OUT NOW: Prey

In the 1700s, a young Comanche woman, Naru (Amber Midthunder), dreams of being a hunter.

When she joins her brother and the other hunters to track down a mountain lion, 

In her quest to prove her abilities, Naru will have to pit herself against another mysterious hunter on a similar quest to prove itself against other top predators…

Just when I was bemoaning the blot of Bullet Train, along comes Prey.

Prey is what the Predator series should have been.

Take an established story and drop a Predator in it.

The first movie is a beefcake 80s action movie - and then the Predator shows up.

The second movie is a cop action movie starring Murtagh - and then the Predator shows up.

Prey is a coming of age story about a young woman who wants to be acknowledged as a hunter by her people - and then a Predator… you get the idea.

 

The key thing is that the Predator is a new variable in a genre story that we are vaguely familiar with.

It helps that this story would still work without the Predator.

There is a version of this story where Naru goes on the hunt and undergoes a similar journey.

There are so many scenes which are effective without the presence of the familiar alien, from Naru’s relationship with her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers), to her attempt to hunt a lion, or her discovery of a herd of skinned buffalo rotting in a field.

The Predator just raises the stakes.

Amber Midthunder is terrific in the lead role. Tough, practical and deadpan, she is a great action hero who never feels like she is fitting into a template.

Beavers is also great as her brother. It can be thankless role to be the barrier to another person’ a success but the role is better constructed than that, and he brings a gravitas and flinty empathy that is great.

He also gets one of the more overt callbacks to the original film and it does not feel like fan service.

Midthunder and Beavers also have a great, unstated dynamic as siblings, down to the way he nudges her awake in one scene.

They might spark off each other, but there is a level of trust between them that is refreshing.

There is no need for an obnoxious exposition drop.

That sense of economy extends to the whole movie - character is largely conveyed through action.

If I have criticisms, they are minor - and relate to the portrayal of the Predator itself.

Part of it is nostalgia and awareness of the original. 

The 1987 movie is a miracle born of circumstance - like Jaws, the filmmakers  had to rely on a slow build of tension because they did not have a working design for the Predator. 

There are scenes where I feel like we see too much of the predator too early.

There are a few too many scenes where the CGI is obvious, and could have been obscured with a more subtle approach in camerawork to obscure it.

It is a fault of contemporary filmmaking, but maybe it is also because this is the upteenth version of the Predator so the mystery is a bit pointless.

The other thing I could not help but notice was the creature’s movements. Performer Dane DiLiegro is blunt and brutish in his physicality in a way that feels a bit stiff. 

Perhaps this is a choice - this is meant to be the first time these creatures came into contact with humanity - but I think the movie could have sacrificed that continuity for greater suspense.

The other unique element that the original movie had was the late actor Kevin Peter Hall, who brought a presence and grace to the creature that remains terrifying.

Hall developed a specific series of movements for the creature, but that specificity has been missing from his successors.

This might just be my own nostalgia. DiLiegro os effective in the role.

Back to what is great about the movie.

We get a variety of different set pieces in different locations, and the finale is not a damp squib. There are also no big dollops of fan service.

While this movie is technically a prequel, it never feels like the movie is bending itself into a pretzel to set up events in the future.

This is its own beast. 

Overall, Prey is the kind of stripped-down action thriller I love, with a great lead performance at its centre. The movie it reminded me of the most was Sweetheart, another small-scale genre piece.

Prey is a great movie.