Predators (2010)

Produced by Robert Rodriguez

Directed by Nimrod Antal

Starring Adrien Brody

Rated R

At this point, let the record books show that Predators is the best - and there isn't much competition - successor to the iconic original movie, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, Predator 2 was pretty awesome in its own kind of goofy way, and deserves to also be remembered. This movie, however, feels a lot more like a true follow-up to the first one. They could have just called it Predator 3, and made a conscious decision to give it a slightly more unique identity as a standalone entity. Matter of fact, the creators specifically said that the goal here was to have this movie be to Predator what Aliens was to Alien: a follow-up with new, badder, and more numerous variations of the foe. In that sense, I think they succeeded.

Originally posted July 2010, revived for 2025


Predators mainly centers around Royce (Adrien Brody), a stoic yet charismatic soldier with an unknown past. After blacking out on a mission, he awakens to find himself parachuting into a jungle at high speed. The movie cold opens en media res with this scene; in effect, the viewers themselves are parachuting into the unknown right there with him. He is soon joined by a host of other trained killers from different parts of Earth, all of whom blacked out and awakened in the same situation as Royce. You have a beefy Russian with a minigun, a Yakuza assassin, a death-squad trooper from Sierra Leone, and so forth. None of them are particularly good guys, and all are extremely dangerous. The title of the movie could be referring to them as much as to the titular creatures.

Once this rag-tag "team" is assembled, they begin to wander the mysterious jungle they were dropped into, discover that this place isn't even Earth at all, and things progress from there. It is interesting to note the differences in dynamics between this "team" and the one from the original Predator. In that movie, the team is a cohesive unit that has fought together on many occasions and have charisma as a unit. In Predators, we have a bunch of people who have never met each other and have little camaraderie. The movie makes sure to let us know just how treacherous and shady some of these characters are, and their interpersonal dynamics - like who to trust - are a source of just as much drama as the alien menace is.

This would be a good moment to talk about Noland (Lawrence Fishburne). It was nice to see him pop up as a surprise addition to this movie midway through, but I felt like this character was a waste. A waste of a good actor and a waste of a tremendously cool idea for a character. When he first debuts onscreen, it is a great moment. From that moment on, however, the character doesn't particularly do anything else except eat up screen time. I can't help but feel like Noland only exists to give Matrix fans a shoutout - especially considering he has a katana in his inventory. Lawrence Fishburne deserved better from this role.

The primary antagonists of this movie are a pack of new "Super Predators". In one of the film's more interesting scenes, we find out that these guys are to regular Predators as wolves are to dogs. They're bigger, stronger, and a higher social class. To that last point, the "wolf" Predators actually hunt the lower class Predators, which leads to one of the movie's best fight scenes.

Predators is gory, very gory. There's plenty of cursing, especially early on in the movie when the heroes communicate primarily via f-words. Indeed, it earns that R rating. There are a number of good fight scenes in this movie, such as the Predator-Predator battle and the Yakuza-Predator battle; the latter is easily the highlight of the entire movie and one of the most intense things in the entire series canon.

I do wish they'd done more with that duel, though. It could have used another minute or so. Still, that scene made up for Billy's similar stand-off fight with the Predator being off-camera in the first one. It's one of the scenes where Predators cements its place as not just a good Predator movie, but a good movie in general. It's unfortunate that we never got a sequel to this movie in particular, and that it doesn't get more attention.

As for negatives, the special effects are hit-or-miss here. The animatronics are great, while the CGI is out of place at best and fake-looking at worst. This is yet another example of why animatronics are often superior to CGI in movies like this and should never be fully replaced. One instance of CGI in particular, an explosion later in the movie, resulted in fire that didn't look real at all. Things like this can take you out of the moment.

In closing, Predators is a worthy successor to the original. At times I actually found myself liking it more than the original, as sacrilegious as it is. For a movie from 2010, it really doesn't feel like a product of the 2000's - it feels very modern even in the 2020's, which is probably the highest praise I can give it. Overall, though, there are a number of minor issues that bring it down a bit. It's definitely a worthy movie to watch, nonetheless, and manages to leave a strong impression. Out of five stars, I give it four and call it an underrated classic that deserves more respect.