I felt it'd be worth it to share this with people here; I don't pick up DVDs often, but just picked up Predators recently. Well, before going over a brief review, I'd like to go over the experience with the 'Predator 3 ideas' thread that was on this forum a few years ago. I remember posting in that thread around early summer 2008, my 'suggestions thrown into the thread suggestion box', so to speak:
1) I said that the setting should be a 'game preserves' site; (I said along the African planes, not a foreign planet, but I remember using that phrase.) 2) I also, along with other people posting in that thread, suggested the comic mini-series Bad Blood be inspiration for the movie; with predator against predator conflict. And that one predator character should be psychotic or crazy like the rogue in the mini-series. 3) I remember trying to be a little bit of a comedian and saying that, since Schwarzenegger's character was a white guy and Glover's character was a black guy, that the main character should be an Asian guy. I was trying to be funny, but was also making what I thought to be a good suggestion, thinking of someone like Tony Jaa...
And what happens a couple years later...? Predators is released, and the main setting is a 'game preserves'; there is predator against predator conflict, one of the predator character's nickname is 'Berserker'; and one of the central characters is a Japanese dude wielding a samurai sword. Well, the only thing I have to say is that it is just bizarre and stunning. (I'm not suggesting that the production or writing people pulled ideas from online forums, just stating the facts. My suggestions were hardly original ideas, anyways, more so ideas pulled from the comic books I grew up with.)
The Positive: So, reviewing things, I'd have to give the film a little bit of a high rating, around 7-point-something or 8 over 10. I think the setting, storyline, premise were great, very fitting. The predator designs, the gadget designs, were well-done by the artists. Loved the fact that there were brief glimpses of other species on the planet. I think the characters were what they needed to be, very fitting. The terror and action factor, and the way things tied up at the ending I thought were great, and a few like Fishburne's about commandeering the alien spacecraft were wonderful one-liners.
The Negative: My gripes are the same as I've seen with other peoples'. I think the setting could've had more alien-looking flora. Some dialogue was pretty bad, Fishburne's character presence was really choppy and too short. Some action sequences like the Asian dude against the monster, and the monster ripping the convict's spine out, were a little sloppy.
