Between the tag-team review that Renn and Nick did last week and the write-ups some of my fellow CHUD Bloggers have been offering up in
their respective blogs about the movie Predators, it seems rather
redundant for me to deliver yet another blast of white noise that’ll
just vanish into the ether with the rest of the reviews filling up the
internet.

Instead, what follows is just a list of the top six things I loved
about the film when I saw it this past Saturday (beware possible
spoilers):

1. The Alan Silvestri Score

Five minutes into the opening scene – Adrien Brody has landed and is investigating his surroundings.  I suddenly perk up and tilt and ear
towards the ceiling…  Is that–?  Is that the original Predator theme
I hear playing?  Holy crap, it is!  This immediately put a huge grin on
my face and set the tone (and my mood) for the rest of the film.

2. Adrien Brody – Badass.

I was extremely impressed with how well Adrien Brody was able to pull off playing such a tough, mercenary character so convincingly.  I remember the first time I saw him – he was growing out of an arm in a Tori Amos video.  One retarded Villager and a handful of much better roles later and here he is with a cold demeanor and taking out ugly motherfuckers.

3. Laurence Fishburne Be Crazy!

I know the trailers faked us all out into thinking that Cowboy Curtis was a mainstay of our misplaced misfits, but it turned out that that was just a red herring (like the bazillion laser dots on Brody’s person).  Truth is, I actually preferred Fishburne’s glorious cameo over giving him full runtime in the film.  Manic and fun to watch, it was Morpheus was really enjoying his character.  It kind of reminded me of the one really good thing the War of the Worlds remake had going for it – the Tim Robbins cameo.

4. Gettin’ the Shiv

One of the surprising moments in the film that had me rooting and laughing the most was during the scene when Walter Goggins’ character Stans gets taken out by a plasma blast to the back.  But, just when our hunter thinks it’s safe to refocus his attention to the rest of our survivors, the death row inmate proves that all those years not being a prison bitch have paid off.  Suddenly Stans is on the predator like a backpack, shiving the ever-loving piss out of him.  I have to give this scene props for the originality and sheer awesomness of this attack.  You don’t mess with convicted felons.  They play dirty.

5. The Moment of Zen

One thing I noticed that was prevalent in Predators was the fact that Robert Rodriguez knew what worked from the first film- so much that he lifted a number of moments from the it almost verbatim, but giving them a slight modification so that they weren’t direct lifts.  My favourite of these was the scene where Yakuza member Hanzo decides it’s time to stop running and face his opponent.  Almost a direct repeat of the scene from the first film when Billy has his final face-off with their pursuer.  In fact, when Hanzo drew the sword, I was expecting him to draw a big, bloody slice across his chest.  What we got instead was what was missing from that first iteration – the actual showdown.  Ancient katana versus alien wrist blade in a well-choreographed, one-on-one battle.  It was just a blast to watch these two warriors lock blades in the middle of a grassy field.  Between this and the shiv, I will argue that Rodriguez actually did bring a couple of new tricks to the table for this film.

6. Tying It All Together

Though it may or may not be a plot hole to whomever watches the movie, when Alice Braga’s character refers to the recovery unit that went to Guatemala in 1987, I got stupid-happy.  Was it necessary?  No.  But what it was was a confirmation that Robert Rodriguez loved the first film and that this was his love letter to those of us who also loved it.

I really enjoyed this film as a whole.  Spiritually, I thought it was a perfect successor to the first movie.  I thought it captured the essence of whshshthesssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….

Oops, there it is.  White noise.  Sorry.