Let me start by promising you this will be a 100% spoiler free review of the latest Predator installment Prey. I am not going to reveal anything about Prey that you can’t figure out watching the trailer.
Having said that, let’s cut to the bottom line: some critics say Prey is the best installment of the series since Predator. I disagree; Prey is the best Predator movie bar none. Yes, Prey is better than the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
I will grant you Prey has the tremendous advantage of having a wealth of lore to draw on. It is not only the seventh film in the series but there have been at least ten novels, not including film novelizations, dozens of ”pure Predator” comic books and a whole fistful of crossovers where everyone from Batman to Judge Dredd has squared off against the galaxy’s most fearsome hunters. Predator had the heavy burden of introducing the Predator and making audiences fear him. From Predator 2 on, though, we already knew how damn scary and damn near invincible a predator (or worse yet, a group of them) truly was. When it comes to establishing the premise, Arnold Schwarzenegger did all the heavy lifting.
And Predator did all the heavy lifting required. Not only was it very successful at the box office, it had enough meat in the story to spawn a half a dozen sequels, at least ten novels, etc. So I don’t want to take anything away from the original or diminish it in any way when I say Predator has a major weakness as a film: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, he is the star of the movie. He was a huge part of why it was a success. His star power, in terms of popularity and established screen persona, was crucial to getting the film noticed by audiences and driving forward the plot. But he was still the problem.
Why? It is pretty simple, really, and it has nothing to do with Schwarzenegger’s acting. The problem was from the very first frame of Predator it was obvious Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be walking out of that jungle at the end of the movie. That is not a problem unique to Predator, by the way, or even to Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is a recurring feature of blockbuster action films centered on a big time action star. Whether it is Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, The Rock or any other bankable action star you can be sure once the shells all hit the ground, the fires are extinguished and the smoke clears that A-list action star is going to be standing there ready for the next round of glory, possibly in the sequel.
But Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t come back for the sequel. Instead, Predator 2 boasted an ensemble cast with Danny Glover, Maria Chonchito Alonso, Gary Busey, Ruben Blades and Bill Paxton. Some of their careers were on the rise, others on the decline but it was very hard to point to any one actor in Predator 2 and declare they were the box office draw. The result? You had no idea who was going to survive and that made for a much less predictable movie. In a way, this was a reverse of Alien and its sequels. Sure, now you might watch Alien with full knowledge Sigourney Weaver comes back for a fistful of follow ups but back in 1979 she only had about four credits to her name, about half from TV. Most of the rest of the cast had more name recognition than her so audiences did not go into Alien knowing she was the star and Ripley was the guaranteed hero.
Wait a minute, you might be asking yourself, does that mean you are saying Predator 2 is a better movie than Predator? Well, yes. Yes I am, at least in some ways. Predator has many advantages over the sequel or maybe Predator 2 just has some inherent issues of its own. I certainly understand why pretty much everyone likes Predator more than Predator 2 and I would never waste much time or energy trying to convince anyone they are wrong for liking Predator more. Sometimes it is fun to watch a single bona fide big time action star kick the living crap out of all comers. I mean, I love martial arts movies way more than the next guy and those films thrive on the ”hero vanquishes all comers” formula. But sometimes it is fun to not really know who is going to walk out of the woods at the end of the film and there are a million slasher films built on that formula.
The strength of Prey for me was I really was not sure exactly which I was watching. Sure, the main character in Prey, a young Commanche woman in the very early 18th century who is determined to prove her value as a hunter to her village, is obviously the singular hero of the film. At the same time, if a predator is a damn near unstoppable killing machine against well armed 20th century soldiers and street gangs what can Plains Indians do against one using bows and axes?
In Prey are we watching someone who can destroy the monster, like Arnold in the original, or someone who can merely survive the onslaught like Amy Steel in Friday the 13th Part 2? For me, this made Prey a much more interesting movie. Add to that a likable, compelling heroine played by Amber Midthunder, a well crafted story with several takes on what it means to be hunter and hunted and the odd Easter egg nod to the larger body of Predator lore and you have a film worth watching. For my money it is a better film than the original.