PREY | John's MOVIE REACTION!! First Time Watching | Review & Breakdown | Amber Midthunder
how’s it going citizens of the reject nation john here for a solo movie reaction thank you for joining me we’re going to watch pray the fifth film in the predator standalone franchise uh i’m very excited for this really enjoyed the trailers really excited to see how this take plays out i love the time and place they’ve chosen to set it in so we’ll see obviously it’s hard to top the original predator dylan is one of my all-time favorite movie meme moments and i got love for predators as well and i could never forget avp the
movie that unfortunately taught me in the heat of a trivia match uh the difference between the arctic and antarctica so that’s the thing but anyhow greg and i were originally going to check this out together and unfortunately the vid diesel caught up with us and we also had a round of press interviews to do with the cast director and producer so he unfortunately had to go off ahead of me so i am catching up now but if you haven’t seen those interviews please go give them a look greg did an excellent job and actually after
shooting all of this we were given the opportunity to cover the red carpet premiere for prey do some interviews there meet the actual cast
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them down making them look all nice for you guys very much appreciate them and uh yeah without further ado man let’s watch us some pray a long time ago it is said a monster came here okay it’s like a folk tale oh i wonder just how many reactions the first time people see the dog they go oh blue on those flowers really pops huh it’s freaking sound effects man you want to go out to one of those axe throwing ranges such a satisfying sound oh no at least it’s just a tail though yeah you knew
that wasn’t the ordinary thunderstorm i remember when father told me i was ready for katan went up into the hills the rain was bad everything was wet we crawled through the mud my bowstring got ruined ah yeah you were sleeping now you’re gonna have to cross the river to get it it’s time i’m ready for my katamia you want to hunt something that’s hunting you uh-huh there’s a theme for you i guess that is the true battle is if you can outwit something that’s coming for you specifically attention to detail is awesome trained him well
it’s easy he’s smart not every smart creature is easy to train like you most likely your father left you that to cut bread root with you almost got a deer with it why do you want to hunt because you all think that i can’t yeah that’s fair in this wind he brings home a red tail of course meanwhile this dude is just cruising around looking for a place to uh park game is a foot each little predator at least thus far like each little predator appearance has been really well like spaced out i keep getting
lulled into just like the life on display hina a lion he took bowie you got to find him who invited you we won’t be gone long enough need to cook hey she tracks well if we find pouya alive she knows medicine yeah bro oh a fighter snake i don’t care as that was that was a very clever so cool i love the the rhythm with which they’re depicting all these things like how resourceful they are and how like synchronized they are tommy wants to stay and hunt let’s go i’m coming with you i can’t handle
the life it’s not just the world i’ve got this we don’t have time to waste talking we need to get him home yeah quiet lois men are talking so many beautiful shots in this movie like jeez okay the cold is good the medicine slows his blood if he gets warm he’ll bleed out hey do you want him to be comfortable or alive mia ah you knew that was coming pete snake’s been waiting there all day like i got one left in me one good death rattle oh look it could be bear tracks maybe but that’s
a big bear and why was it on its hind legs and what skin’s a snake like that we need to keep moving no i have to warn my brother pakka go with there what do i gotta go with her why’d you come back i found tracks and they were huge i’m not frightened by a bear i don’t think it was a bear or whatever it was we’re in the cat’s den now we have to deal with the first now’s your shot it’ll think it’s hunting us a hunter doesn’t eat he hunts like a beer all
night we could stock the forest all night and not find anything too will bait it then i’ll lead the cat to you it’s time you cut them here and the line comes you tell that thing this is as far as you go no more this is it as far as you go no more this is it like each time i’m afraid it’s gonna go that way like i’m like okay like i like their relationship so far which is also why i’m afraid he’s about to get murked like right now you’ve never faced a lion this
mouth full of teeth like arrows ready to tear your flesh when your brother comes back he and i will find the lion and kill him this is a good jump scare oh cool oh damn what a shot damn that is that is a lion jesus man the shots your brother carried you home you think the reason for kotamiya is to prove you can hunt but there’s only one reason to survive that’s the sage way of looking at that actually the hunt isn’t the full picture jesus we did it we didn’t do it what do you
think left those tracks and before i fell i saw lightning in the church there’s something else okay well i’ll hunt alone if i have to you can’t you’re right we didn’t do it i did you tried it you just you couldn’t bring it home oh war chief gonna have his day if they don’t see we’ll show them i wonder how they lit this movie like a lot of this looks really really natural which i guess has become sort of a meme lately but it looks really great here it looks really beautiful nice nice match cut
