I’ve made no bones about my problems with fanfilm makers, and Sandy Collora has long been the epitome of why I don’t like these guys: if you’re going to waste all that time and money, do something original. It’s such a shocking lack of imagination to dress your friends up in comic character costumes and have them act out scenarios like action figures. And that’s what Collora did with Batman: Dead End, which had all the art of a 12 year old playing with his Batman and his Predator toys at the same time.
Now Collora has made a feature length film, Hunter Prey, that’s almost sort of original. Sure, the outfits worn by the soldiers are obviously modified Clone War armor, and sure the setting is just Tattooine. And hey, the plot is simply Predator meets Pitch Black with a dash of the corporate hoohah from Alien… but at least Collura is reappropriating these concepts and characters and not recreating them wholesale. That’s progress!
Hey, good for Collora for making a movie. He actually took the fanfilm buzz and did something with it, and didn’t wait around for Warner Bros to just give him a tentpole directing job, which is something I think a lot of fanfilm types think will happen. And as someone who is a huge fan of exploitation films, I have no serious problem with movies that rip off other movies. But I wonder if this concept isn’t better served as a video game – am I really that interested in watching a bunch of faceless members of the 501st hunting down a guy in a latex mask for 90 minutes?