PREDATORS [2010] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] The Hunting Season Has Just Begun!
Robert Rodriguez presents ‘PREDATORS,’ a bold new chapter in the Predator universe. Adrien Brody stars as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors mysteriously mission on an alien planet. Except for a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, mobsters, convicts and death squad members – human “predators.” But when they begin to be systematically hunted and eliminated by an unimaginably horrifying alien, it becomes clear that suddenly, they are the prey!
FILM FACT: The film ‘PREDATORS’ was produced by Robert Rodriguez and written by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. In 1994, Robert Rodriguez wrote an early script for a third Predator film for 20th Century Fox while he was working on Desperado at the time. Robert Rodriguez presented the script to the 20th Century Fox studio, but was denied when they realized that the budget would be too large. Fifteen years later, the studio decided to go with his script. Robert Rodriguez stated: It's the story from that script I had written way back then. They had hired me to write a Predator story while I was waiting to do Desperado back in 1995. It was crazy, this thing I came up with. So then fast-forward to now and, like, six months ago, they found the script and called me up. Hey, we want to redo this franchise and we found your old script. This is where we should have gone with the series! We want to move forward. And that's what we're doing. Robert Rodriguez and Nimród Antal originally said they wanted the film to be a sequel only to honour the original Predator as the film is trying to distance itself from Predator 2 and the first two Alien vs. Predator films. The film ‘PREDATORS’ was shot on a 53-day schedule. Exterior filming location was mostly set in Kolekole, Hawaii. Filming started on the 28th September, 2009. The film wrapped up its 22-day shoot on the Hawaii location on the 1st November, 2009. The film shot its interior set scenes at Robert Rodriguez's studio in Austin, Texas. Sixty percent of the film was shot in Texas in order to be eligible for a tax benefit. The film shot more exterior footage at Canyon Lake Gorge in Comal County and Hamilton Pool Preserve. In an 411mania interview, actor Mahershala Ali said, “It was a blast. It was an amazing experience. We were in the tropical rainforests of Hawaii stomping through the mud and getting rained on all day and then we ended up finishing in Austin, Texas. I really think this movie is going to be good. They had cut together a trailer while we were still working and it looked amazing. It's a great cast and along with the action elements and the sci-fi elements, and with Robert Rodriguez being involved, I think it's going to push it to another level.” There had been speculation that original Predator composer Alan Silvestri would return to do the score, but on the 26th February, 2010, it was announced that John Debney, who worked with Rodriguez on such films as Spy Kids and Sin City, would compose the original score for the film.
Cast: Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Carey L. Jones, Brian Steele, Derek Mears and Aaron Richardson (uncredited)
Director: Nimród Antal
Producers: Alex Young, Bill Scott, Elizabeth Avellán, John Davis, Robert Rodriguez and Tom Proper
Screenplay: Alex Litvak, Jim Thomas, John Thomas and Jim Thomas
Composer: John Debney
Costume Design: Nina Proctor
Make-up and Hair Department: Cristina Patterson Cere (Contact lens painter), David A. Brooke (Special Make-up effects artist), Ermahn Ospina (Make-up department head), Greg Funk (On-set Special Make-up effects artist), Greg Nicotero (Special Make-up and creature effects), Howard Berger (Special Make-up and creature effects), Anneliese Boise (Hair department: KNB EFX GROUP, INC.), Becki Drake (Assistant hair stylist / Assistant Make-up artist), Jack Bricker (Hair department: KNB EFX GROUP, INC.), Jake Garber (On-set Special Make-up effects department head), Beverley House (Puppeteer: K.N.B. Effects Group), Craig Narramore (Puppeteer: K.N.B. Effects Group), Jenelle Wilson (Puppeteer: K.N.B. Effects Group), Joe E. Rivera (Department head hair),Mark Boley (Hair department: KNB EFX GROUP, INC.) and Richie Gaona (Puppeteer: K.N.B. Effects Group)
Cinematography: Gyula Pados, H.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Description Service
Italian: 5.1 DTS-HD Audio
Spanish: 5.1 DTS-HD Audio
Hungarian: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English, Danish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Croatian
Running Time: 106 minutes
Region: Region Free
Number of discs: 1
Studio: 20th Century Fox / Troublemaker Studio / Davis Entertainment Company / Dune Entertainment
Andrew's Blu-ray Review: ‘PREDATORS’ [2010] at the start of the film is a very entertaining film with genuine surprises, may be the first movie I've seen to start with a deus ex machina. The start of the plot and all the humans plummet into the movie from the heavens, dropping toward the alien soil, shrieking, groping for ripcords on the parachutes that they didn't realize they had. The last thing they recall is a blinding blaze of light. The first to land, with a powerful thud, is Royce. The others then crash all around him and it is totally and utterly very dramatic and is helped by Director Nimród Antal and led by actor Adrien Brody and it still holds sacrosanct with its impenetrable jungle, its fearful quarry, and its sense of real foreboding isolation.
