Uninspiring fare

The first one we sight is Royce; soon he hooks up with an executioner from a Mexican drug cartel,a Brazilian military ace a woman,a Russian war vet,a rebel soldier from Sierra Leone,a death-row inmate,a member of the Japanese Yakuza and a doctor. Quickly figuring out their kill or be killed place on this jungle otherworld,they discover that they are not alone. Not only is there a band of space slayers out to get them,but the area has been populated with beings from other galaxies as well. They are pitted against well-armed squads of the crab-mouthed monsters in a deadly,frequently derivative,test of survival. They have to ward off arm blades,shoulder lasers,attack dogs and flying surveillance devices.

All the action and results in Predators are formulaeic and low on originality and imagination. It is unimaginable that director Nimrod Antal,who gave us such spiffy films as Vacancy and Armored,doesnt have any thing else up his sleeve.

Vis-à-vis special effects,Predators has the standard infra-red night-vision sequences; the ominous audio references and the body-hugging weaponry. The new element this time around is the predator dog squads and flying surveillance devices.

Other than that Antal reverts to the standard action movie beatsinitial sequences to establish personality and exposition,and then chases and jungle firefights. The sequence between the creature and the yakuza was the films only scene worth watching.

The two who survive have to be a man and a woman. In this uninspiring film,the acting too leaves much to be desired. Why would actors like Adrian Brody and Laurence Fishburne choose to do a film such as Predators?

Rating

One star for all the effort.