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Monday, July 12, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Spineless 'Predators

It's time for this
movie monster-osity
to call it quits
ByKAVI PANDEY
DailyFilm Editor
In the late '80s, when Arnold
Schwarzenegger was at the prime of
his career, it became obvious that no
mere mortal was
enough of a for- **
midable opponent
for the awesomely PredatkrS
accented Austrian. At Quality16
And so the Preda- and Rave
tor was born - an
alien with the size 20th Century Fox
of Shaq, the agil-
ity of Kobe and the soullessness of
LeBron. Armed with blasters, blades,
invisibility, infrared vision and, inex-
plicably, dreadlocks, the creature was
a heart-stopping terror. But over the
years, the alien lost its sinister appeal
thanks to the very average "Preda-
tor 2" (1990) and a piss-poor pair of
crossover appearances in the "Alien
vs. Predator" series.
Enter producer Robert Rodriguez
("Sin City"), who saw what a car-
toon the once-feared Predator alien
had become and decided to restore
the magic of the original "Preda-
tor." The result is "Predators," and it
works to an extent - it employs some
truly excellent elements, but they
aren't enough to save the film from its
countless missteps.
The film's cast of characters - also
known as the victims that the aliens
will systematically kill off - is para-

doxically one of the best and worst
parts of the film. It's comprised of
a group of menacing killers (and
Topher Grace) who find themselves
dropped (literally) onto an alien plan-
et. As self-proclaimed group leader
Royce (Adrien Brody, "Splice") soon
deduces, they have all been brought
to the planetoto be hunted for game by
a group of Predators.
What's brilliant is the varied back-
grounds of the characters. Royce is
a guilt-free mercenary, Walton Gog-
gins (TV's "Justified") plays a con-
vict on death row; there's a Mexican
cartel enforcer, a Yakuza member, an
African soldier, anEastern European
soldier and Topher Grace ("That '70s
Show") as some pansy-ass doctor. As
a gaggle of strangers with a penchant
for murdering people, their interac-
tions are always hilarious and cap-
tivating. Especially entertaining are
Goggins, as quite possibly the fun-
niest murder-rapist you'll ever see,
and Laurence Fishburne (who's eaten
too many Krispy Kremes since "The
Matrix") as a whack-job survi-
vor hiding out on the planet.
At the same time, the fact
that everybody is a stranger
is the film's most glaring flaw.
When someone is inevi-
tably killed, the rest
of the crew doesn't a
care and neither
will the audience.
Not only do the
viewers have
no emotional
investment
COURTESY OF
20TH CENTURY FOX

in the characters, but everyone's a
freaking murderer, so few will be
shaken or saddened when the Preda-
tor rips out a man's spinal cord. In
fact, one may be pleased to see the
demise of such a wretched group of
scum and villainy.
And dear God, how badly cast is
the lead role? Brody playing a tough-
as-nails mercenary is less convincing
than Mel Gibson's claims that he isn't
a racist, anti-Semitic bum. It's laugh-
able (in a bad way) to see Brody spit
out orders and run around with a
machine gun likea kid playing paint-
ball for the first time. Even Isabelle
(Alice Braga, "I Am Legend"), the
film's lone woman, is a more compe-
tent, believable assassin than Brody.
Not to knock the man's talents, he
just belongs in less high-octane fare.
The action sequences are decent
but not spectacular, as are the special
effects - though they are impres-
sive for the $38 million budget. Other
things to complain about include the
countless number of Predators (one
is enough), the achingly slow
first act and all of Grace's antics.
Unless it's your thing to
watch a group of people you
- don't care about get killed
by cool-looking aliens,
you probably won't
like "Predators."
It is definitely an
improvement
over the Preda-
tor's recent
appearances,
but that's not
really saying
um much.

WINTER
From Page 9
("Down to the Bone") infuses "Win-
ter's Bone" with the atmosphere
and tone that make it so hard to tear
away from. It eschews any frivolity
you might expect from a mystery
starring a teenage girl: The life-
and-death stakes here are not only
real, but palpable. We fear for Ree,
because every new character she
encounters is more likely to harm
her than the last. And the rugged
chill of the Ozarks is expertly pre-
sented, as well, from the constant
need to chop wood to the bluegrass
band at a birthday party.
The script, which Granik and co-
writer Anne Rosellini based off of
the novel by Daniel Woodrell, is a
wonder. It's full of completely natu-
ral yet whip-smart lines that firmly
place "Winter's Bone" in the same
school of minimalist neo-noir occu-
pied by early-period Coen brothers.
An adversary won't let Ree speak
to a crucial figure because "talkin'
just causes witnesses." And when
Ree's teaching her younger brother
to shoot a gun (a scene that works
as a brilliant distillation of the sto-
ry's building fear and tension), she
commands him to "kneel down like
you're prayin'."
If the movie drags a bit in the sec-
ond half,it's only because ithad been
strung so abnormally tight in the
first. But rest assured that "Winter's
Bone" is a wholly worthwhile sus-
pense picture, and the way it builds
purely from mood and dialogue is
unprecedented in mainstream Hol-
lywood today. In its tale of a girl's
selfless attempts to shield her fam-
ily from the sins of her father, the
film weaves a fantastic tale from the
ice-cold underbelly of this forgotten
American wilderness.

M.I.A.
From Page 9
techno-popper "Space," but when
it ends, closing the album on a
drugged-out note, it's hard to tell if
that's a good or bad thing - ultimate-
ly, it's empty.
So maybe M.I.A. needs The New
York Times and all the hoopla that
surrounds her. That punk-rebel atti-
tude might very well hide ignorance,
and her cool musical innovations
could just be accidents. But whatever
M.I.A. is saying, we certainly haven't
heard it before. And she yells it loud
enough - and often enough - that it
catches on fast.
ARTS IN BRIEF
FILM REVIEW
Despicably trite
but endearing 'Me'

Despicable Me
At Quality 16 and Rave
Universal

0

Let's face it: Amidst the plethora
of animated movies at our disposal,
"Despicable Me" is, at best, cheap
entertainment. A mean old man
named Mr. Gru meets three orphans,
and they melt his cold little heart. It
leans far more heavily on the tried
and true three-act Hollywood struc-
ture than do other films of its kind,
and its humor is predominantly
crafted for children. It also employs
the all-too-common standard of
excessively cute characters that
manipulate and irritate with con-
trived tear-jerking.
But while some of the movie's
redundant standards may be grating,
they aren't entirely lost on an adult
audience. In spite of its lack of pro-
fundity and substance, Steve Carell's
("Get Smart") foray into animated
film still succeeds in other ways -
excepting his occasionally annoying
Russian accent.
For starters, it's almost guaran-
teed to make you feel like a kid again,
and its gentle demeanor makes it an
excellent date film. Most important,
however, is its unique ideation -
rarely does a film (especially a chil-
dren's film) invite us to sympathize
with a villain so readily. And for the
still-hesitant, rest assured that there
are indeed some laugh-out-loud
moments to be had, though alpha
males repelled by slushiness may find
themselves writhing in discomfort
more often than not.
TIMIOYHYI RAB7