PREY
August 5th, 2022
20th Century Studios
Available on HULU in the U.S.A.
9/10
I honestly wasn’t expecting much in the form of a plot from the latest release in the PREDATOR series. Thanks to a deceiving trailer, I knew there would be some blood soaked fight and death scenes, and at the very least a cool new design for The Predator. After two lackluster cross-overs with ALIENS, and a shockingly ridiculous 2018 soft-reboot, PREY is what Predator was always meant to be.
The superior acting of Amber Midthunder, and Dakota Beavers, interwoven with the Comanche tribe’s lore, and the authentic character development of Midthunder’s Naru allows PREY to raise the bar on what we’ve come to expect from the PREDATOR franchise. There may be minor historical inaccuracies but whom amongst us can say with complete certainty that French fur trappers didn’t slaughter entire herds of Buffalo, leaving their carcasses to rot in open fields? It was also great to see an early, less technologically advanced version of the Predator, relying on swords and projectile missiles, as this is the alien hunter’s first known trip to Earth.
The movie’s CGI blends seamlessly with the real world locations, making the northern Great Plains of North America in 1719 feel like a familiar yet completely alien world. Forget about the mindless battles between muscles and lasers, PREY is a smart movie and deserves the title of best Sci-fi/Action flick in recent memory.
Welcome to the ranks of action superhero and Disney Princess, Amber Midthunder!