Predators

After two failed attempts at making Alien vs. Predator a thing, it was decided to take things back to basics and make another solo film with everyone's favorite intergalactic trophy hunters with Predators. With an eclectic cast and a unique premise, this outing succeeded at least somewhat in bringing back what was great about the original film. 

Royce (played by Adrien Brody), a Mercenary, awakens to find him falling through the sky. Soon a parachute automatically deploys and he falls to the ground, finding himself in a remote jungle...somewhere. He is soon joined by several others arriving by the same means: Mexican Drug Cartel Enforcer Cuchillo (played by Danny Trejo), Russian soldier Nikolai (played by Oleg Taktarov), Israeli sniper Isabelle (played by Alice Braga), Death Row Inmate Stans (played by Walton Goggins), Yakuza enforcer Hanzo (played by Louis Ozawa Changchien), Sierra Leone Death Squad soldier Mombasa (played by Mahershala Ali), and Physician Edwin (played by Topher Grace). The group sets out to try and figure out where exactly they are, none of them recognizing where they are. They soon discover that they are no longer on the planet Earth. Rather, they are on a planet that is treated as a game reserve for a species of aliens we know as the Predators. This unlikely group of strangers have no choice but to band together to fight the trio of Predators hunting them and if they are lucky try and find a way off the planet. 

Predators was originally pitched to 20th Century Fox by Robert Rodriguez back in 1994 as a follow-up to Predator 2. Deeming it too expensive to produce at that point, they set it aside. When neither of their attempts to create a crossover franchise out of Alien vs. Predator panned out, they returned to the concept Rodriguez laid out. Alex Litvak and Michael Finch were brought in to re-write the original script by Rodriguez, with Rodriguez overseeing the production as a producer. Nimrod Antal was brought in to direct the film. With this outing, it is very much a return to the isolated jungle environment of the first film, but with the twist of it being on an entirely different planet. It's also the assembly of characters this time out, rather than a cohesive military unit we have a group of strangers each of whom are more than comfortable to cut and run to save their own skin if it comes down to it, adding a interesting, if nastier quality to the film. The fact that none of them completely trust one another adds an intriguing dynamic to the film. Where the scripting falters a bit is that the characters never really move past archetype, which makes it hard to care about them that much. 

The film assembled an eclectic cast for the film, starting with Adrien Brody as a badass soldier. More famous for serious dramas, his casting raised more than a few eyebrows, including mine but much to my surprise, he really committed to the role and manages to pull it off. Alice Braga was pretty awesome as Israeli soldier Isabelle and along with Brody's Royce the other character that is the best developed in the film. Walton Goggins does a good job playing the creepy and very deadly Stans, whose idea of a good time is doing a lot of blow and then committing rape and murder, much to the horror of the very much out of his element (or is he?) Edwin played by Topher Grace at his most weaselly. I also liked Oleg Taktarov as Nikolai, the Russian soldier. Taktarov did the most he could with the character and made him surprisingly lovable. 

Predators does a reasonably good job at taking the series back to the elements that made the first one so memorable. At the same time, it doesn't quite capture the same spirit as the first film. Still, it's a memorably entertaining entry in the series, even with the thin characterizations and rather lazily executed late in the film plot twist being it's biggest stumbling blocks. Still, for fans of the series there's plenty to enjoy here.