Prey: Predator prequel that surpasses the original

On August 5, the digital release of the hit movie Prey, the prequel to the Predator franchise, took place. Critics liked the new picture so much that they rated it even higher than the original film. We will tell you about the reason for such love for him from the press, how Amber Midthunder found a savage in herself and where you can watch the long-awaited film.

The plot of the film “Production”

Prey is the latest installment in the long-running Predator franchise. These films tell about the confrontation between earthlings and a race of alien warriors who hunt down people as their prey and arrange a deadly hunt for them to prove their combat prowess. The first part of this series was released back in 1987, then the role of the main “prey” for the alien was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and at the Oscars the film was noted for its breakthrough visual effects for its time. In subsequent years, as many as 3 sequels were released for the picture, several times the Predator universe was even merged with the Alien movie universe, but until recently, no film in the franchise could achieve the same success as the original.

The action of “Production” takes place in 1719. A young Comanche woman named Naru dreams of becoming a great hunter for her tribe. One day, while walking through the woods, she sees a “thunderbird” in the sky, which actually turns out to be a predator’s spaceship. Considering this a sign of the gods, Nara is going to the mountains to hunt dangerous animals with his tribe. She does not even imagine that she herself will become prey.

The film was written and directed by Dan Trachtenberg. He is best known for his work on several episodes of Black Mirror and The Boys. According to him, he was inspired to work on “Prey” by the work of George Miller:

“I was very inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road. Because of him, I thought that I also want to make a film that would be one continuous action. I focused on the action and emotion that ultimately created the picture.”

The film began to be developed back in 2018, but due to the pandemic, plans for its production were postponed. The shooting took place in the mountains of the Canadian province of Alberta, where the team was able to find many untouched natural landscapes, beautiful and harsh at the same time. Trachtenberg claims that his main task was not so much to bring something new to the Predator, but to return it to its roots:

“We wanted to return to the very ingenuity of man, his inner strength. What we wanted from the film was the primal fear of the unknown, the triumph of victory over a stronger opponent.”

Actors of the film “Production”

The main role in the film was played by a young American actress Amber Midthunder. For her, this is the first major role in such a large-scale film, because before she could only be content with supporting characters in the TV series Legion and Banshee. The actress herself says that the role of a wild Comanche girl was very organic for her:

“I grew up in the open air, the family always traveled off-road. We even had our own horses. And I feel that my childhood was the point where the character of Naru grew up, the very desire to play a similar role.

The rest of the cast was made up of fairly little-known actors. This is due not so much to the lack of a budget, which is actually quite large for this picture, but to the desire to take into the film not so “worked out” faces on the big screen so that they really look a little wild.

What do critics write about “Production”

Critics, although they did not remain delighted with the film, nevertheless received it warmly enough. For starters, of course, they voted it the best in the franchise since the original 1987 movie. Almost all the authors noted that “Production” very well combines continuous action with a smooth and fairly competent development of the main character. The reviewer also liked the intimate storytelling. Although the vastness of the Canadian mountains is certainly quite large, the action of the film is literally focused on a couple of central characters, which makes the feeling of approaching the Predator even more intense. The overall review score, according to aggregators, was 92 out of 100, while the original picture was rated only 80 out of 100.

Of course, the ratings of review aggregators can be quite tricky. Recall that on aggregators, it is not the authors or publishers of reviews who decide what score they give the film. The site program itself automatically reads the review and gives the film a score based on its content, after which it displays the average rating among all critics. Therefore, the decision that “Production” should be given 92 out of 100 may well be erroneous.

However, if we dismiss this option, then it is interesting to speculate why this prequel was better than the original. The original film was certainly a product of its time in every way: a goofy plot, a strong Marine in the title role, lots of big guns, and so on. In the 80s, such a film looked incredibly organic, because, for example, just a couple of years before it, the world saw “Commandos” with the same Arnold Schwarzenegger and also accepted it with open arms. That is, the “Predator” of 1987 is not so much a masterpiece for the ages as a cult, literally exemplary project of its era.

However, this feature created a certain trap for the further development of the franchise. If the roots of the “Predator” are laid by the aesthetics of a bygone era, then, therefore, all subsequent films are doomed to search for a new basis for films, the old one simply will not suit them. And with mixed success, some sequels even managed to do it. But the further the franchise grew, the worse the movie got. The directors simply could not cope with the adaptation of the “Predator” to the new realities.

“Production” in this regard was the first positive example of working with original material in many years. On the one hand, the basis is preserved – the struggle of a person with a creature of incredible strength. On the other hand, almost all current trends are taken into account: a woman in the lead role, national minorities in the frame, raising social problems, and so on. But the main thing is not so much the very presence of these components, but how they were forced to work together. The Indian culture turned out to be the perfect setting for the primitive story of the hunter and the huntress, and the woman was the perfect prey for the Predator. Such work puts the film on almost the same pedestal with its progenitor, which cannot but please the fans. Finally, the franchise has a clear path to move forward.

When will you be able to watch “Extraction”

On August 5, the film was published on the Hulu streaming service, so it can already be watched on the Web. Cinema distribution in Russia, unfortunately, is not planned.