Predators (2010)

I'm not sure I can discuss this movie at all without discussing it in its entirety, so SPOILERS ABOUND.

You had to figure that there would be a point to Topher Grace's character because he's just so pointless for so long, but, as I was lulled into his pointlessness until shortly before the reveal, I was actually chilled by it. Well played, movie/Grace. Of course, I strangely found it a relief because he was the worst doctor ever. Honestly. I kept being like, "Do you want to offer any of these guys some medical care? No?" Even when he himself is bleeding, he does not suggest bandaging the wound. I survived the Predator Preserve and all I got was this lousy gangrene!

Here's something I need explained to me: movie characters who have nothing to live for have the greatest will to live. Survival instinct and military training would only take you so far, wouldn't they?* Maybe I wouldn't know because I've never been in a life or death situation, but, for the love of peace did I not understand what was motivating Royce (Adrien Brody). We're told he's a mercenary, and he uses Hemingway to deflect/illuminate the idea that he just might really love the hunt/killing people. But if that's all you've got in your life (no family, no friends, no name until the very end), wouldn't you love the Predator Preserve? Wouldn't you be really excited to be there and get to do what you love all the time? The Predators themselves don't seem to be hunting for fun or spoil (we only see one collect the traditional head/spine trophy despite multiple kills) but to hone their skills. Maybe the Predators didn't factor in the idea that getting kidnapped and dropped on some weird jungle planet doesn't bring out your best game. They should include little guide books with the parachutes: Congratulations! You've been selected for Predator Planet, a boundless game preserve on which you will almost certainly die!

The movie itself is pretty much what you'd expect from the genre: sketchily drawn ensemble cast, one liners, heavy on action, and short on plot. From the shocking opening to the oppressively heavy rain forest, DP Gyula Pados' work is of a far higher calibre than the merely competent work you'd normally see. Aside from that and the usual, there's really only Louis Ozawa Changchien as a member of the Yakuza to pay attention to. As soon as it was made clear he was Yakuza, I inwardly cheered, but then I started to worry that I was reverse Othering by fetishizing the Other (Yakuza, ninjas, samurai) instead of dealing with any negative feelings I may have about the Other, and it is a strange day indeed when a movie with no deep thoughts of its own makes you confront your own potential racism. C-

*It's sort of the opposite of Buffy at the end of Season Two when Angelus is all, "Now that's everything, huh? No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away and what's left?" and goes in for the killing blow, but she stops it and says me, "Me." Her will to live is greater than the traditional things one would rely on to sustain it because her will to live is directly tied into the fate of the world. Things keep coming back to Buffy lately, but it was a really good show.