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Posts Tagged ‘Aliens’

Much like the Robocop series that started around the same time, the Predator franchise never really hit the levels of quality that the first instalment promised.  1990’s Predator 2 was a fairly dull affair, with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action movie profile and presence replaced by a gruff Danny Glover basically reprising his Lethal Weapon shtick and doing the best he can with a plodding and occasionally ridiculous plot.  Since then we’ve had the team-up with the Alien franchise for two movies – one mediocre and one downright dreadful – that has seen the once-intimidating hunter become nothing more than a slightly chubby and quite cartoonish bit-player (we all know the Alien is the real star!).

But luckily Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Sin City) was taking note and has now given us – or had a big hand in giving us – Predators.  Ignoring the Alien vs. Predator movies and bypassing Predator 2 (although apparently that one still counts), this new movie tries to do to the 1997 original what James Cameron’s Aliens did for Ridley Scott’s original Xenomorph adventure by adding an ‘s’ to the title, upping the ante and giving us more of what made the first movie so great.  Does it achieve its goal, or is the Predator franchise destined to stay as one awesome movie and a series of cack follow-ups?

Plot-wise this pretty much follows the same course as the original, and that isn’t a bad thing as the franchise’s history has taught us that straying from the basics too far makes for a crap film.  The movie opens with Royce (Adrien Brody) waking up to discover that he is hurtling towards the ground at a serious rate.  After landing in a strange jungle he is joined by several other characters – including Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), Edwin (Topher Grace) and Isabelle (Alice Braga) – who have all had a similar journey, none of them knowing how they got there or why they are there.  It soon transpires that the group all have something in common; that in some form or another they are all killers, and that they are being hunted in a deadly game by an unseen and seemingly indestructible force on a strange planet. 

Of course, we all know who the invisible hunters are, as this movie is relying on the fact that we have all seen the original Predator and is really playing to all the fanboys out there who have craved a decent sequel to Arnie’s actionfest.  To add to the action, there is also something of a ‘blood war’ going on within the Predator ranks, as a stronger and more powerful breed is at loggerheads with what we may now call the ‘classic’ Predator. 

The newer Predator design is fantastic and – at last – the beast is once again intimidating like it was the first time around.  With minimal CGI and some decent camera shots – instead of the ultra-fast quick-edits we’re used to seeing in action movies these days – the battle scenes are pacey and adrenaline-filled but still with a sense of clarity, so the action is never muddled.  There is less of a focus on the technical gadgetry of the last couple of movies, so the hunter is back to using more of his basic tools and this gives it more of that primal edge that has been sorely lacking.  Combine this with some stunning visuals and a claustrophobic atmosphere and the fanboys should all be gushing about this movie.

But there are faults here, namely the casting.  Somebody somewhere decided that Adrien Brody – fine actor that he is – was a suitable candidate to step into Arnie’s no-doubt huge shoes (or boots!) and carry a macho, testosterone-filled sci-fi /action movie such as this – and they were wrong!  Putting on a silly and unnecessarily gravelly voice doesn’t make you any tougher or charismatic than you are; just ask Christian Bale.  And looking like a gangly version of Alistair McGowan (English impressionist, for our overseas readers) doesn’t do much for the action hero stakes, either.

Also, the characters aren’t as rounded as those in the original, and there is a distinct lack of the quirky humour and quotable lines that peppered that movie.  Not that the movie suffers too much for it but a bit of light relief would have been welcome, especially about two-thirds of the way through when the pacing dips and there’s still too many characters onscreen, ushering in a rather rushed final act.

Overall, though, Predators does its job and provides a decent action/sci-fi adventure in the spirit of its timeless source material.  Casting and pacing issues aside, there’s plenty here for audiences get their teeth into and although the original is still the definitive Predator movie, for those fancying something different but with enough familiarity to keep you interested then you could do a lot worse than this.

Rating: 7/10

Summary: Casting and pacing issues lose it a mark but overall this is the first decent sequel to an 80′s classic.  It may not have the staying power of the original but for those after a fix of up-to-date Predator action, this is as good as it gets.

If you like this then try: Aliens, Rambo, Apocalypse Now, The Thing, Universal Soldier.

