Prey Parent Guide

Although Naru (Amber Midthunder) is skilled and capable, her role in the Comanche Nation in the 1700s is limited to foraging and learning medicine. Her dreams of hunting and fighting seem destined to lead her nowhere, except into trouble, until she sees a strange light in the sky and finds bizarre tracks in the woods. The tracks are mixed with those of a mountain lion, leading the community’s hunters after it. But what Naru has found is far bigger and more dangerous than a mountain lion. All but invisible, able to kill silently from a distance, and gifted with thermal vision, what Naru has found is nothing short of the most dangerous predator Earth has ever seen…yet.

Now, while I love seeing a film with an almost exclusively indigenous cast, I’m struggling to come up with another good reason for this movie to exist. The fun of the original 1987 film (Predator, of which I am a huge fan) is, apart from Arnold Schwarzenegger yelling incomprehensibly into the jungle, in learning the Predator’s abilities and rulebook so our heroes can defeat him. It’s exciting because we as the audience don’t know much more about the alien than the heroes, and we get to figure it out with them. Thirty-five years after the original film, we all know who and what the Predator is. Watching a different cast figure it out just isn’t compelling.

Now, this isn’t a total rehash of the original, even if it does plod down the same gory path. There’s been a pretty substantial redesign of the Predator, particularly the iconic helmet/face mask, which does fit him into the 18^th century a little more elegantly. I had a bigger issue with changes to his actual face, but that might just me being an 80s action purist. This just isn’t your dad’s Predator anymore.

Much like the original, this is not a film for children. Although this installment in the franchise avoids some of the sexual innuendo and profanity, it is just as bloody. People and animals have their heads (with spine still attached, thank you very much) torn clean off their bodies, and are shot with arrows and darts, stabbed, dismembered, and skinned. Standard Predator behaviour though this may be, it’s still not kid friendly.

This really is just Predator trying to be The Revenant (including a big CGI bear fight) and while it doesn’t really work, it doesn’t clash as terribly as you might expect. The film doesn’t bring much to the franchise, but it isn’t unbearable, and if you’re of age and a fan of the dreadlocked alien, this might qualify as a fun diversion. If you’re new to the franchise, I’d recommend going back to the original. If nothing else, how many other big action movies feature not one but two future US state governors?