Prey - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

I can still remember the first time I watched the original Predator film, I was on vacation at a hotel and we were watching TNT or TBS or one of those cable channels, for those that remember cable television. The sequence of Bill Duke seeing an invisible creature in the jungle, grabbing that minigun and firing it like crazy, Arnold Schwarzenegger and company joining in and shooting the crap out of the jungle is all still indelibly etched on my memory. From that film, the Predator IP has spawned a couple sequels and a few other iterations of the property as well as some films that tried to stitch the Alien and Predator franchises together. But now 20th Century Fox has unceremoniously dropped the new film Prey, a prequel of sorts for the franchise, onto the Hulu streaming service. The director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) clearly has an eye for the the sci-fi genre, even though this film plays almost like a period drama through the first act. He has a knack for presenting things we’ve seen before in a way that’s fresh and exciting and is able to recapture some of the magic that franchise films tend to lose over time. Prey is a very solid piece of filmmaking on several levels and although it’s not flawless, it is a noble effort to infuse creativity into a tired IP. If you’re a fan of the franchise or not, general audience or critic, give this film a chance, you’ll probably find yourself falling Prey to it’s charms.

SYNOPSIS - Our hunting trip begins with some Comanche dialogue, “A long time ago, it is said, a monster came here.” Then a beautiful panoramic shot of a winding river opens up before our eyes and we see a couple scenes of what life for an early settler or Native American would look like. We watch as inside a teepee, a sleeping Naru (Amber Midthunder), is awakened by someone entering and kicking her shoulder. Naru and her dog Sarii go out to gather some blue flowers that she digs up and are actually a kind of tuber, but she stares out into the forest and we get the sense that there is something calling out to her. This calling is immediately revealed to the audience as she begins throwing the hatchet she carries at a tree as a type of target practice. As the story unfolds it’s clear she wants to be a hunter, it’s what she was born to do, although at those times society may have relegated her to do the standard “women’s work”. The direction of Trachtenberg is solid, although a bit slower and methodical through the first act, he establishes the main characters, their motivations and the stakes involved. Midthunder is also a welcome addition to the big screen, even thought it’s on Hulu. The drive, passion and desire to break free from the mold of expectations and prove herself as a hunter shows through in her eyes, which shine white above the black makeup she sports below her eyes and across her nose. She’s really doing some impressive work in Prey, even if she won’t be making any top performances of the year lists.

We learn from Naru’s brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) of something the Comanche Indians call kühtaamia, which is a coming of age/hunting test of sorts, to pass means one becomes a true hunter for the tribe. Naru sees what we have to assume is the Predator’s ship passing through the clouds before the title card drops, but she sees the clouds moving as a sign that she’s ready for her own hunting test. Her brother retorts, “You want to hunt something that’s hunting you?”, right before we see The Northern Great Plains/September 1719 appearing at the bottom of the screen. I really wish I would’ve been able to watch this film dubbed in the original Comanche language and had it subtitled in English, apparently that option is available to some on Hulu, I just couldn’t find it. I suppose the appeal to the masses would’ve declined with it being released only as a foreign language film, so here we are, a version set in 1719 with American Indians speaking fluent modern English. I found this very off putting. I’m sure at some point though I’ll go back and find a way to watch this in Comanche and I’m guessing I’ll like it far better. By the time the film gets down to business and the Predator starts messing some people over, we’ve been primed for some delicious fight sequences that the film delivers on it’s promises of. Bon appetite.

Dan Trachtenberg is running the ship, but you can tell he also had a hand in the screenplay, as there’s some excellent character work going on in the film. Even if we perhaps spend a bit too much time in the first act learning about them, it’s of sufficient enough quality that we care about what happens to these characters and are rooting for the main brother and sister pair. The visuals are very nice, for a Predator film, it’s incredibly cinematic with some fantastic wilderness shots and stylish flair. The visual effects were also impressive, watching the predator with his invisibility suit going in and out of sight through some of the fighting sequences was stunning. Although I must say that some of the CG animals weren’t quite as impressive as others we’ve seen in other films. And even though we’ve seen it a hundred times in different variations through the franchise’s history, watching the Predator decloak on a smoky, burned out field with ashes blowing across was still cool af, pardon my French. I also loved the use of sound in the film, the creature noises, the clicking sounds blended with the sounds of the forest, wind blowing, etc. leaves you uncertain through some sequences as to what exactly you’re hearing. At just under an hour and forty minutes, this film is fairly lean, it picks up the pace in the second act and doesn’t let off the gas until the ground has been covered in blood, both red and green.

SUMMARY - Although the film’s messaging isn’t too deep, it’s not an extremely high concept and it may drag it’s feet a bit at the beginning, this is still a relatively tight and solid little film that most can enjoy. When the hunt is on, while most will prefer to be on the side of the Predator, there’s still quite a bit of fun to be had being the Prey.