PREDATORS (USA 2010 **
Directed by Nimrod Antal

Directed by Nimrod Antal who proved his mettle in horror thrillers with the Hungarian subway chiller KONTROLL and the recent ARMOURED, his new film PREDATORS is not half bad but unable to keep up with the initial tension of the film.

Yet another chapter of predator and victim chase/killing action movie, the premise of this one takes the heroes, if you want to call them that, stuck in predator territory.  For reasons not really explained, a group of elite warriors led by Royce (a new buffed up Adrien Brody) and Isabelle (Alice Braga from REPO MEN) are dumped on an alien planet and hunted down by an alien race of PREDATORS possessing superhuman strength and ultimate weapons. 

As the film begins, one by one, starting from Royce are dropped by parachute on to the planet.  Initially they distrust each other, and fight each other but learn to band together against the common enemy.  They discover it is not the planet earth they are on.  By the last reel, a number survive only to find more parachuted down for hunting.  A sequel likely?

That is as much as the story goes.  But who expects a story anyway when viewing a film of this nature?  It would be good, however, if the script by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch made some attempt but the scriptwriters don’t bother.  Instead they come up with the standard one-liners.  They don’t even bother to conceal their used material.  At one point, a hunted remarks that in this planet of monsters, he is considered normal and not back on earth where her is a murderer and freak (line taken right out of TIME AFTER TIME as Jack the Ripper describes himself in the present earth after transporting himself by Wells’ time machine).  But a film without story may hold itself if the tension and action is maintained throughout.  To director Antal’s credit, he keeps the audience on their toes for more than half of the first hour by surprises around every corner.  He uses camera angles, shocks, pyrotechnics and even music to create an effective tension that unfortunately wanes after the first half hour.

The actors do their usual best in a movie of this sort.  Brody looks sexy enough wallowing in mud with his new body fighting the predators.

PREDATORS is not bad but it still proves that a good story or maintained tension is required for a film like this to succeed fully.