Prey: A Streaming Movie for All
I’m always up for an action film. I’ve actually excitedly started a few this summer with huge budgets and big names that I hoped would become fast favorites but ended up being background noise while I did paperwork.
I remember watching the original when I was a kid. Predators starring Adrien Brody is one of my favorite action films. Go back and watch that film, half the cast are Oscar winners and nominees, I don’t know how they lucked out with that caliber of talent.
I don’t believe I’ve disliked any Predator film. Even the one before Prey with Boyd Holbrook was good in its own way. I’m appreciating that now because I just watched an entire season of him as The Corinthian on Netflix’s The Sandman and I never got to see the man’s eyes.
Prey takes place in Comanche territory in the early 1700’s. I love how matter of fact it was. There wasn’t a queue card that explained anything or had a bird’s eye view of the tribe from the point of view of the Predator’s ship.
It’s 1710, we’re all part of the Comanche territory and an Apex none of us has ever encountered just got dropped off on our land.
Protagonist
Naru was an amazing protagonist. She’s smart, she’s good with medicine, and she has ambitions to hunt more and help her tribe. When you have a female protagonist in films where she’ll be mostly among men, there’s sometimes this sub-story of how she just really wants to fit in and be accepted. Naru doesn’t have time for that kind of bullshit. She knows what she’s good at and she goes for it.
Of course, she figures out the predator before anyone else does I’d like to add the scene with the lion and how she learned of the predator were stunning. This film was not going to have a theatrical release, but it looked and felt like a movie I would watch on the big screen. I’d like to believe that walking out of AMC theatres if I were to have seen the poster for Prey, I would have bookmarked it to see on the big screen.
Action
It’s non-stop. I’m not giving anything away, but, the lion, the bear, the battles. The action kept on going. When she finally goes toe-to-toe with the predator, I’m excited, but I’m also nervous. They built up the tension. I’m pretty sure anyone watching the film would believe she was headed towards an ass-beating followed by death.
I wondered when I watched it if her would be as heightened as ours. Coming across a predator in 2022, you would understand that an entity with superior military-grade weapons that’s also built like a professional athlete on high-quality steroids is coming at you. The only thing you could probably think is what would be the least painful death. If you come across something like this in the 1700’s, does the fear and awe of the unknown ever take over the immediate fear of defending yourself?
Completely superficial note, but this was the first film where I found myself thinking that the predator was really cut. I had to IMDb the actor and it was a former athlete. Past predators were always predators to me, but this was the first one where I felt it was an actor playing the role. Did they purposely change his look?
Indigenous Cast
I loved the cast. Just beautiful. When they spoke English, I wasn’t bothered. We were not here for accuracy or an in-depth look at a culture, we were there to fight a predator. The scenes with the fur traders felt spot on to me.
I could watch a half dozen more action films just like this and I would also watch it on the big screen. Kick-ass female protagonist in a beautiful setting going up against one of the scariest bad guys in cinema. I enjoyed it and because it’s streaming on Hulu, I will definitely watch it again soon.
