"If you could do it over again, would you still make the same choice?"Fox and Robert Rodriguez are pushing Predators as the real sequel to the 1987 original (although I never had much of a problem with Predator 2, to be honest), and this fan-letter to John McTiernan's film shows many echoes, in characterisation, (slightly dated) style and basic narrative set-ups. Predators is a solid sci-fi actioner, attractively if unadventurously directed, with a well-structured narrative, fairly dull (and mostly humourless) dialogue and some effectively-paced action - as hoped for, the Predator attacks are mostly swift and brutal, even if these Predators seem quite easy to kill, whether the original version or the new sub-species. The cast is diverse and mostly committed, even if their default expression seems to be mild puzzlement throughout. Adrien Brody and Alice Braga serve the film well as the nominal leads, and in the stereotypically underwritten supporting cast Topher Grace does some good work, apart from an appalling narrative mis-step with his character towards the end that almost derails the film and gives rise to a few lines of astonishingly bad dialogue. Kudos to Laurence Fishburne for his brief but nicely-judged turn. The decision to keep mainly to physical action and effects works in the film's favour, with sparingly-used CGI looking good. Predators is entertaining, interesting rather than thrilling, and serves its purpose in putting the Predators back in cinemas in their own right. Now it's over to Ridley Scott to do the same with the Alien prequels.....
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