PREY is touted as being part of the PREDATOR series, and I suppose it is. But it absolutely can be a standalone film.
Amber Midthunder plays Naru, a very tough (dare I say scrappy) Comanche, who bristles under the scorn of the male warriors in her tribe, and has trainer herself to be a hunter in a society where no one wants her to be one. However, she's a good tracker and good with medicine (and also has a very indulgent brother), so she gets to tag along on some scouting expeditions and hunts. Set in 1719, in the heart of the American plains, Naru is a competent but smart-mouthed teenager. In fact, the dialogue, to put it mildly, is often anachronistic, or at least I assume it is given I know nothing about how Comanche actually talked to each other in 1719.
But while out on her own, working on her axe-throwing, Naru gets a glimpse of an alien vessel in the sky, leaving after dropping off a Predator. No one believes her, and some of the subsequent carnage is chalked up to cougars or bears. And indeed, they do encounter those animals and other predators. But we certainly know that before long, they're going to run into something just a bit more difficult to track and kill.
PREY is very serious about its action sequences, and while they are impressive, what I really enjoyed was seeing Naru come into her own. She kicks butt, but uses her considerable wits to even greater effect. Her hunting and fighting is clumsy and hesitant at first, but she's a fast learner, and soon has motivation aplenty to mame and kill. Midthunder, I should say here, is excellent and very convincing.
My only real gripe with the film is that it is slow to get started. The sequences early in the film are interesting, but each time we are teased with the possibility that the action is going to ratchet up, and then it does not. Some might argue the film is building tension and character. It feels more like the film wanted to be sure it was 90 minutes long, so padded it with some stuff.
But when it does kick into higher gear, you can't fault it. There is action. There is gore. There is plenty of inventive killing from the Predator. And there is Naru, thinking faster than anyone, acting faster and simply perplexing the heck out of the Predator. It's lots of fun, and if you're looking for a fix of action, but need something different, PREY is your ticket to a good time!
Amber Midthunder plays Naru, a very tough (dare I say scrappy) Comanche, who bristles under the scorn of the male warriors in her tribe, and has trainer herself to be a hunter in a society where no one wants her to be one. However, she's a good tracker and good with medicine (and also has a very indulgent brother), so she gets to tag along on some scouting expeditions and hunts. Set in 1719, in the heart of the American plains, Naru is a competent but smart-mouthed teenager. In fact, the dialogue, to put it mildly, is often anachronistic, or at least I assume it is given I know nothing about how Comanche actually talked to each other in 1719.
But while out on her own, working on her axe-throwing, Naru gets a glimpse of an alien vessel in the sky, leaving after dropping off a Predator. No one believes her, and some of the subsequent carnage is chalked up to cougars or bears. And indeed, they do encounter those animals and other predators. But we certainly know that before long, they're going to run into something just a bit more difficult to track and kill.
PREY is very serious about its action sequences, and while they are impressive, what I really enjoyed was seeing Naru come into her own. She kicks butt, but uses her considerable wits to even greater effect. Her hunting and fighting is clumsy and hesitant at first, but she's a fast learner, and soon has motivation aplenty to mame and kill. Midthunder, I should say here, is excellent and very convincing.
My only real gripe with the film is that it is slow to get started. The sequences early in the film are interesting, but each time we are teased with the possibility that the action is going to ratchet up, and then it does not. Some might argue the film is building tension and character. It feels more like the film wanted to be sure it was 90 minutes long, so padded it with some stuff.
But when it does kick into higher gear, you can't fault it. There is action. There is gore. There is plenty of inventive killing from the Predator. And there is Naru, thinking faster than anyone, acting faster and simply perplexing the heck out of the Predator. It's lots of fun, and if you're looking for a fix of action, but need something different, PREY is your ticket to a good time!
