Prey review: A back-to-basics, straight-to-streaming Predator movie with style

Before Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2017, the film studio became known as a purveyor of enduring genre films such as the Alien, Predator and X-Men series. Action sequences in a generic parking lot and Canadian forest. (look darkest mind, ElectraAlso X-Men: Last Stand, among other things, is an example of the worst Fox aesthetic. ) these reputations were not mutually exclusive. At times, Fox’s films strike a comfortable balance between muscle thrills and relative restraint. Wolverinea small-scale superhero film that makes provocative use of the first forest-like setting.

prey is the latest Fox production to capture both sides of Fox’s history, and it’s also a nod to the studio’s new identity as a content factory for Disney-owned Hulu. It’s a stripped-down version of the sci-fi hunt, coming directly to Hulu without going to the cinema first.

At first glance, it makes sense to send the new Predator movie straight to streaming. Like many of his R-rated sci-fi series, this series hasn’t been popular in years. 2010s predator When 2018 predator It proved that the series still has a loyal fan base, but it also proved that it has a relatively small audience. prey An attempt to bring the series back to its roots even more than those movies – not the other Predator The movie strays particularly far from the formula of giant, masked, mandibular-faced alien monsters who eventually hunt back humans.

Still, there’s admirable minimalism in the idea of ​​a prequel that goes back hundreds of years before the franchise’s previous characters were born. prey Set in the Great Plains of North America in 1719, she follows Nall (Amber Midthunder) as a young Comanche woman who longs to undergo a training ritual to become a hunter for her tribe. Her family and her tribe, predictably, disagree over whether she’s ready for this job and encourage her to help people in other ways. However, when a series of mysterious signs indicate that an unfamiliar creature is stalking their territory, only Naru is willing to hunt it down.

preyearly scenes flirt with minimalism without fully committing to it. Naru trains herself in solitude with a custom-built weapon — a throwing ax she makes retrievable by tying it on a rope — and she does tribal duty alongside her trusty canine sidekick. Meanwhile, an 18th-century Predator arrives on Earth and explores the Great Plains. (With technology far beyond this world, he seems like an easy choice for an 8-foot alien, but apparently this is the predator’s equivalent of a tourist checking out a local restaurant. .) Eventually the two paths intersect more directly.

Before that inevitable and satisfying clash, prey Makes a few concessions for the less adventurous audience. Rather than making full use of Comanche or simply avoiding dialogue as much as possible, native characters speak primarily in English. The term sounds questionable as modern screenwriters avoid the inability (or reluctance) to approach the old and unfamiliar. This is part of a larger pattern. Whenever there’s an opportunity in a movie to hold back a scene or moment that’s a little more lyrical or mystical, director and co-writer Dan Trachtenberg tends to cut himself short. He may be in the woods, but he doesn’t exactly cross with Terrence Malick’s spirit.

Photo: 20th Century Studios

Trachtenberg with a similarly simplified franchise expansion 10 Cloverfield Lanehas one important feature it can offer. prey: efficiency. This is a movie about a young woman on a collision course with a cool skull alien man tearing out the spine of her mask. Other members of Naru’s tribe are there to deny or fall prey to the Predator. A band of late-arriving fur traders also offers huntable carcasses. Trachtenberg found a way to express the efficiency of their short, short life in a brilliant way. Full view of obstacles, especially sticky mud pits.

He also makes the best use of the Predator’s neon green blood in the series as an accent color against the more muted and natural tones of the film’s setting. One scene that pits Naru against a fur trader is particularly memorable, given that none of the film’s iconic monsters are involved.

both pros and cons prey It puts a lot of pressure on Midthunder, playing the only human in the film who isn’t there just for narrative convenience. She delivers a charismatic and athletic performance that bursts off the screen with watchful, expressive eyes accentuated by her tribal make-up.Differences from past heroes predator The film telegraphs headfirst in dialogue as her brother questions her desire to prove herself.

He hasn’t talked about the Predator yet at that point, but it could be. When the time comes, Naru will have to actively seek out aliens. You underestimate Naru and set your sights on flashy, worthless prey. The simplicity of “women can be killed just like men” threatens to turn Naru into a bloodthirsty girl boss fighting the Predator, but the no-nonsense scrap of Midthunder’s performance prevents that.

it would be easy to hype prey Because it’s a direct-to-stream movie that could come together on the big screen. predator The movie, not the game-changing revelation. But given that August has been a relatively barren month for broad releases this year, it’s a shame Disney didn’t opt ​​for simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases. In keeping with its anti-nature function tradition, it would be good fodder for summer drive-ins. crawl Also Shallow water.

Photo: David Bukach/20th Century Studios

Summer entertainment that really works as an exciting, understated B-movie isn’t an area that modern-day versions of Big Disney usually explore. , it’s probably overkill to expect Disney to diversify the types of movies it makes.

maybe that’s why prey Despite theoretically embodying everything boring and unremarkable about big studio filmmaking, it doesn’t feel shameful. (Hint: predator The riff of the dialogue, there is a connection Predator 2 Trachtenberg’s film exerts an elemental allure of seeing sci-fi/horror weirdness that bends the boundaries of the conflict between man and nature. prey We don’t worship the country, studio, genre, or franchise past. But I have a keen understanding of my place in the history of it all.

prey Debuted on Hulu on August 5th.