this aerial shots and these landscape shots like it feels like you’re watching some kind of like like a ken burns documentary crashed into like a nature special or something owner oh i gotta check the race this movie rated r for goo that’s a big foot wow dang a little green in his teeth her teeth there too freaking squaring off don’t go no don’t don’t oh so mortal kombat of you bro jesus pray is a really good title for this movie like so much food chaining all around yes oh cool does that mean we’re gonna get
like an elaborate dog hunting scene chew stick gotta get your oral hygiene what national park do they shoot this in or was it just canada brutal fairy metal he’s a scout too he’s collecting belt loops ah so cool that’s so awesome ugh yeah some didn’t look right ugh my stogy i know i left that cigar here somewhere oh no of course this looks like it was fun to shoot uh it’s like pita in the hunger games with the the cake frosting blending in huh hey well done this movie is a very cool sound design expressive
sound design and now she’s covered in mud clever sorry it took me it took me a second okay less covered in mud this dog is really good too like i call them animal actors i’m like in this case i’m like yeah he’s a very good boy whoa there’s a scar and a half oh ah and now it becomes the edge who’s afraid of the bear now this bear’s been here this whole time like i heard what you said you was afraid of a barrel jews afraid of a bear i i have a feeling a lot
of people are gonna be sitting there going as long as the dog’s okay you can massacre as many rabbits bears buffalo whatever oh my god oh damn oh he caught up holy let that be a lesson to you look at that that is pretty freaking metal jesus christ so much for that camo boy looking for you your brother sent us to bring you home i saw what left those tracks i couldn’t see it until it was covered in blood but it looked like like a moot beats it fought and killed a bear with its hands
easily how come it didn’t kill you thanks thanks bro jesus you want to live there’s something else i like to think the predator collects this footage and then does like silly voice overs stupid possums don’t even believe that possum’s dead though you know how they are wow oh come on you got a clever trick up your sleeve oh no gotta conserve those darts man that faceplate holy oh taking heads man yeah you want to talk battle cries i really am enjoying the way that they’re using the cloaking jesus is that what it sounds like to
be in the predator’s helmet no no no no no no it’s close yeah i was going to say you can’t outrun predators spray oh chekhov’s bear trap god dammit are they french oh you better be careful with that dog yeah in the most wasteful way possible it’s a great gag too because at first you’re like would predator do that and you’re like oh wait maybe not nope that’s just us i think this creature is a hunter if you were smart you would help us tell us something like the last sacred point there’s something about a
savage oh no that’s all how do they have him too geez it’s like raiders that’s what you went out after it’s what you were tracking yes and that’s what you chose for good dummy great user perspectives man it’s a great way to play into like the slasher movie quality it’s coming he’s coming for us no it doesn’t want paid it doesn’t hunt that way before the trappers captured me it saw me and then left i didn’t think i was a threat oh see you’re not a mary sue your plan the tree you weakened it you
had it nadu oh you can see what i made he always had i don’t know that this thing can be killed the lion though they did it together if it bleeds we can kill snuck it right in there dude but like ah perfect camper on that scene oh my god ah that’s so freaking cool bro sorry good effort oh remember old guns remember muskets remember reload time oh get the head he’s like yeah it’s a good kill it’s a good kill the losing his leg to be free wait not what are you doing nader nada
stop huh i’ll get sweaty parkour these guys are all really well cast like they feel like they’re out of a different time yes this will go well keep on watching the show’s about to begin oh badass this is a really cool movie man this is really cool like they still got to stick the landing but so far like it’s nice to have like a really punchy solid predator movie now oh god way to shoot this action too oh jesus oh jesus oh jesus oh i swear the little hatchet with the the rope on it just
coolest freaking tweak oh god well done with the focus like hide them out of sight oh ow ooh and i’ll show you how to use it this guy looks kind of like the geico cave man take the ball and put it in the garden watch ah pull that back and it will fire that’s all yeah you need i don’t know it’ll create a spark what’s easy shut up and take your medicine i’m freezing cold are you still a threat oh my god yes possum and the predator surveyed the wreckage with the coldest blue outlook as
if to say that he is one and the same with the thermal readout on his screen that with which he sees all of life jesus props to represent a well-timed jesus between predator and and naru and the focusrack like you’re so close no though no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no oh geez that was that was close still oh and get what you got to think for masks my guy no hey jeez ah cheater not so tough when you’re invisible this is as far as i go no
this is it no oh no no no no there’s the white hot in her eyes not going out without a fight though oh they’re really great at emphasizing things with sound like the way they framed that like you knew his moment was nigh but like like they’re really good at sort of arresting you in the moment with an interesting sound choice or something like that we keep watching all this time you really are the best boy oh my dudes back of course this guy’s the one who made it jesus christ no that’s one fierce slap
