[YMS] -So I saw Prey and apparently I'm gonna ruin your day...
I'm not sure why, but there are some people that are upset, that I did not like this movie.
Kind of weird, but I guess I'm used to it at this point...
Spoilers for this movie... I guess...
The original predator movie is something that I haven't seen in a long time and I might appreciate it more now than when I was younger, who knows...
And as for the sequels, I remember them all being pretty bad...
I haven't seen those in a while either, but I don't exactly have any fun memories of them...
With all of those films in mind, I can understand why people are so crazy over this one:
some people really like the predator as a villain or franchise and I guess this would be the second film, out of all of them, that's even debatably good...?
So yeah, if you're a predator fan, I'm happy for you, but uh... as a film, this was not really my cup of tea....
Although, there are some things that I really did like: the design of the predator was fantastic in this film, I think aesthetically, the bone mask looks a lot cooler and more threatening than the traditional metallic mask of the other films,
there's a healthy balance of practical live-action and computer animation in this design.
It all works really well together and Ithink it looks great!
There are also some shots here and there, that look pretty nice: there's some really beautiful Alberta skies that they captured.
I also enjoy the level of ambition, that comes with the "concept" of making this film.
Keyword being concept, because I don't feel as though it was exactly realized...
Conceptually, this is a predator prequel film, set in the 1700s with a majority native american cast and that would be all well and great, if it ever felt authentic.
Having the main actor playing ostensibly the same race as the character she's portraying, doesn't make up for the fact that she looks like an actor...
In every shot she looks like she's fresh out of makeup, she's got plucked eyebrows and perfect teeth, she doesn't look particularly athletic...
And perhaps this wouldn't be as much of an issue, if she were a better actor; but it seems like in every single shot, she doesn't react like a real person would to anything...?
She's constantly doing that thing that some actors do, where they're trying to look pretty at the same time...
She's never absorbed into the moment and I can feel the ego dripping off the screen...
Oh help... I'm totally getting attacked by a bear right now and you can really tell that by my performance...😒
It also doesn't help the film's authenticity that the CG animals look really bad...
some of them much worse than others...
The film is suggesting that this is a character from the 1700s and there's conflict with animals, but the inauthenticity in what they're showing is preventing me from feeling that way, when I'm watching it...
Another consistent aspect of this film, that constantly reminds me that it's just a bunch of actors in a film is the dialogue:
it is cheesy, it is terrible, it is eye-rolling, and the performances delivering this dialogue, certainly are not helping...
[Clip] -The cold is good, the medicine slows his blood, if he gets warm he'll bleed out.
-Next time you're cooking
-I saw what left those tracks. -The bear?
-There was a bear, but there was something else... and it was huge....
-You need a leash for your weapon?
-We have him
-No, he has us!
[YMS] -UGH! *stupid voice* No, he has us.
It's so cheesy!
I like how she prioritized finishing that exchange, instead of just saying "look out!"
[Clip] -What are you doing?
-I have a plan.
Get down!
[YMS] -The delivery is so bad!
It is a constant reminder, that these are actors in a movie!
And before you tell me that there's actually a Comanche dub of the whole movie, yes I already knew that, there was a huge social media campaign advertising it on reddit and elsewhere.
But I watched the original audio track! I watched it in the language that the actors are speaking in the film!
I would have preferred, if they were speaking Comanche... it's kind of lame that they're pretending that this is a native american tribe in the 1700s and they're all speaking english to each other, most of the time...
and don't pretend for a fucking second, that having the original audio track in the film being comanche, is some crazy thing that could never happen,
because that is how it was originally pitched to studios and according to one of the producers a merger sidelined the idea...
Hmm... I wonder what merger they're talking about here, hmm suspicious...
So yeah, it sounds like something we could have had, but someone decided to be very cowardly about it, "Wow everybody, we're so progressive we included the first comanche dub ever. By the way the movie was
"supposed to be filmed in comanche but we shut that one down huh hyuck! Gorsh!"
It's kind of lame! And it works against the film!
It is more lame and less believable, because of it!
Dubs are distracting, the audio doesn't sync with their lip movements, I do not like it!
