{"id":25130,"date":"2022-08-03T22:50:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T05:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=25130"},"modified":"2022-08-03T22:50:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T05:50:28","slug":"prey-lacks-jolts-and-thrills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=25130","title":{"rendered":"PREY Lacks Jolts and Thrills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 99 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature from Walt Disney Studios and 20th<\/sup>\nCentury Studios will debut exclusively on Hulu August 5th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As many movie enthusiasts will know, one of the best action\npictures to come out of the 1980s was Predator<\/em> (1987). The feature\nboasted a star at the top of his game trading quips with a motley crew of\nsoldiers and squaring off against a memorable and formidable otherworldly\nmonster. Many would have anticipated that its success would have spawned a\nlong-running franchise. Alas, most follow-ups simply haven\u2019t risen to\nexpectations. A recent chapter in 2018 had its moments, but still didn\u2019t make a\nlasting impression. Prey<\/em> is the most recent attempt at revitalizing the\nseries and serves as a prequel to the original. It boasts an interesting\nconcept, but once again fails to deliver jolts or thrills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Set in 1719, the story follows Naru (Amber Midthunder), a\nteenager living in the Comanche Nation on the Northern Great Plains. After\nnoting strange footprints in the area, she attempts to convince her brother\nTaabe (Dakota Beavers), family and other hunters that their community may be in\nperil. Despite her amazing hunting skills, no one will take her seriously and\nbelieve that it must be a lion or bear. A frustrated Naru decides to venture\nout on her own and stop the responsible party herself. She eventually\nencounters The Predator (Dane DiLiegro), a massive, muscular alien hunting\nEarth\u2019s most dangerous prey. A number of battles ensue, with the lead, as well\nas hunters from the Comanche and other groups cross paths with the monster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The idea of bringing an alien beast to an earlier time\nperiod and seeing a terrified community with less-advanced technology\ndesperately fight off the imposing invader is a promising one. Unfortunately,\nthe movie never explicitly endangers or threatens the home habitat of the\ncentral characters. The headstrong Naru heads out with her dog into the wild\nand the majority of the movie is spent in the open expanse. Strangely enough,\nwhile there are dangers experienced along the way due to inexperience, she\ndoesn\u2019t even come into direct contact with The Predator until after the midway\npoint of the film. And since the lead only has her dog as a companion, there\u2019s\nlittle in the way of clever or insightful banter that other films in the series\nhave possessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the screenplay does a good job of developing the\nrelationship and minor tension between the protagonist and her brother (who\ntakes her claims seriously, but is often forced to promote her ideas in more\nmoderate ways) other characters do not fare nearly as well. The rest of the\nComanches (as well as a group of nasty French fur trappers) are written in a\none-note fashion, simply ignoring and\/or abusing the lead. They come across as\noverly ignorant and by the time they appear, are nothing more than target\npractice for the antagonist. As for the creature itself, The Predator is\ndepicted in a similar way to previous films, only this version wears less armor\nand flexes more muscles than earlier incarnations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The locations are nicely shot and, of course, later\nsequences in the film involving those under assault by the monster do result in\na couple of impressive and effectively pieced-together battles. But again, a\nstory with a protagonist who is considerably sharper to most other human\ncharacters (and the alien, for that matter) nullifies much of the suspense and\nleaves the entire enterprise feeling flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an unfortunate situation, seeing as a great deal of\ntension and thrills could have been eked out of this scenario. Perhaps another\npass or two at the screenplay that would have helped develop more supporting\ncharacters and raised the dramatic stakes. Those who love this famous alien\ncreature will certainly watch the movie regardless, but Prey <\/em>feels like\nyet another missed opportunity. In the end, one can understand why Disney and\nFox have chosen to premiere this title on streaming platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 99 minutes This feature from Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Studios will debut exclusively on Hulu August 5th. As many movie enthusiasts will know, one of the best action pictures to come out of the 1980s was Predator (1987). The feature boasted a star at the top of his game trading quips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":25132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[209,221,697,1047,1189,5062,5121,5922,7810,9319,9474,14186,16321,16322,16336,16349,16350,16351,16352,17775,18035],"class_list":["post-25130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-209","tag-20th-century-studios","tag-action","tag-alien","tag-amber-midthunder","tag-dakota-beavers","tag-dane-diliegro","tag-disney","tag-franchise","tag-horror","tag-hulu","tag-monster","tag-predator","tag-predator-franchise","tag-prequel","tag-prey","tag-prey-film-review","tag-prey-movie-review","tag-prey-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sequel"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}