bracelet this guy’s eyes are just always about to pop right out of his head oh that’s twisted oh no you think that i’m not a hunter like you oh that is what makes me dangerous hey go see you coming you can’t see but i’m killing you excuse me oh that can’t be i mean are you doing okay how much of your brain is left after that you want your helmet how many abs does he have she that i don’t know you know predator you don’t need to gender the predator oh nice oh that was awesome
love that it’s that touch with the glowing translucent blood oh take that bro oh he’s mad now he’s very mad he underestimated you now he’s actually trying oh oh jesus oh jesus no oh yes hog time think i give a about some sinkhole this is as far as you go no more this is it this is it yep yes oh my god you earned that i told you guys it was bigger than a bear so cool the way they painted that on her face like i don’t know i feel like that could easily look silly
but it it does look convincing like such a literal contrast to when tommy comes back with the nice man hell yeah oh god that was that was very cool that flew by too like it was really really tight things that are paced well and use their style to enhance every little emotional nuancer tight i love that the actual like cave painted predator god well done i gotta say i mean as much as the opening title sequences is something that i love you know a good interesting opening title i do appreciate that people throw down for
these you know creative end credit sequences as well those are for people like me and again man the title prey like it’s perfect oh oh oh the predator will return for the comanche nation wow see that’s cool too because it i think greg brought this up in the uh interview too is like as much as these are exploitation movies like this this does feel very earnest in the way that it portrays the comanche and and the way that it uses their sort of way of life as the setting and the sort of time and place
this is a really nice blend between something that yeah feels authentic to the time i i’m no expert on you know uh native american history or anything like that but yeah just like the way that it took time to observe those things and then also do a bunch of you know crazy predator like is really really well balanced and pitched and conceived hey adi i should have known yeah amalgamated dynamics they do a lot of the predator stuff back in the old days at uh fangoria we went there we visited we did a blood and
guts episode about it all right i think we are we are good on all the different credit scenes that there could be i’m going to take the risk and uh we are going to hop into the review uh yeah all right man i mean yeah i mean if you’ve been here with me this whole time or for the reaction highlights or whatever uh i mean it’s i think it’s pretty evident that i quite enjoyed this movie and uh you know i mean when we did the trailer reactions at the outset i was reasonably optimistic i
mean you know as everyone up until this point has clarified and you know reiterated the predator franchises of varying quality um but you know the promise of you know something a little more simple and a little more straightforward and a little more back to basics for predator seemed uh you know like a good one and that’s a choice i appreciate in general you know when you take something that is you know science fiction heavy or very futuristic or that relies on a certain amount of like futuristic technology or weaponry or things like that when you
take you know that idea and then you transplant it into a time that’s much more rudimentary or analog or just you know based on the elements and on nature uh i feel like that can temper the science fiction in a really rewarding way that forces you know the filmmakers to get a little clever like it’s not the same kind of thing but like when uh you know going from watching like the mcu and agents of shield then to checking out agent carter uh was like a really nice breath of fresh air because while agent carter
still had like a lot of the sci-fi context and you know uh scenarios and mcguffins and whatever it was often tempered by the fact that we were in like the 30s and 40s very different from this time and place but a similar kind of again the word i keep going for is tempering of the fact that yes like you’re not in the future it’s not spaceships nobody has like machine guns like the weapons that you have are either made out of again found objects wood and string or else they’re like very rudimentary guns for the
most part and that goes to highlight in a situation like this too i think especially the the idea that it’s not the weapon you know so much as it is the wielder the hunter you know the predator itself and uh trusting dan trachtenberg from things like 10 cloverfield lane and just again the interesting hook of this historical fiction period piece crashed into you know something that looks pretty familiar like a predator movie yeah i had a lot of optimism coming into this but um i was just constantly surprised at every turn by just how much
care and how much um just attention to detail in almost every regard seemed to have gone into this movie like you know it it would have been pretty easy i think to make this relatively speaking to make this a satisfying cool movie but i guess pretty easy is probably the wrong phrase all things considered but you know i feel like they could have easily made a pretty good predator movie that wasn’t necessarily a good movie whereas here i think it manages to be both and as much as i like predators i feel like that might