[Clip] *Comanche dub*
The music in this film was pretty mid...
it wasn't great, it wasn't terrible...
Uh, I forgot to record a line, or I accidentally deleted it... uh here's what it was supposed to sound like uh, "despite the music not being great or terrible it was often overbearing and unnecessary"
There we go...
Like when she ties the rope around the hatchet and she's practicing and hitting trees...
Like, what is this tone??
It's so cheesy and inappropriate...
It would be so much more interesting and effective, if there were no music at all here.
Is there a countdown timer? Is there a bomb that's gonna go off?
Just let me watch the character do her thing, without these weird insistences, that only serve to remind me that it's a movie...
I don't like it.
Now despite some of the shots in this movie looking great, there are sequences that are pretty poorly filmed:
there are parts of this movie that approach World War Z levels of cut frequency.
And it's not like they're filming anything particularly complicated, all they would need to do is get proper choreography and rehearsal, but nope, they just cut as many times as possible, so you can't tell what's going on...
How many cuts do you need?! When you don't let the action play out it, feels like there's a lack of care and coordination.
It looks like you're trying to cover up for choreography, that would look really lame, if you could actually see it properly...
One of the biggest issues I have with this film is its tone: a lot of these issues would be a bit more forgiving if it just didn't take itself so seriously...
The music is very seriously toned throughout the entire movie!
The music! Why so serious?!
Sure there are moments in the film where it's clearly trying to be funny, but unfortunately the overwhelming majority of the goofiness in this film, does not come across as intentional...
Like, this right here is a serious scene...
[Clip] -Help me!
I'm sorry, how did the guy with ONE LEG sneak up on her??
The sound of his gun cocking, is what finally alerted her that he was there...
Was he standing there the whole time??
Whether he's crawling or hopping, you'd think that that would make a little bit of noise...
If this film were just less seriously toned, then it wouldn't work against it as much.
Same with the cheesy writing, the cheesy acting and oh boy those cheesy sound effects...
Oh shit! Is this the new Benny Banassi
🎵Push me, and then just touch me🎵
[YMS] -When the tone of your film is so serious, it kind of works against it when you throw in things like the "Wilhelm Scream."
Am I supposed to think that this scene is funny?!
Her family is dying and she's in danger, yeah let's put in the wilhelm scream... huh huh!
The way she kills the predator at the end is also incredibly stupid and at no point does the film feel like it's doing it as a cheesy joke...
Nope, this is the real climax of the film everybody, it just happened to stay perfectly still for her for a long time so that she could kill it, yay...
On paper, this movie seems unique and special, but in practice it's just another dumb action horror movie.
It is pedestrian, familiar, formulaic and unsurprising.
when they established at the beginning of the movie that the main character wants to be a hunter, but no one around her will believe that she can hunt, because she's so bad at it and she's a girl or something...
I said out loud that she's going to bring back the predator's head as a trophy at the end and that's exactly what happened!
Oh she fell in the mud pit, I wonder if this is gonna come back at the end of the movie... oh it did wow! Oh no her dog ran away I wonder if it's going to come back and save her at the end, oh doi!
There were no surprises, there were no interesting or likable characters;
I don't know why anyone's acting as if this is a new movie...
I've seen it before, many times!
Make something new, please...
Anyways, you can probably tell, this movie was not exactly my cup of tea, if all I cared about in the movie was the predator looking cool, then this would be great for me;
but a movie for me, is made up of many more parts than that and those parts were not good...
If you love this movie, then I'm happy for you and don't let me stop you from enjoying it, but as for me, I'm giving this one a 4 out of 10.
Thank you.
[Adum] -Don't go in the same spot!
What are you doing?!
This is my side get the fuck away from me!
I'm gonna go over he- don't follow me!
We're trying to be on a team!
We're trying to be on a team! Go to different places!
Oh my gaaaahhhd!
Go to different places!
[Friend] -Here I come, daddyyyyyyyy AAAHHHHHH
[Adum] -YOU PEOPLE SUCK!
YOU PEOPLE SUCK SO MUCH!
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