For more information on Predators go to: www.predators-movie.com

Directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, ‘District 9’ is the end product from a process that started with a movie based on the ‘Halo’ video game. After that $150m project was aborted, Jackson got behind the young director and made this adaption of Blomkamp’s own short film ‘Alive in Joberg’.

An alien mothership has been floating in the sky above post-Apartheid Johannesburg for the last twenty years. In that time, humans managed to get aboard the ship and discovered a race of aliens who were malnourished and on the brink of dying, so they were all brought to Earth and housed in a containment area know as District 9, which has since turned into a slum. Now in the present day, the corporate body known as MNU is being forced to evict the aliens – known as ‘prawns’ and who have an appetite for cat food – from their refugee camp to rehouse them elsewhere. The eviction project is being led by oily beaurocrat Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), who enters the area with military backing and proceeds to bully and harass the prawns into leaving.

Whilst Wikus is in the process of throwing out the prawn known as Christopher Johnson, it becomes apparent that Johnson is attempting something as there is a small hidden workshop at the back of his shack. Wikus picks up a canister of mysterious black fluid and tries to open it, spraying himself in the face and immediately starting to feel sick. Over the course of the next few hours, Wikus starts to develop a huge appetite and begins throwing up black fluid, so he is taken to hospital where he discovers his injured arm that has been bandaged up has turned into an alien claw. Captured by the military, who wish to harness his spliced DNA as the alien weapons they have collected cannot be used by human hands, Wikus escapes and returns to the only place of safety he can think of – District 9, where he enlists the help of Christopher Johnson, who says he can return Wikus back to normal aboard the mothership, but he needs the canister of black fluid to use as a fuel for the command vessel hidden beneath his shack. Unfortunately the canister was confiscated by the military team at MNU, so Wikus and Christopher must defy all the odds and break into their lab to retrieve it, before Wikus fully transforms into a prawn.

And so there the stage is set for a battle of humanity/aliens against military regime. The first thing to say about ‘District 9’ is that is it very refreshing to have an alien invasion-based movie where America doesn’t save the world. The second thing is that by setting it in Johannesburg and covering themes as military oppression and segregation, the makers could have been opening a big can of worms as far as politics goes, but fortunately the political subtext is fairly underplayed.

In terms of production and filmmaking, ‘District 9’ is a triumph. Blomkamp shows excellent promise with his directional style, using cinema vérité techniques to good effect, and when mixed with the Peter Jackson-influenced gore effects, the overall faux-documentary style is a lot more convincing than some of the other similarly-styled movies of recent times. The CGI prawns are all excellently animated too, showing that realistic CGI can be achieved on a relatively small budget (‘District 9’ was made for the comparatively ‘low’ price of $30m) and the mothership effects are probably amongst the best that have ever been seen in a movie.

But get beyond the style and the filmmaking techniques, and therein lies the problem with ‘District 9’ – well made and great to look at, but not a lot else to get the audience invested in it. The character of Wikus was so detestable to begin with that by the time his fate was sealed and the audience knows his destiny, it was very difficult to empathise with him; even the scene where he phones his wife to try and explain what has happened to him was flat. Similarly, the supporting characters are either very horrible or totally generic, never allowing the viewer to get attatched. In a move similar to the character of Yoda in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, the most sympathetic and almost ‘human’ character in the whole thing is Christopher Johnson, a CGI alien who communicates in bleeps and screeches.

Overall, ‘District 9’ is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is very well made, nice to look at, and offers a few fun action sequences in a sort of ‘Transformers’ meets ‘Starship Troopers’ kind of way, and the hand-held camera-style sequences are very realistic. On the other hand, shallow characters and some gaping plot holes – some may be deliberate, as there is a definite nod towards a sequel – means that it doesn’t hold the attention as maybe it should and it may not be a movie that warrants repeated viewings.

Rating: 6/10

Summary: Solid production values and some great visuals, but lacking most other departments.

If you like this then try: Starship Troopers, Aliens, Total Recall, V, Cloverfield, Independance Day, Robocop, Transformers.

 Click on DVD cover to purchase.