It's Just Movies

— by CAM SMITH —

It must be at least a trifle comforting for Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal — the producer and director behind this summer’s eagerly-anticipated “Predators” — to know that, even if their final product turns out painfully mediocre, the film still stands a better-than-even chance at being the second-best installment of the series.

I say this, not to slag the still-in-production effort — which, thus far, actually looks really promising — but rather to illustrate how low the bar has been set by both “Predator 2” and the “AvP” series, which failed to be even half as good as John McTiernan’s 1987 original. At this point, it is literally impossible to make a worse franchise entry than “Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem,” so there’s nowhere to go but up, up, up!

In a groovy new clip (see it below), Rodriguez himself offers up an exclusive mixture of behind-the-scenes video, interviews and finished footage in order to stimulate fans’ saliva glands. And I’ll be damned if I myself wasn’t getting a mite tingly by the time the movie’s logo dramatically revealed itself.

Indeed, there’s plenty of cool stuff on display, from the beautifully lush, foreboding alien-jungle setting (so good to see the creatures back doin’ their thang in the foliage!), to the scads of hardcore weapons and, most importantly, the Predators themselves, alongside their new vicious-looking beasts of burden. I’m also glad that to hear Rodriguez flat-out admitting that Schwarzenegger can’t be topped, so, in casting actors like Adrien Brody, Topher Grace and Laurence Fishburne, he’s going the other way — essentially replacing physical muscle with acting muscle and aiming for a more psychologically involving, albeit still gory and action-packed, picture. Though, he’s obviously left some room for the former, judging by the presence of built-for-badassery Oleg Taktarov (wielding, in a nod to the original, a Gatling gun very much like Jesse Ventura’s!).

While I’m not quite yet 100 percent slavishly committed to the “Predators” cause (thrice bitten…), I’m still really excited by the primal tone and omnipresent danger that Antal and Rodriguez have brought back to the exhausted franchise. If the finished film can manage to build up the required white-knuckle tension, and deliver some seriously inventive bloody slaughter, we may just have a seminal “Predator” flick on our hands. Now, how cool would that be?

Also, the good folks over at Latino Review have published a brief synopsis of the “Predators’” heretofore cloaked-in-mystery plot:

“[The film] stars Adrien Brody as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been brought together on an alien planet…as prey. With the notable exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers-mercenaries, Yakuza convicts, death squad members – human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.”

The baddest of the bad versus the true ultimate worst, huh? Sounds pretty freakin’ awesome.

What do you guys think? Is it time we forgive the sins of the series’ past and look bravely towards the future? What sorts of neat call-backs would you like to see pop up in “Predators”? Strap on your mesh-fatigues and sleek war-helmets and ignite our comments section with your thoughts!

Source: Trailer Addict

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Follow Cam Smith on Twitter at http://twitter.com/camspcepisodes.