When Action Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
To fully appreciate the legacy set by the original Predator, one needs to remember the state of 1980s movies. After decades of heroes like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, ‘80s action embraced excess. Big guys like Arnold and Sylvester Stallone carried big guns to make big explosions and drop big quips. Predator both celebrated and undercut these movies, playing like the most over-the-top ‘80s action film for its first half. McTiernan spends ample time not only showing us the heroes wreaking destruction but also bragging about their muscles and sexual abilities. But when the Predator arrives and decimates the commandos, the movie settles into its thesis: these guys may be big, but there’s always something bigger.
By 2010, things had changed. In the same year that Schwarzengger and Stallone would pioneer the “Geezer Teaser” genre with The Expendables, action movies were in a fallow period. With the spark of The Matrix extinguished by too many inferior pretenders, and The Raid: Redemption not coming for another year, action movies lacked a clear identity. There was no cultural milieu into which oncoming producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimród Antel could ground their movie.
So instead of gathering recognizable action heroes, Rodriguez and Antel opted for character actors. Except for Danny Trejo and possibly Oleg Taktarov, Predators starred actors who would either become bigger names later in their careers, such as Mahershala Ali and Walton Goggins, or those known for dramatic or comedic roles, including Topher Grace and Alice Braga. They each play different examples of earthling killers: Ali as a death squad soldier from Sierra Leone; Louis Ozawa Changchien as a Yakuza assassin; Braga as a sniper in the Israeli Defense Force (because apparently dumb Americans can’t tell the difference between a Brazilian and an Israeli). They’re brought to a planet that functions as a game reserve, and the group tries to stay alive against the trio of Predators testing their skills.
Setting Up the Prey
On paper, Predators shouldn’t work. Despite the skill of the actors involved, they fundamentally play stereotypes. Taktarov’s Nikolai is a massive Spetsnaz soldier who carries a chain gun and gets sappy talking about his family. Changchien’s Hanzo remains stealthy and quiet, revealing the missing fingers on his hand and dies during an honorable duel with a Predator. They have as much cultural specificity as the boxers from Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.
And yet, it’s that very silliness that makes Predators so effective. We see that most clearly with Brody’s performance as Royce, an ex-special forces mercenary who insists that he cares only about himself but constantly helps others in the group. The usually lanky Brody clearly puts on muscle for the movie and looks impressive during the requisite shirtless standoff at the climax. But he seems to be playing a parody of a tough guy, delivering all of his lines in a comical whisper. With his arched eyebrows and squinted eyes, it seems like Brody’s trying to communicate world-weariness, but instead, he looks confused by anyone who takes him seriously.
Throwing Brody’s performance into relief is a brief and glorious cameo by Laurence Fishburne as Noland, an air cavalry soldier who has been living on the planet for several years. Fishburne brings his formidable presence to the scene, filling up the screen as he chastises the others for making too much noise as they move through the jungle or admire his supplies. But as we come to realize that Noland is absolutely nuts, given to ranting at an imaginary partner, Fishburne brings all of his comedic chops, making for a scene that reveals the whole thing to be very silly. Whatever Brody and his fellow top-level actors were trying to say about the nature of teamwork or redeeming one’s past, Fishburne arrives to remind everyone that this is a movie about ugly aliens ripping out the spines of hapless humans.
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