be what holds that movie back uh from certain people’s like full enthusiasm is like yeah as a movie it might not be that great as a predator movie is pretty cool but yeah this movie i think manages very successfully to be both and i would happily like have this movie kind of like separated in some kind of you know d fusion in a fission machine or something like that and i would probably still watch both movies i would probably just watch like the silent film about predator tracking through the woods and you know the the
comanche movie about this girl coming of age and going on you know this spiritual rite of passage i really gotta kind of commend everyone involved for helping it sort of transcend that into being you know not more than it needs to be but like really really conscientiously and really thoughtfully what it needs to be and it does bring elements that you don’t necessarily need in a predator movie but i think really help this movie and i mean i think uh as i think greg said this in his in his interviews with the cast you know
this he said this was the most he had cared about a character in the predator franchise i mean obviously everyone loves arnold dutch but uh yeah i mean they give you this juxtaposition of the predator doing its its hunter thing you know traversing the galaxy searching for you know to steal the it word of a couple years ago the apex predator of whatever ecosystem he’s in squaring off with that you know creature whatever it may be and bringing back that head as a trophy and then on the other side of that you have you know
this young budding warrior who wants to prove her salt but is having trouble with that and yeah you you have this very sort of thoughtful and and um i don’t know very natural kind of depiction it would seem of life in this comanche camp and you know again the uh what they call it the katamiya uh i hope i’m saying that right this sort of com the the rite of passage the coming of age ritual in which you sort of pick your uh you know the predator or yeah again the themes of prey and predator
are so like well laced into like every scene of this movie just the way different creatures and people and and all different points on the food chain kind of occupy both of those roles in different points in time so i’m probably going to say the words predator and prey a lot in here um but yeah you know you you have your sort of white whale that you need to go out and slay as part of this coming-of-age mission and i liked the nuances that came of that especially with the mom and the brother uh you
know the way she she kind of uh checks naru uh in the middle point of the movie where you know uh tabe has to bring her back uh and she says you know like it’s not about hunting it’s not about proving yourself as a hunter necessarily it’s about surviving and it is an interesting thing i mean it’s not not comforting i’m sure to hear that because you know you gotta achieve but uh this this movie again like around every corner kept impressing me with the things it chose to embellish in spite of how simple certain
aspects of it are it’s a simple journey in a sense for this character in terms of a story you know she wants to prove herself to her tribe and her family and she wants to be taken seriously and she wants to prove to herself that she has the ability to you know follow her instincts for tracking and for hunting and you know to serve the tribe in that way and to be recognized for those skills not just the skills of medicine but but two even still not like issuing those either by the end like as
a character journey i thought they did really nicely to sort of bring her full circle by the end you know to bring her to a sort of completion or to like a next uh iteration you know in her growth and and her journey but yeah like to show somebody who has a whole lot of potential at the outset who has natural skills and abilities but who needs to hone them and who needs to mature in the face of the elements and in the face of all the interconnecting concerns of a hunt and you know the
tribe ecosystem just the ecosystem of the land around and two i mean the way the movie utilizes the elements as its own sort of natural but still predatory force is really well engaged and is something that i think is is another one of those primal aspects that you know even if you’re not used to spending a lot of time outdoors you know you can still relate to you know if you were thrust into that situation you would have these things just probably just as many things at your disposal so like there is something innate about
that that i think too they use very nicely to their advantage and as a foil just as much as it is sort of an asset to the characters and i mean props to the entire cast but especially to amber mid thunder and dakota beavers as well for just like really throwing themselves full-heartedly it appears into these roles and into you know both the acting side of it but also the physical side of it just like getting out into the elements and you know uh doing this combat and and writing and and you know digging around
in the muck and the mud and everything like really really challenging i would imagine to be on set for but also i mean i just thought they they really committed and really brought the authenticity and and sold the whole thing wonderfully again they just put so much more care and effort than they had to and i really really loved that because again it’s both in the writing like the dialogue and the the story at hand isn’t like the most crazy intricate deep thing but the combination of the dialogue and the this character journey they created
combined with the performances i think just really made this come to life in a way that like really makes it easy to sink into perspectives and that’s on the filmmaking too i mean hats off to dan trachtenberg’s direction because the way the movie shifts between perspectives and i mean i’m talking like character perspectives but sometimes you’re in the predator’s perspective sometimes you’re in the perspective of just animals and things like that and the way the camera sometimes even glides you between those things in the same shot uh with a rack of focus or a subtle
