Before They Were Dators

People seem to be referring to this as a Robert Rodriguez film. Interesting, as most people refer to films by their director, but this one is by the writer and producer. Was Nimród Antal nothing more than a hand puppet?

When people go see a movie with "Predators" in the title, and it's marketed as a sequel to Predator, let me ask you: what do you expect to see? If you say "aliens with weird crab like faces going around killing people", you'd be wrong. Barely a third of the movie is about that. The rest, ie bulk, of it is about the people, the other "predators", that are their, about how they get on with one another and how they survive.

And you know what? You'll be crying out "bring on the alien crab faces!" too! We don't care if the tough guys have families. We don't care if they are bad or good! Or even if they kill each other or kill Predators! We want to see the Predators! We want to see the Predators predating! Alien Crab-Faced Death already!

What we get of them is nicely done. Some upgrades in their tactics and some evolution of the Predators themselves (although I'm not sure they ever evolved kissing with faces like that). But since the movie is all about the every day predators that surround us, you'd be forgiven for not noticing.

Okay, okay, it's not all sob stories and in depth backgrounds. In most cases, we barely find out people's names. But we don't care! Adrien Brody, get out of the way! Alice Braga, down in front! Topher Grace, get on outa here! Their appearances might give an extra kick to their careers, but they aren't Predators!

A rather one-sided review, I'll admit, but really I'm complaining about how the build-up didn't meet the movie. Not the first time that's ever happened, I'm sure you'd say. So yeah, check out this "Robert Rodriguez" flick, but just be prepared to spend a lot of time with no actual Predatoring happening...

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