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Friday, November 26, 2010

PREDATORS

Directed by Nimród Antal
Starring Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Laurence Fishburne, Carey Jones, Brien Steele, Derek Mears

The now legendary filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Sin City) conjured the plot for this sequel back in 1994 but couldn't get it into production because the budget was considered too high at the time. Predators finally saw green light 15 years later and ended on the big screen this year. Rodriguez was originally going to direct his own script but later settled on producing with his script heavily altered and with directorial duties appointed to Antal (Vacancy, Armored). First mistake. Rodriguez's original script was much more based on the strange new world the characters find themselves in at the beginning of the film but Antal saw it fit to strip the script down to the more traditional hunting scenario. Second mistake.

A group of various elite warriors find themselves in a strange new world with no recollection of how they got there and soon realise that someone or something is hunting them for prey and sport.

Predators is not that bad. It starts off brilliantly and keeps rolling nicely accompanied with fresh ideas and genuine thrill of awe and wonder for the new world but then slowly and disappointingly starts to slip into the (perhaps way too) familiar set-up of rolling in the mud and running in the jungle. That familiar scenario might have worked fine with a better director but Antal isn't great with action and looses the momentum in the third reel and Predators somehow falls to pieces which are then desperately stitched together, hopelessly, thanks largely to a certain "shocking" and shitty character revelation. In the end the film isn't the worst action pic for the sunday hangover but a disappointment when you wonder what it could've been with Rodriguez's original script and direction.

KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Kaksikymmentä vuotta Predator 2 -leffan jälkeen sarja täyttyi trilogiaksi ja vaikka lopputulos on allekirjoittaneen mielestä saagan huonoin, on tämä silti ihan kelpoa mäiskintäviihdettä. Se ettei Predatorsia voi nostaa korkeammalle jalustalle johtuu suurelti ohjaajansa, Antalin kyvyttömyydestä pitää homma kasassa loppuun asti. Leffa hajoaa viimeisen kolmanneksen aikana ja vaikka sitä yritetään epätoivoisesti tikata kasaan, ei lopputulosta voi silmäänpistävän onnistuneeksi kuvailla. Tuottajaksi vetäytynyt Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror) loi Predatorsin alkuperäisen käsikirjoituksen jo vuonna 1994 ja sen värikkäästä monipuolisuudesta on tässä esillä vain radikaalisti karsittu ötökkähippa vieraassa viidakossa. Suurin menetys tässä on ajatella millainen Predatos olisi ollut Rodriguezin alkuperäisellä kässärillä ja ohjauksella.. *huoh*

Predators at IMDb

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