you know angle shift or whatever a subtle motion like there’s so many great really solid choices and there are cool shots and and there’s like a bunch of stuff that’s really striking but all that stuff is really well chosen i feel like like this is a great example again of like a really solidly directed movie that has like a bunch of cool stuff in it but it’s like really concerned on just selling and enhancing and embellishing the most important aspects which in this are you know your characters to make sure that you actually care about
what’s going on so it’s not just a bloodbath and then yeah like paying homage to and giving us those like nerdy fan moments that we want to see of the predator and i i liked very much the way that they built the predator up over the course of the movie and these little appearances you know the ship goes by and intermingling that with folk tales and things like that i i forget the the certain names she says at one point when she’s describing you know what she saw to the other guys uh who you know
she she’s hunting with and and who are you know sort of like keeping an eye on her while tommy’s out looking for her and and uh you know she says it like looks like this mythical creature and you know there’s like the firebird myth uh that that i think they named check at one point um you know like and i’m no expert on these things so i cannot like reiterate them for you here and now off the dome um but yeah like the way that they played that into you know folklore and sort of spiritual
belief and then you know even though we know it’s not quite that it kind of is and like it’s those little philosophical flourishes too that i think are kind of nice because yeah like it is her katamia eventually like whether you like it or not you know like she is the one who kind of notices and knows to take the predator seriously and and two like i love the theme they use of of it not seeing her as a threat and it’s you know i mean anytime you have uh a female lead and a movie
like this that’s known for like macho dudely characters i feel like people get up in arms about wokeness and primary suit but i thought they made like a really great wonderful character journey in a physical sense like not only are you watching you know her um you know her her self-worth improvement and we’re watching her you know persevere and use you know the best of her knowledge and instincts but we watch her really have to learn and observe and it is in that sense of you know using that underestimation as an asset like it doesn’t
see me as a threat but that’s how what makes me threatening now is because i’ve been able to observe like you watch the predator tracking and stuff throughout the movie and nadu is kind of doing that too and even in that sense you kind of have like this this sort of like polar sort of attraction that leads them together through the action of the story and two i thought they had clever takes on that theme of invisibility of cloaking yourself to avoid i mean literally usually the predator’s you know thermal vision but doing that on
multiple levels where it’s like yeah they have a means of of you know becoming invisible by ingesting the the orange tootsie of the flower uh but also you know she has that added layer at least for for naru where it’s you know he doesn’t see me because he’s not concerned with me and i thought the way that they you know utilized that i’ll talk about that a little bit more in a bit but the way that they utilized that i thought was was a nice two-fold that almost like helped that they they homaged the whole
getting caked in mud thing without actually having to use that because like that’s the one thing about like predators is like adrien brody at one point pretty much just does the dutch and covers himself in mud and like it’s cool and all that but i thought here like they they came up with ways to use that but as both a theme and a physical phenomenon that’s not the exact same thing so just like props for for like easter egging and expounding on that you know yeah and i mean even the predator like you know i
like to that this is i mean this is you know 300 odd years an hour past currently and uh you know i don’t have the best grip on like every i can’t pinpoint every predator movie on the timeline but in setting this beforehand uh you know i feel like it also gives you this kind of interesting view on like because the predator doesn’t speak you can kind of ascribe any sort of other story detail headcanon you want to it so in a way it’s almost like this predator is on its own sort of journey of
at least conquest perhaps some kind of you know coming of age or rite of passage for uh you know that species of predators also just a sidebar but i love the sort of tweaked design they went with for the predator i mean that’s obviously very much akin to the designs that have come before or that will come in the future um but yeah with the slightly more narrow face and again that bone plate sort of giving it again a slightly more tribal and a slightly more primitive uh aesthetic to sort of match again being so
far removed in time or being so far back in the past like i thought that was again subtle tweaks um and i think they’re they’re i mean there are definitely like gadgets and guns and stuff like that that are like direct easter eggs from other predator movies but i thought the design choice here was was really cool and really suited again without being a direct overhaul just the aesthetic of the movie at hand but even so like i thought that was complimentary and there were so many things that had these like dual components or that
