Prey Fan Reviews

[Rudiger]

This is all pretty simple, but pretty dumb when you think about it.

(1) The Predator has heat vision. (2) The orange flower triggers a massive temperature drop in anyone that consumes it. (3) When the Predator looks at Frenchie-with-one-leg he sees his body as blue, the same colour as the other bodies on the ground, and assumes he is dead. (3) Naru deduces that the Predator cannot see Frenchie because he is cold, which is one of the those cognitive leaps only movie characters can make. (4). Predator realises Frenchie is still alive when he steps on his leg and he screams out in pain. (5). Frenchie gets the shish-kebab treatment.

[Sol]

This is all pretty simple, but pretty dumb when you think about it.

(1) The Predator has heat vision. (2) The orange flower triggers a massive temperature drop in anyone that consumes it. (3) When the Predator looks at Frenchie-with-one-leg he sees his body as blue, the same colour as the other bodies on the ground, and assumes he is dead. (3) Naru deduces that the Predator cannot see Frenchie because he is cold, which is one of the those cognitive leaps only movie characters can make. (4). Predator realises Frenchie is still alive when he steps on his leg and he screams out in pain. (5). Frenchie gets the shish-kebab treatment.

Storytelling really is dead, here. And it's the audiences fault.

She knows exactly what her medicine does > She gave it to the Frenchmen > He then survives much longer than he should, and was only killed once he screamed in pain after being stepped on by the Pred.

It's a literal A - B, here. Nothing about that was dumb or written poorly.

[BigDaddyJohn]

spoiler]That's how I felt with the net weapon. Did it like completely destroy that one guy?[/spoiler]

I believe so. But how it's shot makes it a bit unclear.

[GnarlySheen57]

How did Dutch deduce that the predator sees in heat vision. Being covered in mud doesn't automatically tell someone that whatever is hunting them only sees in an infrared spectrum. For all Dutch knew for whatever reason the mud made him less detectable to the predator. Same with Naru and her flower. All she knew is that for whatever reason when someone has eaten the cooling flower, a flower that she literally says "cools the blood" the predator has trouble detecting them. It's as much of a stretch as Dutch in the mud. It's a fictional device and nothing more.

She didnt figure out Pred had heat vision. She found out Pred couldnt see him. That's it. Maybe that's why you are struggling here. You think she figured out something that she didnt. She solved the parts of the puzzle needed to fight against him. That's it.

This is real simple storytelling here.

Again, nothing telegraphed that the Predator couldn't see him.
From Naru's perspective, the Predator had stopped over the body of the Frenchman. Why would she assume that the flower caused the blood to cool and thus led to the Predator not being able to see him when what is telegraphed is the Predator being suspicious about the Frenchman and assumes he might be playing dead.

I understand the writing side of it, and how the writer's assume you should see it, but that isn't how it's portrayed.

With Arnold, the Predator walked right past him while he was covered in mud. He has every reason to assume the mud was why the Predator couldn't see him, even if he doesn't know why. It's clearly telegraphed and the moment of realization comes from direct experience. The Frenchman playing dead and the Predator standing over him curiously doesn't equal "invisible".

A simple fix would be to have the Frenchman NOT play dead.

A very simple explanation exists here:

A) It is true that Naru deduces that the Predator can't see the trapper because of the medicinal herb.

B) It is also true that there is no reason to believe that Naru guessed the Predator has heat vision.

Naru and her tribe would not have an understanding of the biochemistry that makes such herbs effective medicines.  To them, these things simply have power, spiritual or even magical.

Naru does not understand that the Predator is extraterrestrial in a spacefaring alien sense.  She sees it as supernatural, a demon, something akin to a Wendigo.

It's reasonable to assume that Naru believes that the properties of this magical herb makes it a potent weapon against this demon from the spirit world.

Infrared vision and scientific deduction don't even enter the equation.

[Rudiger]

Storytelling really is dead, here. And it's the audiences fault.

She knows exactly what her medicine does > She gave it to the Frenchmen > He then survives much longer than he should, and was only killed once he screamed in pain after being stepped on by the Pred.

It's a literal A - B, here. Nothing about that was dumb or written poorly.

Of course it was dumb and poorly written. Naru sees this and nothing more: The Predator walks into camp, looks around a bit, steps on Frenchie's leg and kills him when he screams. That's it; that's all she sees. There is no way on earth she would know what the Predator saw or rather couldn't see?

You've only got to think about the scene for a second or two to realise how silly it all is.

