Predators Movie Reviews

Today, in its fifth instalment, the Predator series is no longer sexed up and has lost some of its charm. It might have worked, if the makers had tried to infuse an element of novelty in the script or the delineation of the blood thirsty creatures. True, Adrien Brody is an eminent actor and has an intensity that manages to transcend the mediocrity of script and scene. But, in a predictable cat and mouse game, there isn't much that the brooding Brody can do, other than play the hunted-turned-hunter who is hell-bent on surviving, any which way.

Predators is totally a guy's movie filled with grisly violence and foul language of a level we are all familiar with and yet not entirely used to hearing off the big screen. Sadly that is all there is to it. That and the fact that once-skinny Adrien Brody sports a physique that calls to mind Aamir Khan's Ghajini transformation. If you feel like blowing off some steam this weekend, go see it, you won't be disappointed. But I can't help thinking that you won't feel fully satisfied either.

This fifth installment in the franchise, however, features more than one species of beasts. In a terrific early sequence the group of humans is attacked by a pack of multiple-horned boar-like creatures that look like they could rip you into shreds on immediate contact. The chief monsters in Predators are dreadlocked lizard-like extraterrestrials that can vanish and appear at will, thus proving a formidable enemy to the ordinary but armed humans.

Despite the nostalgia, the latest offering does nothing more than reinforcing why it's the least successful movie enterprise of all time. Problem begins early on. Just when the tension starts to settle in, actors start popping out of nowhere saying ridiculous dialogues. Why are they together? How have their destinies been tied up? No one bothers to explain. Even when the pieces start falling together, it doesn't make enough sense.