1987, Governor Schwarzenneger led his team of rag-tag soldiers to a jungle for a rescue op. What they found there (Predator) turned into one of the most memorable creatures to ever endorse the big screen. A number of attempts were made to bring the predator back on screen in a number of different settings but it became more about offering scenarios and explanations about predators as a culture by using the reputation of this magnificent hunter that the first movie had successfully built.
2010, Nimrod Antal along with Robert Rodriguez decided to go back to the first encounter, and decided to build on that. What does one need to make a movie about hunters and their prey, a friggin' jungle. It just makes sense - hiding in trees, observing from a distance, not knowing who or what will attack you from behind, listening for sounds- I can go on and on. And with a fellow like Robert Rodriguez comes a reputation, a reputation to recruit the likes of Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburne, Alice Braga and Danny Trejo.
As far as the story goes, it follows in the line of traditional survival horror tactics of having a large number of expendable characters and the big bad monster (monsters in this case). A mildly amusing story is there for those who wish to indulge in some cuckoo twists and turns but it does the job of moving things along, but the the icing on the cake is the expansion on the predators. There is more than one predator, all of them look different from each other confirming a heirarchy in their race and quadrupedal hunting animals controlled by the predators. This adds the much required diversity that predator as a franchise needed and works well in keeping the audience curious about what else can the creators think of.
Performances for the most part are well done, especially Adrien Brody who seems to have put in a lot of work to buff himself up for the role. Only complaints on my part would be the ridiculousness of Lawrence Fishburne and Topher Grace. *Spoiler Topher Grace can never be an evil scheming villain*.The jungle is lush and is a character in itself full of surprises - makes for a fitting hunting ground. The background score again goes back to original movie and works well to create tension.The technology these days has allowed creators to add more detail to the predator designs and the weapons that they carry. The violence and gore look as disgusting and believable as possible which makes the brutality much more real.
Overall, this is the much awaited true sequel fans have been waiting for which has its similarities with the original but is different enough to keep things interesting.
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