Adrien Brody is the defacto leader of a group of mercenary types who are dropped into a jungle terrain, and Royce, is some kind of black ops mercenary who has long ago accepted he likes his work, though he keeps it quiet. No, Royce is the type of person who truly doesn’t consider others. It’s not selfishness, but obliviousness. He’s long ago needed to depend on anyone, and here, being hunted by the predator alien race, is no exception.
The other players are like Royce — some better, some worse. There’s Isabelle [Alice Braga], a Middle Eastern soldier, Nikolai [Oleg Taktarov], a Russian militant, Mombassa [Mahershala Ali], an African freedom fighter, Hanzo [Louis Ozawa], a Yakuza boss, and Chuchillo (Danny Trejo), a Mexican cartel enforcer. There’s also a pair of others: Edwin [Topher Grace] and Stans [Walton Groggins], the latter a murderer who was set to be executed in two days. Edwin and Stans are the most peculiar. The former boasts of his crimes, while the latter appears to be a simple doctor, terrified of this new environment where the others are not. But ‘PREDATORS’ has some surprises in store regarding his character which won’t be spoiled.
The film ‘PREDATORS’ is quick to drop hints that this is not planet Earth, but it takes a while for the characters to get there. The scene where they discover this is has huge planets and moons on the horizon, however, as with a prior scene where Isabelle shows Royce a compass that never settles on a direction. “Between that and the sun, I’d say we have a real problem,” Royce amusingly adds, informing the sun doesn’t change position throughout the day.
The film has its quirky elements and its great ones. Its quirkier side reveals the predators releasing alien hounds on the group, seeing how they react. The CGI creations are fine (nowhere near as bad as criticized by the late Roger Ebert), however their inclusion leaves a lot to be desired. The predators are such an advanced race it’s odd they would need to split the group up and study their habits. Though, it is told by a survivor, the group stumbles upon maniacally in a small role, whenever a human kills “one of them” that’s when things really get exciting.
First off I'm a huge Predator fan. I love this film. It gives a great take on the predator hunted theme which is basically the same story every generation and also a smart remake. Great cast every performance hits the write mark and the script does everything it should without any fluff. The ever evolving Predator works perfectly with some great updates. I can see why some fans weren't happy, especially with the Laurence Fishburn character, but for me, the film is still all very good.
All-in-all, ‘PREDATORS’ is a solid movie. It’s much better than it should be, and despite its weak-link plotting surrounding Grace’s character, has an ending that feels loyally authentic. The dark tone, the prison-like jungle, and the sense of doom surrounding each of these characters makes their attempts at survival that much more interesting. ‘PREDATORS’ offers enough scares for fans to make it serviceable, but is smart enough to never go over the top. The restraint shown by Director Nimród Antal and company is the film’s unsung and rewarding edge and is a totally Worthy Sequel/Reboot.
