Predators
Adrien Brody gets dropped from a plane onto an alien planet in yet another sequel to the 1987 sci-fi film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Directed by Nimród Antal
(R)
**
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Of all the sequels to 1987’s Predator (there have been three), this is by far the best—but that’s not saying a whole lot, said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimród Antal, the sci-fi film starts off with promise, as a buffed-up Adrien Brody gets dropped from a plane onto an alien planet. He’s the leader of a team of elite warriors who are being hunted by the resident monsters. While the premise remains compelling, the “plot holes loom larger than the monstrous mayhem.” Predators plays like “Avatar with more gore, a lot less wit, and Adrien Brody,” said Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly. The first half of the film recalls the pulp fun of the original, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura, but the rest is an “uninspired mess of mediocre action scenes.” In its best moments, Predators is an “unabashed B movie,” said Michael Rechtshaffen in The Hollywood Reporter. But those moments are few, and they eventually give way to “flat-out incoherence.”
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Can US tourism survive Trump's policies?
Today's Big Question The tourist economy is 'heading in the wrong direction'
-
Female friendship in middle age, teachers versus fascists and Covid psychosis
the week recommends September books include Angela Flournoy's 'The Wilderness,' Randi Weingarten's 'Why Fascists Fear Teachers' and Patricia Lockwood's 'Will There Ever Be Another You'
-
'Total rat eradication in New York has been deemed impossible'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day