[BIOROBOT]

I think looking for realism in a movie about a technologically advanced alien hunting people isn't going to be a good fine, with ANY of the predator movies because they all make logical leaps and they all require the suspension of disbelief. The original flick was literally made to be a fun he-man vs monster pop corn flick and nothing more. I think nostalgia really blinds people to these simple facts.

[Rudiger]

Here's how you write a scene that ensures the characters in the film are on the same page as the audience...

Predator 1: We, the audience, know that the Predator sees using heat. Dutch doesn't and is being chased by the Predator. Dutch falls into the water, but the Predator keeps coming. Dutch gets covered in mud, the Predator approaches, but does not attack. Dutch is confused. The Predator looks directly at Dutch. Nothing happens. Cut to the Predator's POV and we see that the Predator can no longer distinguish Dutch. The Predator targets another heat signature and attacks, but it's just a rodent. Dutch now understands... when's he's covered in mud, the Predator cannot see him.

It's brilliantly simply and perfectly logical...because Dutch is the thing being seen and then not seen. Prey gets it wrong by not doing something similar with Naru. For her to understand the effect of the herb, she should be seen, but then not seen after consuming some of said herb. That's a logical leap her character could have made.

[BIOROBOT]

Well luckily the original movie still exists for people who don't like Prey to still enjoy. I could tear apart predator and predator 2 for their fallacies all day but I understand that no movie is perfect, especially in the sphere of public opinion. It is pointless to tear this movie apart for things that literally every other predator movie is guilty of.

[GreybackElder]

I kind of disagree that City Hunter was calculating. A lot of what he did was walk into rooms and kill everyone inside and the subway scene was full tilt slasher behavior. I never had a problem with it though because City Hunter is a different Pred than Jungle Hunter and it wouldn't make sense if they all robotically mimicked one another. What makes Predator so cool to me is like us each one is in individual.

Also I'd like to point out that this Predator truly was looking for the most challenging adversary instead of hiding in the trees and killing everyone with the knowledge that no one could possibly see him. If you really look at it Jungle Hunter opererated in a way where no one other than Arnold really had any chance of putting up a fight against it and the only reason Arnold was able to is because he figured out how to become the hunter.

I think city was more calculating than Feral. He stalked and killed all of Harrigan's team one by one. He literally followe Harrigan wherever he went.He toyed with Harrigan by dangling Danny's necklace in the cemetery. Feral was killing whatever and whom ever he pleased.

[Sol]

Storytelling really is dead, here. And it's the audiences fault.

She knows exactly what her medicine does > She gave it to the Frenchmen > He then survives much longer than he should, and was only killed once he screamed in pain after being stepped on by the Pred.

It's a literal A - B, here. Nothing about that was dumb or written poorly.

Of course it was dumb and poorly written. Naru sees this and nothing more: The Predator walks into camp, looks around a bit, steps on Frenchie's leg and kills him when he screams. That's it; that's all she sees. There is no way on earth she would know what the Predator saw or rather couldn't see?

You've only got to think about the scene for a second or two to realise how silly it all is.

... man...

Yea, she watches this thing insta-kill everything it sees, but not the frenchmen? He was standing right on top of him, and didn't attack until he yelled at the top of his lungs?

... C'mon. lol

[Kurai]

... man...

Yea, she watches this thing insta-kill everything it sees, but not the frenchmen? He was standing right on top of him, and didn't attack until he yelled at the top of his lungs?

... C'mon. lol

That line of logic doesn't pan out as well. The Predator DOESN'T insta-kill everything it sees and Naru in fact already has that knowledge thanks to it leaving her alone when she was caught in the beartrap.
Now that you mention it, that makes the logic leap even more apparent, because it would be more natural for her to assume that the Predator didn't think the Frenchman was a threat, especially if he assumed he was dead.

[Rudiger]

... man...

Yea, she watches this thing insta-kill everything it sees, but not the frenchmen? He was standing right on top of him, and didn't attack until he yelled at the top of his lungs?

... C'mon. lol

You can ignore it all you like, but from that scene onwards Naru performs a level of mental gymnastics Einstein would have been proud of. The shark gets well and truly jumped.

[RIP77]

Is it a mistake that water does not affect the Predator in PREY and it does in Predator 2?

[Nightmare Asylum]

https://twitter.com/vmenendezb/status/1556311213969113089

Yep.

[BIOROBOT]

"I think city was more calculating than Feral. He stalked and killed all of Harrigan's team one by one. He literally followe Harrigan wherever he went.He toyed with Harrigan by dangling Danny's necklace in the cemetery. Feral was killing whatever and whom ever he pleased."

I guess I don't see this as a problem.