Prey (2022)
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Writer: Patrick Aison

The original PREDATOR film was released in 1987 and I enjoyed every
minute of it as I watched in a theatre. None of the sequels lived up to
the excitement of the first, despite the increasing budgets and vast
improvements to FX and CGI. Now we have the fifth film in the franchise,
seventh if one includes the two Alien v. Predator films, PREY.

Naru (Amber Midthunder) is a warrior. Unfortunately for her she lives in
the early 18th century among the Comanche Nation who inhabit the
Northern Great Plains. Her mother has raised Naru to be a hero, and her
brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) and the tribe expect her to follow the
traditional path. But Naru is her own woman, and trains herself to track
and fight so that she may one day earn the title of War Chief.

Naru's mettle is put to the test when an alien predator arrives on Earth
to hunt. Bears, snakes, or humans, it cares not which foe appears but
only lusts for combat.

PREY is a film that redeems a franchise. I was expecting another by the
numbers, mediocre, play it safe re-tread of the original but instead we
have a beautifully shot action film with a protagonist we care about.
Director Dan Trachtenberg (10 CLOVERFIELD LANE), cinematographer Jeff
Cutter (10 CLOVERFIELD LANE) and crew do a fantastic job of capturing
the natural beauty of Alberta Canada where the film was shot. This is
one of those films one can watch just for the photography. The script by
Patrick Aison, with characters created by Jim Thomas and John Thomas,
while a re-tread of the original film in many ways is smart and pulls us
into a low tech culture clashing with a far more advanced foe with
aplomb. Its only misstep is to include a subplot involving French
traders who slaughter bison only for their hides leaving the meat to
rot. They are full on stereotypical mustache twirling villains who meet
an often comical fate. The characters either needed to be toned down or
eliminated.

Amber Midthunder puts in a fine performance as the rebel who doesn't
want to rebel; she just wants to be able to do what her brother can do.
After watching her in the television series ROSWELL I thought the
casting choice an odd one but she proves she has range and maturity to
tackle the themes PREY explores. It also helps that she sold the
character's fighting prowess.

PREY is not just one of the better entries in a long running franchise.
It stands on its own, head and shoulders above most of what came before it.

*** 1/2 out of ****

https://letterboxd.com/thevidiot/film/prey-2022/

The Vidiot

On 09/08/2022 21:35, TheVidiot wrote:
> Prey (2022)
> Director: Dan Trachtenberg
> Writer: Patrick Aison
>
> The original PREDATOR film was released in 1987 and I enjoyed every
> minute of it as I watched in a theatre. None of the sequels lived up to
> the excitement of the first, despite the increasing budgets and vast
> improvements to FX and CGI. Now we have the fifth film in the franchise,
> seventh if one includes the two Alien v. Predator films, PREY.

i certainly enjoyed it but predator 2 will always be the high watermark
for me, followed by part 1.
this one was hampered by it being set in the past, no change of the hero
having massive firefights with the predator like arnie did.

On 8/10/2022 11:00 AM, the dog from that film you saw wrote:

>
> i certainly enjoyed it but predator 2 will always be the high watermark
> for me, followed by part 1.
> this one was hampered by it being set in the past, no change of the hero
> having massive firefights with the predator like arnie did.

Part 2 is good; I'd rank it third best in the franchise.

The Vidiot