would you know be important at one point or come up at one point and then come back whether it be like the sinkhole uh at first being this like major obstacle for nadu to you know figure her way out of and then later to come back and use as part of her ultimate you know finishing move um but yeah like all that stuff like even running into the trappers and sort of seeing two i love that like that that switcheroo like you see this field full of decimated buffalo or bison or whatever and you think
to yourself like oh my god you know predators really laying it down but then the further you get and the more you realize like but they couldn’t have been like that threatening right like they’re not the apex predators of the region they’re not you know the bears or the wolves or the snakes or whatever so yeah i love that switcheroo of like the cigar as a sort of not mcguffin but just yeah like a sign a harbinger of like oh no no it’s not what you think and i feel like that’s something that you know
it’s like i would have almost missed that um but yeah like having even that come around is like okay you know there’s monstrousness within us and there’s that sort of primal like when your back’s up against the wall you just have to you know either fight or die in this situation if you’re up against the predator there’s pretty much two choices um but yeah like the the way that they kind of constructed this very uh naturally unfolding journey they’re you know out uh there’s a lion in the area it slashed up one of their uh
you know tribes people and they gotta go you know find the lion and you know neutralize it and bring it back and kind of restore order to the food chain of the area and then yeah that kind of uh kind of yeah just like intersecting with this predators just sort of uh walkabout of you know supremacy of just you know like taking on all the greatest uh you know beasts in the area and whatnot and they just happen to stumble upon these guys but even so like i really enjoyed again i’ve used the word probably
tangibility a lot i like the tangibility of this quite a bit because you know you really do feel like you are you feel the the land you feel that some of the time that it takes to get places and the distance and again like i said this before it’s like you know 10 cloverfield lane does so much with a tight confined space in this movie obviously you’re outdoors for pretty much all of it unless you’re you know inside a hut or a tp or something so uh you know you ring a lot of i guess
agoraphobia out of that and claustrophobia because of you know the things that can be lurking between trees and i thought they did a really nice job too in this movie of using the predator’s cloaking ability as sort of its own presence like for so much of the movie even though you know what’s coming i feel like the cloaking mechanism is especially useful for something like this because you can only do so many flybys before you have to have an actual like no predator appearance and i thought the way that they used the stealth especially for
when he’s you know like quietly observing things like i would be curious to go back and look through this and see like are there more times where you can see him lurking than you even realize um but yeah like the way that they used that and the way that in the different you know altercations the different fights and things like it was spark and you would see like patches and stuff like that like i thought that was a really just sort of sinister and really cool looking motif that again you know it it goes to
show that while that’s like a major asset while the predator does have like you know so many abilities to just make the fight like unfair you know like he’s he’s got like tracking and and you know he can pinpoint targets and and all that other stuff and you know he’s got these blades and you know it’s things like that that helped kind of even the playing field and make it feel like yeah you know this is a an alien being from an advanced race engineer to hunt and kill but you know i believe that part
of part of the point of doing that and part of maybe even the thrill if you want to ascribe such a you know emotional value to a predator is the risk you know is the danger factor is like what would be the point if not to say that you brought back the skull of something particularly dangerous and i i love the the choice to set this in the comanche nation to set this among people who live off the land and who you know really know how to make everything you need to survive out of everything
that is just kind of here now and doesn’t need uh you know it’s like either the figuring out is in you know like making the gurney like i love that scene where she’s applying the ointments and they are you know taking bits and pieces and they’re making this gurney and they are doing it like clockwork because they have to and it’s like you can see how uh tabe is you know in his position and i loved again like i called out in the reactions like i really enjoyed that they made him a real nuanced character
that you know does seem to care for his sister he has his own pride but he does stick up for her and he does support her especially as the rest of the you know tribe that they’re with is you know laughing at her and belittling her and whatever else um you know i really enjoyed their relationship together and i like that you’re like yeah he is you know an instrumental part of it and then you have that flipperoo or is that the you know when they do the lion hunt you know it’s her plan and
he puts his faith in her and she is instrumental in getting it done which he ultimately admits to later but she didn’t yeah fully bring it home he needed to complete that whereas at the end it’s the reverse it’s like he is able to help he’s able to get her that critical window but she’s the one who over the course of this went out and looked for this creature and observed its habits and its fight style and and how it hunts and all that stuff like she gets this this fascinatingly like you know hyper physical
