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So, yeah, Predators, with all its bizarre casting choices. First off, Hollywood needs to stop casting Alice Braga as a young, tough, misunderstood woman. Yes, she's only a year older than me, but she looks like she's in her late thirties, at least. As for the tough thing, she was more questionable than Topher Grace or Adrien Brody. I'm not kidding, she just seemed really, really out of place. It's not because women can't be strong, it's because she never acts like she's strong. This is in part to the writing where they have her crying at one point, and being taken advantage of (her sympathy and emotions, not physically). She's supposed to be tough, though... Sure. I'm not saying tough people can't have emotions. What I'm saying is that tough people shouldn't be this emotional when the situation calls them to be tough. If you're running for your life from a group of aliens that are hellbent on killing you, are you really going to stop and try to save a guy with a broken leg, not knowing him, but knowing that your life depends on leaving him? Yes, we'd all want to save the person, but there are situations (especially in, say, military operations) where it isn't always feasible.
Then you have the tough guy cast as a tough guy. Danny Trejo as a Columbian Drug Kingpin Enforcer. Danny Trejo is awesome in almost everything he's in. Including this, for all of five minutes that he's in it. Something makes up for it, though. Derek Mears, known for playing monsters such as Jason Vorhees and Chameleon from The Hills Have Eyes 2. He's only in this for about five minutes, too, though. At least his fate isn't cheaply done like Trejo's was.
What's interesting is that the big gripe in casting I have was the convict. My gripe is this: he was a bigger waste of time than Topher Grace's character. The only time he fights back is towards the end of the movie. Most of the time he just gripes.
Oddly enough, Brody and Grace were easily the human highlights in this movie. Brody isn't cast as a tough guy, but more of a tactician, and he plays it brilliantly, too. Grace's character... well, I don't want to ruin that. Most of the acting was pretty well done (especially one twist that made me just groan... not from stupidity though), but again, sometimes it comes off as a little off. One character has an invisible friend, and it seems completely out of place for this movie.
If there's something I can say for the story, its this: It's Predator on a different planet. Oh, they hint at some Predator history, such as mentioning the first movie's events, and a civil war, but they're merely mentioned and tossed aside. Why? A Predator civil war could be really interesting. Instead, it leads to the same ending fight that we had before (save for the conclusion), and nothing is made of it. In speaking of that, the ending of that was pretty comical. Not to film makers: physics doesn't work like that, people will fall in the direction they're being hit into. Also, the spoons in hand grenades need to be taken out for the grenade to detonate. Anyone from Basic Training would tell you this.
I can say with certainty that this wasn't a great movie, but its a step above the AVP movies. It's a little better than Predator 2, but it's hard to see that it isn't just the first movie done with different concepts in a similar setting. I'd say don't see it in theaters unless you have a discounted price (like I did today), but do go see it still. And don't expect anything different than the first movie. It's a step in the right direction, but we need something both faithful and new. Just hinting at interesting aspects of this alien race's history and culture isn't enough.
I give it 4.5 out of six skull trophies.
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