4 out of 5

Director: Nimrod Antal

Is it really four stars? No, not really, you caught me. This is a three star movie. However, credit is due to the Predators team – director Nimrod Antal, producer Robert Rodriguez, and the whole troupe of actors – for delivering a film that is a great reminder of what solid 90s action movies used to be… i.e. before flash cuts and gritty camera work, before Bruckheimer slow-mo explosions and before overdone CGI. Predators opens up somewhere after the first movie, with Adrien Brody waking up in free-fall before landing in a jungle. This is a cold opening, no credits, and its great. Down to business. Soon we are introduced to the rest of the troupe… and then to the knowledge that this aint earth… and then to the understanding that said troupe is being hunted. The greatest aspect of the characters is that therere no throwaways. Everyone plays a certain type, for sure, but the parts are written clearly and well, and all get a fair shake on the planet before their particular plot lines play out. The violence and shooting style are also more old-school, with the kind of dirty shootouts that seemed grisly during the first Predator but that crowds got spoiled on when they started showing more blood on CSI than they did in R-Rated films. So on those terms, I think a lot of new film goers might be bored by this. They APPROPRIATELY wait to show you the monsters, and they save some good tribute moments and violence for key parts. But for more patient peoples, and anyone who misses 90s action, Predators was a lot of fun, and wouldve been a great followup to #1 (or even #2) back in the day.