and fight or flight but also like very oddly kind of intimate glimpse at how this creature works and i think again that linchpin and i know uh you know i don’t know if he saw her as a threat at one point i guess you could argue like why didn’t he just kill her anyway but i liked that motif and i liked giving the predator a bit of agency because like the body language i thought was really great like i really loved the blend of i’m sure there’s a lot of cg shots but i also really
got the sense of the actor in the suit you know bringing some of that slasher movie personality um you know i mean the noise and the articulation of the you know face and the mask or you know puppeteering all the combination of that movie magic brings that to life but two just the thought that the predator might be able to make a choice like that make a decision like that regarding its hunt and then you know have that come back around like that red as a true thing to me that you might encounter just out
in the wild in the sort of natural order of a you know hostile food chain so yeah like this this was just an experience where again like the music like i i really appreciated that too like i thought they did nicely to ground the music in you know like there’s certain flavors that i’m sure like trophy by this point that you expect to hear in a native american setting no matter what that is uh you expect to hear like drums or flutes and things like that or certain vocalizations and there is that and and there
is i think tasteful use of that but there are also just period-appropriate instruments and then where appropriate it seems as well certain like synth flourishes and yeah i just like it i thought they really expressively used the music in a way that felt again very natural and and sort of tangible even though it is you know part of the more heightened aspect of movie magic um uh but yeah like the sound effects uh especially like that that tomahawk hitting the wood each time and that that you know the tomahawk with the rope on it you
know like great great call it reminded me of i don’t know what that martial art is called but you know where you have like the dagger on the end of the the rope um yeah just just like this had so many great elements that like are befitting of the cool fun you want from and you know predator movies or exploitation movies they’re fun action horror you know adventures in their own way but they’re also exploitation movies and so you have those exploitable elements but you also have an earnest story and also an earnest depiction of
its you know subjects in you know the sort of culture the comanche nation that they chose to sort of center the the story around and to sort of build their characters out of like that was something that i was very curious about going into this because obviously you see like it’s an indigenous cast for the most part uh pretty much completely um and and you know there are people uh working behind the scenes producers and whatnot who are uh of comanche uh descent as well as you know uh various other indigenous cultures but it’s one
of those things where you see it and you’re like ah this could easily just be like a nifty idea that they’re not gonna really dive into at all that is just gonna be kind of a skin to lay over top of this to make it seem like it’s fresh um yeah there are a lot of ways that this could have been cynical or trite but i thought they really too while it’s not like a deep historical dive into you know the nuances of comanche life uh it does take time to observe that though like when
you’re in the camp you know it lets you drink in those details and it seems like they really did just kind of build what appears to be an actual camp and just kind of let life unfold there as it might have and the way they chose to capture that just felt very again observant and compassionate and you know very informed by something authentic you know like it seemed like they really cared to make this life feel real and tangible and and as well informed by you know some actual history as possible so yeah like even
if it’s not the quote-unquote point i was really happy to see that they didn’t just use it as just kind of like oh it’s a neat you know kind of uh a gimmick i guess that’s it it wasn’t a gimmick for this movie it was very very much ingrained in the heart and soul and the core story of this and so that’s something that like again i i was a little worried they might fumble but they they very much did not and you have really beautiful cinematography with really beautiful lighting that really puts you in
the setting and then two uh like i i cannot i’m really excited to watch the comanche dub of this because i mean i i don’t know i i love seeing things like this that very naturally kind of lend a platform and very naturally kind of give people a reason to sort of take an interest in history or a different culture or whatever um and yeah so like i’m really excited to watch uh the dub and just sort of take it in that way but i love the way that they too kind of use a certain
level of like there’s dialogue obviously it drives a lot of the story uh you know of the personal journey uh journey of naru and her you know close uh you know her brother and her her tribe and all that stuff but there’s so much of this movie that is just about body language and physicality and there is a lot of the story that could be told without words you know and so i like too that even uh language can be a barrier and can represent sort of um i don’t know the the difference between winding
