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 Adrien Brody and Alice Braga in Predators. |
There's a whole new monster in the predator pantheon, and he looks just like Adrien Brody.
The dramatic actor is a gun-toting mercenary in this new installment, and so fully inflated, oiled and pumped up that he looks as if the steroid fairy paid him a visit. Predators? More like Adrien vs. Predator, to borrow a line from Canadian novelist James Schultz.
Predators is a great big juicy B-Movie, a terrific blast of action and suspense that's bound to please fans of the franchise. Though probably nothing can match the thrill of first glimpsing that elusive, tentacle-faced grotesque in the original movie, this sequel will keep you interested via character and storytelling.
The movie opens with a bang -- characters free-falling from the sky, like so many lost angels, and crashing to earth. They don't know where they are or how they got there, but what they have in common is quickly established: except for a doctor (Topher Grace) each of them is a professional killer in one way or another, and that includes the only female (Alice Braga).
Brody's character quickly takes a leadership role. He's a professional super-soldier of some sort, and at his insistence, everyone heads for higher ground. Along the way, they find evidence that others have been there before them. Worse yet, they find all the clues they need to know that they are on some sort of alien game preserve ... and they're the game. A very large round of cat and mouse is about to begin, and before you know it, that familiar chittery-chattery noise is making itself heard. It ain't raccoons.
Predators is brisk and busy, with plenty of other threats to contend with besides those monsters. There's rough terrain, poisonous plants, old-fashioned traps and unexpected company for starters, plus in-fighting among the survivors in the Brody bunch. The movie comes with a hefty portion of cheese and some tongue-in-cheek dialogue, but it's never boring. In fact, it's far more interesting and inventive than the genre usually allows, and the cinematography and the music are likewise surprising. And the characters are strong.
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At first glance, Predators may have looked like a step down for Adrien Brody, but the actor will end up laughing all the way to the bank with this one. (And, having also done Splice this year, increasing his fanbase a hundredfold.) Brody is cool, calm and commanding in the role, and he plays the muscle-bound soldier with a gravitas that carries the story.
As for the Predators themselves, those boys are getting a little too familiar. They aren't so scary any more. They get shot at, blown up, sliced and diced and drop-kicked, and they give as good as they get. But the movie's philosophy is that the human characters are just as predatory on earth as the aliens are on their own turf, so at least Predators recognizes all the monsters involved. For that, it could be the thinking man's creature feature. Well, it could.
(This film is rated 14A)
liz.braun@sunmedia.ca