PREDATORS MUSIC TRACK LIST
THEME FROM PREDATORS (Written by Alan Silvestri)
LONG TALL SALLY (Written by Robert Blackwell, Little Richard and Enotris Johnson) [Performed by Little Richard]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – 20th Century Fox, Troublemaker Studios, Davis Entertainment Company and Dune Entertainment presents us the film ‘PREDATORS’ with a stunning 1080p image and is enhanced with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio that is very literally perfect from a technical stand point. This is seriously one of the best live action transfers I have seen in quite some time. The film was shot using the Panasonic Genesis camera, and it looks an absolutely killer. There is a three-dimensional lushness to the film that is really, really wonderful. And in high definition, with the direct transfer, things look even better. This is eye-popping, reference-quality stuff. Additionally, black levels are nice and deep and inky, which is good because some of the more breathless action sequences happen at night, or in hazy situations. In short: there's nothing on this 'Predators' transfer worth complaining about. They did a bang-up job.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – 20th Century Fox 20th Century Fox, Troublemaker Studios, Davis Entertainment Company and Dune Entertainment brings us the film ‘PREDATORS’ with an outstanding 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio experience. It is a very energetic audio mix, in every sense of the word; and it is one of the most active and most accurately directional mixes I have heard in a very long time. As the humans whip through the jungle, you feel every leaf lashing at your face. Even bigger, badder action sequences, like the hunt with the predators’ "hounds" where the sounds are much more dynamic and with cross-channel explosions of violence and chaos, yet perfectly calibrated for optimal audio precision. Additionally, dialogue sounds crisp and clear, no matter what kind of madness is unfolding on screen (not to mention the whole host of accents and regionally-inflected dialects); it's always well prioritized and easy to understand. Not often am I truly blown away by the presentation of dialogue in an action movie mix, but this was so on-point that I must give it props. It's the kind of audio mix that is so good that it acts as an example of how lousy most other audio mixes can be. Perfectly reflecting the international flavour of the ‘PREDATORS’ cast and crew.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Audio Commentary with Nimród Antal and Robert Rodriguez [2010] [1080p] [2.39:1] [103:24] With this featurette, we first get introduced by Director Nimród Antal and then introduces his compadre Producer Robert Rodriguez and unsurprisingly Robert Rodriguez does most of the talking with this audio commentary and Robert Rodriguez suddenly says boom, here we go, and thy both start to talk about the film especially when we see the actor Adrien Brody as Royce is in freefall and they both feel it was a great opening for the movie and originally at the start of the film they were going to do a back found into Royce’s character, but decided not to do it in the end, and in the end they felt seeing Royce in freefall was a much better way to start the film and from then on they felt that they had really hit the road running in a totally brilliant way. They reveal all sorts of little titbits about shooting the movie. Nimród Antal and Robert Rodriguez talks about his original Predator script that he wrote wat back in the 1990’s and how this movie became green-lighted. We get to hear about Robert Rodriguez’s long-abandoned original draft of the film, which he wrote as an assignment for 20th Century Fox in the mid-1990’s, which served as this film's jumping off point. They talk about the strong female character Isabelle played by actress Alice Braga in the film and felt that she was like Ripley in the Alien film and will not take shit from the men in the group and feels Alice Braga really pulled off her character in a great way who is tough as nails and feels her character really draws you in and at the same time breaks your heart. They both felt that they had a very high calibre of acting performance in the film and also felt the actors really elevated their characters. They talk in-depth about the “Predators dogs” sequences in the film and have never worked on a film before that required very difficult computer generated CGI special effects. They comment that when viewing the film, they should supply scratch and sniff with the movie, because certain parts of the location smelt so bad and have no idea what was causing the revolting smell and were very happy to go home after shooting those particular location scenes. As we get near to the end of the film and the audio commentary, they again give great praise towards the actors in the film and they wanted the Predators to have no code, and wanted the Predators to be really brutal and praised the people who wore the Predators costumes. But most important, they felt they had made the movie by fans for the fans, especially in relationship to the first Predator film and wanted to make the film ‘PREDATORS’ to honour the fans, and at that point the Nimród Antal and Robert Rodriguez audio commentary comes to an end. All in all, this audio commentary adds a great deal towards the background towards the 20th Century Fox and Troublemaker Studios film ‘PREDATORS.’
