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Something to take a note of is that while the fur traders may be "out of region" for the Comanche angle...nothing saying that the Comanche characters stay in their home region!
Only Wikipedia so far as I can be bothered to check
The film began development during the production of the prior Predator film, titled The Predator (2018), when producer John Davis was approached by Dan Trachtenberg and a writer, with a concept that they had been conceptualizing since 2016.[8] Former 20th Century Studios Production president Emma Watts fast tracked the development of the film prior to her resignation in January 2020.[9] It was conceived as an R-rated film
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Apologies if this has been mentioned, but do you think the inspiration is the short comic story when the Pred fights an African at some point in the middle ages?
The_Real_Chris wrote: Apologies if this has been mentioned, but do you think the inspiration is the short comic story when the Pred fights an African at some point in the middle ages?
There's a Dark Horse comic way back when of a Predator fighting pirates and chasing the pirate captain into the American frontier because it really wanted to hunt that captain.
Some of the plot points in this movie look similar, except the pirate captain has been replaced by a Comanche hunter.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/07/08 11:23:10
I mean, there’s a lot of Predator comics and books, and only So Many ways they can really be shown hunting a person, so I’m sure anything they did could have comparisons drawn to some work or another. A Simpsons Did It First sort of deal.
Anyone interested in arranging a loose Watch Party?
Not the Disney+ online service thing as such, but perhaps agreeing a time slot where the participants can tune in as a group, and offer thoughts more or less at the same time after?
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Not the Disney+ online service thing as such, but perhaps agreeing a time slot where the participants can tune in as a group, and offer thoughts more or less at the same time after?
Depends on the time and depends on the means, but yeah, I'd be down.
So, in the U.K. we get it 5 August 2022 on Disney+, via the STAR sub channel (from which much of my D+ value is derived), but I’m not sure exactly what time.
Stuff normally goes up 8am, which I guess reflects Central US midnight? Or maybe west coast, I dunno, I suck with time zones.
8am actually suits me, as I’ll be working from home, so can stick it on whilst finding something productive to make it at least look like I was focussing on work :p
I think I’m going to watch it in Comanche rather than English. It’s something a bit different, but then again it’s likely to involve sub-titles, unless they’ve gone really brave, and are going to rely on physical queues as to what’s being conveyed? If it is subtitles, the Comanche version is one for after work!
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Bloody Disgusting, my go to horror movie site has it at 4 out of 5 skulls.
Haven't read the review but that is pretty promising.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/08/03 16:22:00
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
I have seen two reviews, and they both say the same things: the first half is slow, but it sets up a lot of great action in the second half. Both reviewers found this to be the best Predator sequel (not as good as the original film). Dan Murrell goes into a bit of a rant to address concerns that the main character is a Mary Sue or overpowers a Predator physically because womyn—she apparently learns from her failures and uses her wits. He also said the second half is a “cascade of carnage”.
Both reviews also praised true actor who played the Predator for giving him more character than most sequel Predators.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/08/03 16:41:21
Ever since Hall (the original Pred actor (also Harry in Harry and the Hendersons)) passed away the guys they have had in the suits have never quite given the Preds the same unique movements and character. He was the Pred in 1 and 2.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Very good! I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. First half is indeed a Little slow, but tons of set up for the Incredible second half. I only have two complaints;
1.) Sausage fingers. There’s one scene where the Pred is doing their first aid thing and their hands just looks swollen. My brain just immediately went to Everything Everywhere’s hot dog fingers universe.
2.) Cloaking isn’t perfect until it is. It’s got that standard distortion effect we’re used to, probably more so than previous movies, until one scene where it goes from fully there to completely gone in an instant a mere few feet in front of people staring directly at it and is just gone. For something that large and heavy to just ninja vanish was dumb. It doesn’t even smoke bomb first!
Well, just finished it and yeah, its up there vying for 2nd best predator movie.
Didn't hold back on the brutality and actually managed to portray both protagonists and antagonist as cunning, thinking fighters with different strengths.
Colour me impressed.
Gonna have some good conversations about this one, once more peeps have seen it!!
No outright spoilers ahead, but read at your own risk anyway!
Well that was an excellent movie (for the most part). Couple of eye roll bits for me, but easy enough to breeze right past in face of the rest of the film.
Excellent bits.
