Just saw Predators. Thought it wasn't bad, but nothing "OMG AWESOME" either. It was a decent summer flick that felt a bit like a throwback to the older action/suspense movies of the late 80's/early 90's, which I can definitely appreciate, but the whole thing was just "been there, done that" all over the place. Extremely predictable (except for two things*) and filled with cliches. Couldn't help my roll my eyes at the Yakuza guy's big part.
Also the movie's plot (this is not a spoiler) is that a bunch of hardened asshole-killer/soldier types are all being put on the planet to be hunted by the Predators. The problem with this is that it's hard to sympathize with any of them. THEY'RE ALL ASSHOLES WHO KILL PEOPLE.
*Spoilers:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
-I forgot that Laurence Fishburne was in the movie, so his appearance was a surprise to me. He's also become Laurence Fatburne. For a character who's supposed to have survived on the Predator's hunting planet for some years, he sure as hell was out of shape. I also don't understand how he was supposed to have survived for so long by hiding in what would be an OBVIOUS location to check (a giant drilling machine/complex)
-The doctor guy turning out to be a twisted psycho-killer was pretty predictable, but I didn't expect the crazy deathrow-inmate guy to sacrifice himself for everyone like he did. And yet once again, since he was firmly established as an ASSHOLE, nobody cared.
I didn't see most of Predator 2 (guess I should watch it now) and didn't bother with AvP1 and 2 since I heard such awful things about them, but this movie in no way touches the original. It's not a remake, but could be considered a reboot of sorts. A lot of it was just Predator 1 redux and not done as well. None of the action scenes were anything special in comparison.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
The ending was straight-up Predator 1. Adrien Brody slaps on the mud (as explained to him by the one female character, who happens to be from the country AHNULD was in during Predator, so she knows the story of how he beat it) and smacks the last Predator around. The end.
Lastly, the special effects were okay, but anything bloody (I'll just put it that way as to not spoil anything!) didn't look too hot. People started laughing after one particular type of death scene happened multiple times...it just looked too fake.
When we were walking out of the theater, I heard these teenagers behind me saying
"it wasn't that great...the graphics could have been better. Yeah man, AvP was so much better. Totally...that movie was AWESOME!"
