Predators (2010) Review

"I'm ready to die.  Are you?"

-Mombasa

Royce (Adrien Brody), a mercenary, finds himself in an jungle on an alien world along with a group of soldiers, criminals, and killers, as well as an out-of-place doctor (Topher Grace).  The motley crew quickly realizes they are being hunted by a group of aliens, and they are much bigger than anything we've seen before.

What Works:

Adrien Brody is a solid lead in this movie.  We don't ever learn much about his character, but I like how cold he is and how easily he can make the tough calls.  Royce is a survivor and it's pretty refreshing to have a character like this.  Royce isn't really a good guy, but he's so smart that you can't help but root for him.

A few of the supporting cast members stand out as well.  I love Walton Goggins in everything I've ever seen him in and he's very enjoyable here.  He's both comic relief and the wild card of the group and easily the most unstable.  He has a lot of fun moments and others that are just bizarre, but he's certainly memorable.

Though I have issues with his character later in the movie, I like the inclusion of Topher Grace.  He's a great fish-out-of-water and a fun character for the audience to view the movie through.  Most of us would be like Topher Grace in this situation and he has most of the funny lines.

Laurence Fishburne plays a guy who has been living on the planet for an extended period of time and he brings the perfect level of crazy to the role.  Fishburne only has a handful of scenes, but he pops in all of them.  I love his performance and only wish he was in more of the film.

The action is all around solid and we get some great sequences and some really cool kills.  I can't get enough of the Predator's green blood and we get plenty of it in this film.

What Sucks:

None of the Predator movies have very compelling characters.  They are pretty much always bad-ass people who get taken out by the Predators and that has never been more obvious than this movie.  The characters in Predators are so stereotypical it almost feels like a parody.  Most of the actors do a good job with what they are given, but the characters are paper-thin.

I found Alice Braga's character, Isabelle, to be annoying a times.  She gets way too mad at Royce for using everyone as bait.  YOU GUYS ARE TRAPPED ON AN ALIEN PLANET AND ARE PROBABLY GOING TO DIE!  You don't need to get so mad at a guy for trying to lure the Predators into giving up some intel.  Calm down!  No one else got nearly as mad and Isabelle is supposed to be the stable one.

The film's biggest problem comes from Topher Grace's character as I mentioned earlier.  During the 3rd act, he betrays the other survivors.  It makes literally no sense whatsoever and his motivation is just baffling.  The truth about his character could have been really cool if properly handled, but this was beyond sloppy.

Verdict:

Predators is a solid sequel with a good protagonist, interesting side characters, fun performances, and some cool action.  I didn't love some of the character decisions and the characters themselves were pretty thin, but this movie still has got it going on.

 7/10: Good