Dir - Dan Trachtenberg
Overall: GOOD
The Predator franchise gets another gimmick with Prey; the latest and strongest since Predator 2, (though if we are to also count the Alien series mash-ups then that is not particularly saying much). Director Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison developed the prequel concept where a Comanche tribe in the 1700s makes contact with the deadly extraterrestrial species, also having the bonus ingredient of a woman warrior determined to stake a claim as a worthy hunter amongst her people. The pro-feminist action hero has long been a staple in the genre and Amber Midthunder's Naru is an easy one to root for. Almost exclusively on camera, she brings an effective balance of ass-whooping skills, intelligence, and vulnerability that makes her character's determination plausible enough in such a fantastic scenario. Minor qualms are the rather poor CGI, eye-ball rolling callbacks to the legendary first film, (including the "If it bleeds we can kill it line", oye), more of a modern vernacular to some of the dialog, and occasional pacing issues that make the movie feel longer than the actually appreciated, under two-hour runtime. Still, it delivers much better on what one would expect at this point and is an admirably solid action film that mostly bypasses the schlock and delivers the green-blood spewing mayhem.
Dir - Jordan Peele
Overall: GOOD
For his third horror film in a row, Jordan Peele continues his now trademark trend of stacking themes, this time with the emphasis mostly on visual spectacle. Nope is a beautifully shot work and Peele's first collaboration with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema who brings out the lush expanse of the Agua Dulce desert, framing the minimal amount of characters as mere specs against a mysterious threat from the sky. The tone once again incorporates humor, (sometimes forced, sometimes not), which contributes to the broader appeal of a story that is less ambiguous than Peele's previous works, though still certainly heavy. The literal act of "not looking" serves as a life-saver in this scenario where people are hell-bent on capturing a sort of showbiz magic to overcome past traumatic events. All of this could speak to humanity's growing need to be enthralled, (particularly after a claustrophobic-inducing, real life pandemic), or it could just be Peele channeling his admiration for Steven Spielberg and taking advantage of his past cinematic successes to up the ante appropriately. It is still a bit overstuffed and overlong, perhaps reaching for something not quite in the material's grasp, but it is also undeniably impressive and unique.
Dir - Zach Cregger
Overall: WOOF
The first work in the horror genre from filmmaker Zach Cregger, Barbarian has a highly unpredictable structure that changes gears quite successfully at various points, yet it eventually runs out of clever ways to subvert expectations and just becomes an insulting mess. This is a shame since the first two acts deliberately set up a series of cliches in the form of red flags for the characters to bypass. When Cregger is sticking to this agenda, the audience is able to get on board. Once everyone starts behaving in the completely opposite, (i.e. moronic), manner though, the comedic tonal shifts become utterly ridiculous, the plot points become utterly gaping, and several new tropes along with previously side-stepped ones rear their ugly, disappointing head. At one moment, people are behaving in a refreshingly logical manner that is funny in the context of a horror film, only to do "stupid people in horror movies" stuff eventually anyway like the genre itself is this inescapably moronic, suffocating force that cannot be denied. Surely the intention was not to make something so cynical in this regard, but the laughably lazy excuses to have law enforcement be useless in order to move things forward while characters also knowingly put themselves in danger to move things forward, (not to mention Justin Long playing only a slight variation of the same douchebag that he played in Tusk, an inbred because horror movies, a screechy-noised monster that looks, sounds, and has the backstory of shit that has been seen countless times before), all just makes this particular house of cards collapse.
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