“Prey” was released on Friday, Aug. 5, and is the seventh installment in the Predator franchise. The film is a prequel to the other films, taking place in the Northern Great Plains of North America in 1719. The story follows a Comanche tribe, specifically a warrior named Naru, played by Amber Midthunder. Also featured is Naru’s brother, Taabe, played by Dakota Beaver, the Predator played by Dane DiLiegro and Naru’s dog, Sarii, played by American Dingo, Coco. Impressively, Coco had no movie training before the movie. The movie sticks to the Predator franchise’s tried and true form, the predator arrives on earth to hunt for sport and the Comanche tribe must be protected. The film is available for free on Hulu.
The Good:
Action films can almost always be enjoyed for the pure fact that they are action films. There is something entertaining about watching someone overcome the impossible with explosions and fighting galore. Naru is a fairly well fleshed-out character and Midthunder does an excellent job portraying a female protagonist who feels tired of being continually sidelined by her tribe members. She accomplishes this all while not falling victim to the common trope in modern entertainment, where a female protagonist feels simply there for the goal of pandering. The cinematography is beautiful, with a large number of gorgeous shots of the Great Plains and what they would have looked like in the early 18th century. Many of the shots feel reminiscent of an Albert Bierstadt painting. There must, of course, be credit given to the focus on practical effects when it came to the Predator costume. In the modern entertainment industry, there seems to be too much of a reliance on Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). The use of practical effects can help create a sense of realism, as Midthunder said in an interview on The Empire Film Podcast, “It’s so neat cause it’s not acting to a tennis ball on a stick. I’m looking at a real The Predator in front of me, you know? With the teeth and the eyes and the skin color, and they put this goop on him that when he touches me it's gross.” On top of all this, there is good chemistry between the characters that deserve an honorable mention.
The Bad:
Naru is a well-fleshed character who is portrayed well for most of the movie. That is the extent of developed characters. In comparison to the original seven characters of the first Predator film who were easily able to be identified with and whose motivations were clear, this does not ring true in this prequel film. Taabe is Naru’s older brother, aside from that, he is a successful warrior in the tribe. That is the extent of Taabe that is covered, the other warriors of the tribe are so unimportant their names will be forgotten long before their death at the hands of the Predator. While there is nothing wrong with a movie focusing solely on a single protagonist, this movie attempts to make clear that the other characters are important and that their unavoidable deaths at the hand of the extraterrestrial threat should make you feel something. Yet, it fails to make you feel anything when these characters meet their demise. The secondary antagonist of the film is a group of French trappers, we spend maybe 20 minutes of the film with these characters, whose simple role is to provide bodies for the Predator to tear apart. The pointlessness of these characters is shown by their names in the cast list, including Big Beard and Waxed Mustache. This leads to the ugly, where “Prey” makes the same mistake as most of its predecessors.
The Ugly:
“Prey” is the seventh film in the Predator franchise, that should be enough to tell you the ugly of this movie. Hollywood has become a giant soup of rehashed property, over and over, the same entertainment properties are used. Instead of original ideas, initially, popular IP is reused until it is but a shadow of its original masterpiece. The movies go from being a strawberry to a strawberry-flavored soda, a mere shadow of the original. “Prey” falls victim here just like many other franchises. We see the same familiar alien with the same familiar story, instead, the suspension of disbelief has to go even further in this movie. Instead of a team of seven trained military members who barely win and suffer losses, we are faced with a teenage girl who singlehandedly handles the highly trained hunter with an ax tied to a rope. However, unlike the original, where the victory is completely by luck, “Prey” falls, well prey, to the use of a Deus ex machina. Another trope that is sadly all too common in modern-day entertainment.
Conclusion:
“Prey” is easy to watch and digest, which speaks volumes about its content. The story contributes nothing to the already over used Predator franchise. If you are looking for a movie that you can put on and forget about a few weeks later, this movie is for you. However, as Hollywood continues its descent into parody of itself, “Prey” presents a middle-of-the-road action movie and another dot on the Predator franchise. Instead of communicating something deeper or having a conversation of the triumph of the human spirit, we are faced with some beautiful nature shots, some cool action sequences and a predictable ending. To quote multiple Predator movies, including this one, “If it bleeds we can kill it.” The movies may not bleed, but it is looking like there is a way to kill this franchise. I give it two out of five gator tails.