up predator or prey in a certain situation uh you know ostensibly the guy who is like the one vaguely sympathetic dude with the french camp with the trappers you know it’s like i guess he could have spoken to tabe but like you know their ability and willingness to communicate in that moment you know it’s like you you hear french and they don’t subtitle it so you’re like you’re kept on the outside and that too like i think during the trailer we had theorized that these would be like you know english speaking settlers of some sort
um but i love that choice too because that’s another thing that makes you go like oh wait a minute so let me figure out where exactly in the in the plains we are and let me go crack a history book again because that’s kind of interesting um but also yeah like it creates again another barrier that uh puts you uh sets you uneasy you know it’s uh yeah it’s it’s another way in which you could you know like lose that critical edge in being able to you know scrape out of a situation or avoid you
know some kind of ill fate and i mean they are like like a pretty horrible bunch for the most part so it does make for a very sort of satisfying slashery kind of act three when they’re all getting hacked up and they tie them to the you know big stump and they you know are using them as baits but uh yeah like watching just the whole thing crescendo into some really cool action sequences with again the requisite amounts of like gore and viscera and like really kind of cringe inducing stomach churning gags but again it’s
not just gor gorgorg or gore like there is a good amount of blood but like there’s that one shot where they cut really wide and it’s the spray out in the field i thought that was really striking or you know when they when he does the thing with the snake uh you know you see it through the back of the the camouflage so like there are clever ways of not quite showing you or not showing you in certain moments that again just speak to a certain level of like sophistication i feel like in the direction
i feel like you know you can approach something like this with a certain amount of uh gusto and a certain amount of sort of abandon but also i think you know like clever uses of restraint or clever kind of turns of the screw on a certain detail or whatever can just make all the difference and so yeah this is one of those movies that that manages to kind of transcend what it is by just doing what it’s trying to do really well and with a ton of consideration and with the right amount of compassion and
again like it’s a really great movie at showcasing perspectives just as much as it is at building up horror and putting you like right into the adrenaline rush of these you know crazy ass fight sequences and yeah like the way she ultimately takes the predator down i was like you know what in this heightened little world i do believe this i do believe that after all she’s learned and with that edge of figuring out that the helmet is the crucial bit those targeting lasers are the crucial bit if she can co-opt that and she can
trap him and she can you know use all of her other skills if she can make herself invisible and i love that too they faked us out with the mud she takes the um orange tutsia i think they call it you know the flower that makes your blood all cold and of course i mean that’s a bit of an action-moving moment because she’s not like convulsing but you know who knows maybe she’s been micro dosing very often up until that point to build up a tolerance um but yeah like you know she steps aside as
the guy who walks up to the really horrible nasty trapper guy and uh and yeah it’s like she uses her original plan she lures him out with the bait and then she uses the gun the gun finally works and i love that too like the guns rarely amount to much they do a couple times but you can’t like that one guy with the ricochet like killing himself basically um and then you know not obviously uh taking the shot at the back of the predator’s head but like yeah the way they earn her taking him down
at the end at least to me felt very well assembled and very well acted and very well conceived from a story standpoint because yeah you are watching two budding hunters learn and one is obviously at an advantage and knows a lot more and is you know the odds are stacked in one side’s favor at the beginning obviously but the way they went about you know making that story uh you know come together and making her you know sort of this triumphant figure by the end i i really enjoyed it and i felt like it was
very much earned and i liked the way that they took a few different kinds of movie here you know you have your predator movie your action horror monster movie but you also have you know like i said i think early on in the reaction like when you dip out of that and you just go back to life in the camp for a little while or life is there on this hunt you really get pulled into that stuff too and the movie cares just as much about that stuff and knows how to make that stuff just
as engaging from a character level but also as engaging from just an action from an intensity level that yeah like all the pieces are interesting and all the pieces are just the right amount nothing really outstays its welcome nothing feels too brief to me like this was a slam dunk like like this is all that it needed to be and and all the right kinds of more as far as i’m concerned so i had a blast with this if you couldn’t tell leave me your thoughts i would love to hear what you guys thought of
this i hope you guys enjoyed watching along with me and uh yeah we will catch you for more uh movie reactions going forward this is a lot of fun and uh yeah sound off in the comments like and subscribe and all that good stuff and i’ll catch you on the next one much love and as always cheers