-The Predator. Not so much the predator itself, but rather the character. To me it seemed different then previous preds in that while others where out to prove themselves the best hunters, this one was just out to collect as many skulls as he could. The predator equivalent of a fun Friday night out on the town. Honestly, he came off as a bit of a prick. Wasn't concerned about honourable kills as such, just wanted the overall kill-count. And a gakky opponent too when things stop going all his way. The scene in the dell where he fights the trappers, they get a few reasonable licks in and he cracks the gaks with them and sets off his jumping jack mines rather then continue to fight them in hand-to-hand. Was also nice to see a predator that could be surprised by something he didn't expect (the french guy Naru helped) and react accordingly. Sure, they can be ambushed and taken by surprise, but I don't think we've seen one actually surprised by something.
Just overall an excellent iteration of the Predator character.
-Naru. If more writers used Naru as an example of how to construct a strong female character it'd be no bad thing. She's cunning and crafty, she'd determined and out to prove herself, and not just against the boys, but against anything be they tribemates, bears or even interstellar big game hunters. At no point does she revert to the helpless damsel figure in need of rescuing by the male lead that so many strong females characters get temporarily afflicted with in movies like this. I mean sure she is helpless in some scenes, but with bloody good reason, and yet she powers on and get the job done. Even at the expense of her male co-stars. (Poor Itsee ).
-The Bear Fight. Someone went through a lot of footage of bears fighting things to get that scene right. And it fething paid off too! Easily top 3 scenes in the movie. Was nice to see the pred get a bit a too cocky and slapped around for his troubles.
Good bits.
-The Fight Scenes. Really well done fights. The Comanche acted like the seasoned warriors you'd expect them to be. The predator felt like the quarter ton bulldozer you'd expect him to be. And the trappers were the hapless chaff that they deserved to be! The predator really felt like he had some weight behind him when he fought. Even his arboreal acrobatics were on point. He didn't feel like a CGI figure floating from tree to tree, it was a BIG dude landing on branches and shaking trunks as he kicked off them.
-The Locations. Hats off to the location scouts! Bloody gorgeous scenery from start to finish.
-Nods to the Predator. Couple of fun call backs to the first movie. What from the "If it bleeds" line to the trick she pulled with the flowers (which i'm pleased to say called early on in the movie! ). They were some of the aforementioned eye-roll moments, but in the case of the flowers, had a pretty good pay off, so are easily overlooked.
Not so great bits.
-Sausage fingers as mentioned by AduroT. Did he get stung on the hand by a bee or something!?
-Predator's Face. Just looked a bit off in some scenes. Not bad CGI per-se. But noticeably CGI in comparison to what are clearly prosthetics in previous movies. This might have been a bit more obvious to me though as i'd spent the rest of the day watching the other predator movies in anticipation of this.
The questions left unanswered.
-What happened to Paaka? He gets dragged out of the tree and then what? He's never mentioned again. I need to know dammit!
The questions left unanswered.
-What happened to Paaka? He gets dragged out of the tree and then what? He's never mentioned again. I need to know dammit!
Yeah, that part was either a weak point of the movie or ... nobody in his tribe cares
Couldn't resist, had to watch it right away this morning.
Quick observations now, maybe more in-depth stuff later.
Spoiler:
The 'Northern Great Plains' location card makes this hard to place, in addition to the Great Plains being a massive geographical feature, they could also be using the modern terminology that differentiates the northern part of it on the Canadian side of the border as 'the pairies' meaning the film could be set anywhere from southern Alberta to Nebraska - but based on the references to both buffalo and beaver (and the french fur traders) I think we're somewhere in the Daktotas.
I didn't expect to be right about those guys being Canadian fur traders, but that's actually a pretty smart choice for the filmmakers - its actually the more likely option given the degree to which the french fur trade extended into the interior along the lakes, and allows them to maintain a language barrier between them and Naru without confusing the audience.
As someone who doesn't know enough at all about the Comanche or how far they or the other plains people travelled, I really don't know if it makes sense for them to be out that far, but I think the dialogue was suggesting they were outside their traditional territory, and by the end wanted to flee to somewhere safer.
I got the impression that the feral pred had two 'modes' during his hunting trip. There were cases where he was clearly testing himself against the local wildlife, ramping things up starting with the wolves and the mountain lion before moving on to the bear, preferring to fight them hand to hand. I get the feeling this is what he came here to do: hunt with his bare hands and ramp up the challenge until he found the big trophy he could take back showing exactly where his limits were.
The other mode is less about being a hunter and more of a 'gloves come off' donkey-cave type. We first see it, I think, when he kills the guys who came after Naru - specifically the first one, (I think his name was Wasape?) who he observes fighting Naru, gets roughed up, then has his friend back him up. I get the feeling the predator initially saw the humans as fellow hunters, albeit too primitive to be worth his notice, but decided to deliberately go all out on Wasape (and importantly, destroy his skull) after watching him resort to cheap tricks to capture Naru. We see the same switch happen again during the fight with the fur traders, when he's initially making a point of picking people off their horses while their backup is unawares, but when his life is in danger and he needs to bug out he starts throwing the body obliterating nets and such.
