For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Predators
The Impression:
Yet another Hollywood remake of an old property. Needed? No. Wanted? More so than a third entry in the
Transformers
trilogy. And surely, surely it has to be better than any of
the AVP films.
The Reality:
I grew up on 80s
action movies. My father showed
me Die Hard (much to the chagrin of my mother) when I
was barely six. I can still remember bloody knees and my
father hiding under his baseball cap. Predator
was a landmark for me, a frightening action romp that sat in
my mind like a bloody stone, keeping me awake deep in to the
night. The second film, all
urban gusto and over-cookin’, made me cringe, and I didn’t
even engage the long, drawn demise of the legends at hand in
the Alien VS
Predator films. When they
announced this remake, I wanted a lot from it.
And Nimrod Antal, bless him, has done a fine job of paying
homage to the past while still blazing a new trail forward,
while laying the groundwork in a non-obnoxious way, for a
series of new films. This is a big, dark, gory film (though
I will admit I could’ve done with more practical gore and
less CGI-ed head explosions) that only occasionally dips in
to silly jokes, and plays the tenseness and fear angle to
the nines.
My only regret? That a Predator when you’re 28 looks like an
obese man with dreadlocks.
The Lesson:
If you’re going to remake, at least remake it
right.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The
Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and
the KEXP blog. He also has his own
Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.
If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
- Noah Sanders
- -
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