Special Feature: Motion Comics: Producer Robert Rodriguez presents this exclusive dramatic prequel animated vignettes that is voiced by the cast of ‘PREDATORS.’ Witness the secret adventures that turned our worlds into ultimate predator prey and here is what you get to view:
Moments of Extraction [2010] [1080p] [1.78:1] [8:45] With this featurette, we take a real close in-depth look at the history of the characters and they are Isabelle, Cuchillo, Hanzo and Mombasa.
Crucified [2010] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:11] With this featurette, we take an in-depth look at the Predator Game Preserve where the predators reside and working out their acquired target of the humans, and we also get a look at their Hunting Camp where the weak fall, but the strong reign supreme.
Special Feature: Evolution of the Species: ‘PREDATORS’ Reborn [2010] [1080p] [1.78:1] [40:12] With this featurette, we get am in-depth detailed making of documentary that covers the following: Bloodline; Decloaking The Invisible: Alien Terrain; Intelligent Design: The Hunting Camp; Predators As Prey; Yautja Transformed and Rite of Passage. Contributors included: Nimród Antal [Director], Robert Rodriguez [Producer], Elizabeth Avellán [Producer], John Davis [Producer], Logan Cooper [Location Manager], Walton Goggins [Stans], Steve Joyner [Production Designer], Jeff Dashnaw [Stunt Coordinator], Topher Grace [Edwin], Caylah Eddleblute [Production Designer], Adrien Brody [Royce], Alice Braga [Isabelle], Laurence Fishburne [Ronald Noland], Danny Trejo [Cuchillo], Greg Nicotero [Special Make-up and Creature Effects] and Emily Davis [Visual Effects Coordinator: Troublemaker Digital].
Special Feature: The Chosen [2010] [1080p] [2.39:1] [4:52] With this featurette, we get to view a special 20th Century Fox promotional documentary into the background information about the 9 Elite Killers that crash land on the unknown Predators planet and wonder who will survive. We also get the in-depth background information on the 9 Elite Killers and at the same time we get to view a few clips from the film ‘PREDATORS.’
Special Feature: Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making A Scene [2010] [1080p] [1.37:1] [7:06] With this featurette, we get to view another promotional documentary, but this time we get to view behind-the-scene filming of the film ‘PREDATORS.’ Contributors included: Walton Goggins [Stans], Nimród Antal [Director], Jabbar Raisani [Visual Effects On-set Supervisor] and Greg Nicotero [Special Make-up and Creature Effects].
Special Feature: Deleted and Extended Scenes [2010] [1080p] [2.39:1] [11:21] With this featurette, we get to view the following: Dead Man’s Parachute, Cuchillo and Isabelle, Team “Orientated” Group, Third Most Wanted, Cuchillo Unleashes, “Why Are You Here,” “They’re Smarter Than That,” Stans and Isabelle Naked and “They’re Still Coming.”
Special Feature: Trailers: With this featurette, we get to view the following trailers:
The A-Team [2010] [1080p] [2.39:1] [2:25]
Alien Anthology [1979 / 1986 / 1992 / 1979] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:06]
Finally, with ‘PREDATORS’ inevitably this movie couldn't come close to the original in terms of sheer impact. It is, however, such an improvement over the other dreadful sequels that it deserves merit simply for that. Adrien Brody is solid against a type role, and carries himself well. Every other character had the potential to be interesting but was not explored enough, especially Laurence Fishburne. The action was seriously well done, with flashes of the visceral energy that this series desperately needed. Should have been about half an hour longer to flesh out the characters and maybe have a few more plot twists but as a straightforward, entertaining and visually appealing sci-fi actioner it works. Will not go down as a classic but will always be worth watching when in the mood for an adrenaline rush. On top of all that, ‘PREDATORS’ is an entertaining film with genuine surprises. Even though Robert Rodriguez didn't direct this, it's got many of his touches. And it's a worthy sequel to the 1987 original. The visuals are gorgeous, the acting solid, the writing exciting. And what I really love is the fact that there is very little use of CGI and what little there is, is very convincing and very subtle. But most of all ‘PREDATORS’ is still a very well-crafted film. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
