3 Short Paragraphs: Prey

2022,  Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) -- Disney+

It's weird how many of my thoughts about a recently watched movie or TV show are coloured by the buzz on the Internet, these days the loudest always being the incredibly toxic negative. No longer do people just Not Like Something; they have insult, tear down, cast slurs upon and just be extra shitty in general. Cross into the Nostalgic Domain of white men and you increase all that horrible response by 1000%. Prey is the latest in the Predator franchise, and because the main character is a young indigenous woman, the online rhetoric has been astoundingly foul. Again I repeat, I miss the days when the worst examples of humanity generally kept their mouths shut because general society would shout them down. Now, these reprehensible people find the greatest sounding board and like minds, and toxic behaviour generates buzz and the marketing machine will take anything it can to promote its material.

I have enjoyed both of the two stand alone entries into this franchise, Predators, the weird near future, scifi one, and The Predator, directed by Shane Black and post eaten by the Great Hiatus of 2018 post here. The former is truly stand alone, while the latter seemed to be trying to expand upon the canon, adding in a genetically advanced predator species. But instead of doing a sequel, the new one jumps into the past and gives us an engaging story of a predator coming to our planet in the 1700s. Naru (Amber Midthunder, Legion) is a young Commanche woman trying to prove herself to her people, in a culture where women probably aren't accepted as hunters & warriors easily. And then a predator drops down from the skies and wreaks havoc with her people, and even the nearby French trappers.

Midthunder is a marvel in this movie. I full admit, I am a fan of hers, but she carries the character with bravery, capability and yet knows when to turn around and just fucking RUN ! The frustration she exhibits when she is not allowed to be one of the boys is overshadowed by her desire to do right by her tribe. So many of the online Whiney Boys complained that here we were with this advanced species that could take down commando squads, being taken down by a little girl. Oh, get over yourselves you fucks, and just actually watch the movie. The predator that is dropped from the ship is setup to fight these "primitive" warriors, less armoured and armed than those seen in other movies. While one would not say the predators are ever truly seeking proper sportsmanship (I mean, laser guns vs tomahawks?), this one was not the walking battlesuit of other movies. But even that doesn't account much, as in a brief scene with Naru's brother, their tribe display preternatural skill and bravery, and Naru is better than most of them. She uses skill, strategy and subterfuge to take down the larger, better armed enemy. I think the WB's complaints were more about the depiction of a capable woman, than the "realism" of an indigenous warrior taking down an alien hunter. So, fuck them.