Yes, the outer-space fox hunters are back. The Predator itself has always been a brilliant concept. An alien that hunts humans for sport, with wrist blades, spears, nets... and a cloaking device and auto-aiming shoulder laser. Yeah actually, that bit has always seemed a bit unsporting.
Predators is of course the sequel to the brilliant 1987 horror/action flick. Unlike the previous two films, the predators this time do not come to Earth. Instead, a hapless group of humans find themselves parachuting down into a dense jungle, one that it becomes quickly apparent does not exist on our world. They are themselves soldiers, criminals, killers, predators. They are the best of humanity at hunting, and the aliens want to chop them into itty bitty pieces.
So as you can see, the set up itself is simple, much like the original film. In the end, this is Predators greatest strength: It doesn't over complicate things, and it doesn't take long for events to kick into action. From there, it gleefully throws its cast into worse and worse situation. Any attempt for a character to do something a usual stupid-horror-movie-characterTM would do is greeted with the characters immediately dismissing it as stupid. You never feel that the characters are doing anything less than their very best in surviving. The fact that they aren't just proves how utterly screwed they are.
Neither does the film muck about with ambiguity of its villains. It's called Predators, we know their identity. Like Aliens this film completely inverts the "less is more" horror approach of its predecessor and quickly shifts into action. Lots of brutal, gory action, something this film does very, very well. The various skirmishes with the predators are brilliantly shot, making for a fast and tense film. The lack of CGI for the most part also helps - this film makes a good case for why you shouldn't always rely on special effects, as the drawn out fight becomes pretty damn believable.
The cast themselves fit their roles perfectly, despite the out of type casting of Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. Like the film itself, Brody's character, Royce, is an inversion on the original film, playing a direct opposite to Arnie's character. Royce is wiry compared to Arnie's massive body-builder, and doesn't really give a crap about protecting anyone. He simply wants to survive, and he's rather good at it. Lawrence Fishburne deserves a hell of a lot of praise for his performance as Nolan too. It's a complete curve-ball of an act, and you won't see it coming.
If the film has any flaws, its that the ending becomes a bit predictable in the final stretch. Also, the trailers that have been released are being very naughty. Anyone who's seen the characters covered in laser targeted spots and is expecting a gigantic Predator battle-royal is going to be extremely disappointed.
All in all, Predators isn't trying to be a genre-busting film. It wears its B-movie status with pride. But it is incredibly polished, and very enjoyable, especially for fans of the franchise. A franchise that after the dire past few years, is now taking a definite step in the right direction.
