On the streaming platform Hulu, the fantastic film “Prey” was released. An uninitiated viewer will not recognize this title as a prequel to “Predator,” but that’s exactly what it is. After the failed 2010 sequel and the controversial 2018 remake, Cloverfield 10 director Dan Trachtenberg apparently decided not to associate his new work with the famous franchise, so he released the film with a neutral title. What came out of this and whether the picture is worthy of attention, read in the review below.
“Prey” / Prey
Genre fantasy, horror, action, thriller, adventure
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
Starring Amber Midfander, Dane DiLiego, Geronimo Vela, Stephanie Mathias
Released by Hulu
Release year 2022
IMDb site
1719 year. Great plains of North America. A yautja spaceship lands in the habitats of the Comanche Indian tribe. The alien object flies away almost immediately, but leaves the Predator on Earth. A guest from distant worlds is on this planet for the first time. Its purpose is to hunt local life forms. Starting with snakes, wolves and bears, the Predator moves on to humans. In order to stop the killer and save her tribe, the hunter girl Naru (Amber Midfander) has to use not only strength and agility, but also cunning and intelligence.
After the official announcement of the start of work on the picture, Dan Trachtenberg talked about returning to the origins of the series. The director and his screenwriter Patrick Eason (Wayward Pines, The Kingdom, Jack Ryan) decided to take the original 1987 movie with the Predator’s hunt for humans as a basis and move the events 300 years into the past. Instead of the masculine main character, they took a fragile but smart girl, whom the Yautja does not even consider a threat, the Vietnamese jungle was replaced by the wild nature of America, and the US soldiers were replaced by Comanche Indians and French colonists.
In addition to the well-known antagonist, “Zdobych” has retained all the familiar elements of the franchise and clearly works in the field of fan service. Although the three-hundred-year-old Yautja looks a little different, the audience is sure to be shown his famous weapon with three laser pointers, infrared vision and taking the victim in a triangle, self-healing and luminescent blood. They did not forget about the sound elements, so here and there the heroes hear the familiar chirping of the Predator.
At the same time, the authors showed the viewer more footage of Yaujya and even revealed the details of his hunt. We see that the alien spends the night in a cave, collects the skulls of his victims and kills first small predators, gradually moving on to larger victims. This is how he learns a new world more effectively and makes hunting as safe as possible.
The first trailer for The Booty didn’t impress, so expectations weren’t high. The main character was disturbing and strong, which means that a fashionable summons was drawn up about an all-powerful woman who copes with all problems no worse than the stronger sex. The beginning of the movie really showed a young girl, Nara, who wants to become a hunter of her tribe on par with the men. But apart from a few phrases about the equality of the sexes, no fem-summons were found. Naru’s wishes did not coincide with reality – it turned out that she is significantly weaker than male hunters. Therefore, the heroine trains a lot, ties axes with ropes to make it easier to throw them, and takes the enemy not by force, but by cleverness.
The Booty has a relatively small cast, but all the parts are well cast and the characters are as sympathetic as possible in this genre. The main character, played by Amber Midfander, has Native American roots, as do the other actors who play Comanche roles. As the story progresses, Naru makes a number of mistakes, and sometimes behaves completely illogically. Most likely, in this way, the writers wanted to show the obvious superiority of the Predator over the huntress, and also raise the stakes for the girl herself.
The new film about the Predator is mostly shot cheerfully and spectacularly. However, the first half hour of the event unfolds too slowly, so you will have to be patient, admire the epically filmed nature of North America and get to know the customs of the Indians better. From the second third of the film, events gather momentum and rush at a spectacular gallop to the finale.
The picture passed a wide release and immediately came out in the figure, which indicates a modest budget. The picture is definitely inferior in terms of graphics to the two previous films in the series, but it definitely wins over them in the acting, script, adequacy of the plot and staging of battles. The creators did the worst with drawn animals, and the bigger the animal, the more painful it is to look at. Against this background, the Predator himself looks realistic and ominous, but his image sometimes lacks details.
Being tight on money affected the quality and atmosphere of some violent scenes. In moments of bloody yaujya killings, the camera seems to move away, showing only a part of what is happening, or only giving an idea of what happened. Previous films of the franchise could afford to highlight such moments and, on the contrary, zoom in on the camera in the most violent scenes. Such murders even became a certain element of all “Predators”. In “Loot” they tried to convey them as best they could, but it turned out far from what we would like.
Pros: brand brutality of the series, many familiar elements of Predator, adequate main character without new-fangled feminist references, good nature shots, revealing details of Yauji’s life, spectacular ending Cons: protracted beginning, mediocre computer graphics, small budget negatively affected the spectacle of some scenes with the Predator Conclusion:
Although Dan Trachtenberg’s new film was based on the cult work of 1987, it could neither catch up nor surpass it. At the same time, “Prey” was shot cooler and more spectacular than the last two parts of the series, although the film is inferior to them in terms of graphics quality. However, this movie has an adequate story, a well-written main character and an amazing staging of battles. The creators did not fail with the finale, so here is one of the best endings among all films of the franchise. If you are a fan of the Yauju series of films, then you should definitely watch The Prey. This is a worthy prequel to the first part, which can easily take its place immediately after it
