Predators
starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov and Laurence Fishburne
written by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch
directed by Nimrod Antal
Rating: ◊◊◊◊◊
Of all the installments in the Predator franchise none has approached the quality of the original (1987, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura, directed by John McTiernan). What we have here is the original Predator plot crossed with Cube (1997, directed by Vincenzo Natali). A group of violent, predatory humans is snatched by aliens and transported to an alien world apparently for no reason. Just to be observed, we guess. It slowly becomes evident to the victims that they are there to be hunted for sport by the famous Predator aliens. Others came before them. The humans are cut down one-by-one, but of course they prevail in the end. This is the worst film I have seen in a while. A simple “Boring Crap” comes to mind as a possible succinct review. The writers are so unimaginative that they are just cutting and pasting old movie plots together, and not doing it very well, either. Sometimes they even cut and paste dialog word-for-word which could be either plagiarism or homage. I suppose it might be because a whole generation has grown up since the original 1987 movie. That means they are unfamiliar with it, giving current writers and directors leeway to foist this junk on us now.