The combistick is the weirdest 'famous weapon' ever. I always forget the Predator's are somehow, some way, associated with it. I know it doesn't appear in Predator 1, when did it first show up?
He ran a guy through with the blunt end of his combistick! That thing was wider than a friggin mace! Ow!
Also, I don't really see the 'sausage fingers' thing - looks exactly like the fingers caressing Billy's skull in Predator which are also beefy because it's a dude in a costume, yo.
The questions left unanswered.
-What happened to Paaka? He gets dragged out of the tree and then what? He's never mentioned again. I need to know dammit!
Yeah, that part was either a weak point of the movie or ... nobody in his tribe cares
Spoiler:
That was the guy in the tree with Naru, right? I think the implication is he either died right there because of the lion, or because Naru was knocked out he couldn't be treated and died shortly thereafter, or he died there because her brother could only realistically carry one of them back?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, also.
I don't think the movie is neccesarily 'slowly paced' in the first half, but I do think they show too much. If they had kept it the same length while leaving a little more mystery (I mean, come on. This is someone's first Predator movie) I think it would feel more tense.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/08/05 16:13:40
I don’t think it’s so much the Pred being an arse as
Spoiler:
limiting themself somewhat to what they were challenged by. They hand to hand all the animals because that’s all the animals have got. They shoot the first person to point a ranged weapon at them. The net they deploy immediately after someone threw a net on them. Someone else commented on quantity over quality and I think it’s a bit that. According to marketing this is the first Pred hunt on earth, so it could be a case of checking everything out and see what the local fauna is capable of and taking samples.
Also, I assume that’s the gun from the end of Pred 2? I’d be curious to see how they get ahold of that.
Entirely theory crafting based on context: this is a predator scout/biologist/cataloger of sorts?
Spoiler:
He isn't here for his own trophies per se. He is here to catalog the local life forms to decide if this is a worthwhile hunting ground for the rest of the preds.
You see on his vision read out that each time he finds a new thing he catalogs it on the right side of his hud. He adds entries as he finds humans using higher levels of technology.
This doesn't look as much like a big game hunter so much as one collecting samples and rating the potential game. Very interesting to see new aspects of the preds.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Really very incredibly impressed. Style and panache!
Importantly?
Spoiler:
It Didn’t Try To Reinvent The Predator.
Yes we see new and interesting toys it’s clearly competent with. But even then, they’re not “what you saw before, but day-glo and nuclear for extra rad wooooo”. They’re era appropriate, which reinforces their preference for giving their prey a fairish chance - with the Predator needing to be skilled in the use of their tools.
I do think the finale and in particular the kill is a wee bit contrived (I mean, surely the Predator would know how it’s Seeker Dart things work), but because it’s all put together so well it’s earned that wee bit of handwavium.
It’s overall really quite minimalist, without coming across as cheap. And example would the constricting net being used to mulch that dude. We see it thrown, we see it start to constrict and cut into the guy. Pan down, focus on the device, and imply, imply, imply.
That may seem odd in the post-Saw and other torture prawn movies, with their copious amounts of explicit, ridiculous, sometimes inventiv, gore. But here it doesn’t feel cheap or wussing out. Rather it came across to me as Deliberate Restraint. A director confident enough in the atmosphere they crafted to carry the message, and not needing to bludgeon their audience senseless to get their point across.
As an experienced gore hound, I think I’d like to have seen a bit more delicious, explicit violence. But then, if we think back to the first Predator film? Whilst absolutely violent? The gore was the same sort of low key feel. Sure there is blood, stumps and ruptures etc - but more a consequence of the story, than Being The Story.
Not sure I’m explaining this right, but hopefully you can see what I’m trying to get at. It doesn’t shy away from the mutilation, but it doesn’t focus on it for the sake of focussing on it.
More please! From the same creative team please. Not necessarily a direct sequel, though I wouldn’t say no. Just….more. This film is most definitely a confident recruit to The Church Of Latter Day Sequels That Don’t Suck And Aren’t Just Lazy Cash Ins.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/08/05 20:57:44
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No outright spoilers ahead, but read at your own risk anyway! 
). They were some of the aforementioned eye-roll moments, but in the case of the flowers, had a pretty good pay off, so are easily overlooked.
