn't work dramaturgically at all and mires the viewer in uninteresting dialogue, zero tension, absent character development and continuous action, but it becomes so routine in the first few minutes that it quickly gets boring. Moreover, the abundance of digital animals and CGI effects in places where they are not needed, makes it unbelievable. This was supposed to be the most natural Predator, instead it's the most artificial of them all. It’s not there. (10/08/2022)

Just my sort of Disney movie. No need to make a live action version of Pocahontas... Trachtenberg slowly but effectively builds the atmosphere in the style of the original Predator and carefully calculates where to pull out the trumps just at the right moment in the story. The camerawork, production design and the overall atmosphere swallows you up and doesn’t let you go for an instant in the second half. Midthunder is completely convincing as the young Indian girl and carries the entire movie effortlessly on her shoulders. Although the message that technique and details are much more important for killing than strength is rendered invalid with the pistol handed over at the end, which indicates what then had to happen in the epilog, but maybe the filmmakers are just preparing the ground for a sequel, who knows? (05/08/2022)

Dan Trachtenberg gave me a similar pleasure as he did with 10 Cloverfield Lane. Predator: Prey is a confidently made adventure horror film that isn't afraid to go its own way, and at the same time, I dare say it will please fans of Predator more than anything that came after the second film. And like 10 Cloverfield Lane, the trailers are pretty deceptive and the film ends up having a slightly different feel and pace than you might expect. Still, I think I enjoyed the first half more, where there's no rush to get anywhere and the Comanche setting is unadorned and quite attractive. And while there's no Arnold, these tough guys from the American plains aren't wimps either. The main character is also very easy to root for. What I enjoyed most, however, was the way Trachtenberg treats the Predator itself in the first half. It gets an unexpected amount of space here, and for the first time we get to see it properly as a hunter, and a very fierce and cruel one at that. The new Predator won't rewrite the history of the genre or the brand, but it's a well made and above all cleverly conceived film. The former is what we hoped for, the latter is what I personally didn't expect, and I'm all the more pleased about it. It was a success. (05/08/2022)

A straightforward intimate period survival "from the mud to the puddle and back to the mud again" that would stand on its own, especially when it is functionally, and not just for show, set in the Predator universe. It's not without many "buts" (the atmosphere should have been thicker, it could have done with even more reliance on practical effects instead of digital, at times it feels like an adaptation of a rebooted Tomb Raider, and the English language didn't need to be so overused), but who cares when it works so well. (06/08/2022)

Finally a sequel to Predator that is very similar to the legendary first film. It doesn't trump it in the depressing, sometimes even horror atmosphere, and of course not in the originality of the initial creative idea either, but Prey certainly doesn't put it to shame. The plot is relatively coherent (similar to the scheme of the first one), the hunter himself has plenty of space and a couple of scenes are really delicious. There’s the bear scene, already mentioned here, which is OK, but too digital. Paradoxically, the best scene IMHO is not led by the Predator, but by young Amber Midthunder, who at one point dispatches a couple of smirking sleazebags, and she does it nicely without a single cut, in a perfectly clear manner and with the right amount of explicit violence. Overall, the creators are not afraid of brutality, on the contrary. It's still a B movie, but it's ambitious, suspenseful, and for once even the average viewer can enjoy it. (08/08/2022)