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Prey 2022 tries to be annoying to concervatives
October 14, 2025π 17
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#Prey #Predator #movies #review #film #cinemastodon #DanTrachtenberg
by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
8 Minute Read
The Predator franchise started its life as a masculine super-macho, mega-violent little B-Movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In my review of the first film, I even speculated, for a second, that it might have even been racist. Something that a certain side of political spectrum finds to be a quality of a movie. That certain side of the political spectrum really didn't get when Dan Trachtenberg decided, he is making a feminist, native-American movie in the same franchise.
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The film Prey ( which is a very fun play on words, considering the story the movie is telling ) is set in America before there was USA. The entire movie there is not a singe modern type of American. You have a native-American tribe ( that speaks English only so the audience will understand them ) and you have French colonizers. That's all.
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And more than that, the film's main character is a woman. A woman who is desperately trying to prove men, that she is as capable as they are. The film is asking way too much from the conservatives. Or even, it might be possible, the movie is specifically trying to be annoying to conservatives.
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So here is main issue people saying about it. Remember how Arnold Schwarzenegger with a full squad of Rambos had a hard time killing one Yautja? In this movie the Yautja is killed by one girl. Unrealistic, isn't it? Also what... there is a super-trained girl assassin? What is this, Marry Sue? What is going on? Where is the "realism"? Where is the "logic"?
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Well I guess Trachtenberg counted that conservatives would bring up specifically these issues. And he kind of made the movie in such a way as to almost count on the fact that conservatives would not watch it. So he could later giggle to himself with his friends, every time somebody brings up any of the criticisms I just brought up. Because those criticisms are kind of invalid when it comes to the movie itself.
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I mean, yes. She does defeat the damn Yautja. And yes, she is trying to prove her people that she is as capable as the men. But it is not a simple Marry Sue story.
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Our main character Naru ( Amber Midthunder who may know from Novicaine ) is a teenage-ish girl in a native-American tribe somewhere in the forest. She is a cook and a doctor. But she wants to be a hunter. For that she needs to graduate through a hunting ritual. She needs to hunt something that is hunting her.
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By the way, her casting is fucking amazing. She is just about cute enough and just about angry enough to achieve the "short orgasmic blackout". A thing that happens to me when I see characters just like her. They make my brain very happy for some reason. Maybe I need to see a therapist. Anyway...
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The funny thing is, she is kind of pathetic. She knows how to throw an axe. And she is rather smart. But her battle inexperience makes her rather clumsy in the beginning of the film. Only by the end of the film she becomes a descent fighter, through going through shit. So it isn't a Marry Sue story per se.
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Now, does she become such a great fighter as to defeat a fucking Yautja? No. What we get is a her problem solving skills combined with the little bit of fighting skill she has. Which ultimately defeats the damn ugly motherfucker.
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For example, in the original film, Arny defeats the motherfucker by getting dirty in cold mud, making Arny invisible for the Yautja. Leveling the playing field, so to speak. Since those Predators have an invisibility tech on them. Here in Prey Naru finds out that a drug that she is using to stop people from bleeding ( that makes their blood colder ) makes those people invisible to the Yautja. We do have a mandatory mud sequence. But that is used for a different thing.
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In a way, she uses all the information she observes about the forest and the creature, to trick the creature. To play mind-games with the creature. To ultimately have a chance to defeat the motherfucker. Yes, she needs to use her body here and there to stub him and stuff. But that "fighting" was never a part of the killing plan. She didn't want to stab him to death. She wanted to stab him, to manipulate him into trying to kill her. Which she used to kill him. Kind of using his own weapon against him in a way.
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When she saw ( toward the beginning of the film ) that this motherfucker can kill a bear with his bare hands ( shit... I want to say how I came with this pun intentionally. But unfortunately no pun intended. lol ), she knew that she can't fuck with him. There is no way in hell. She even says this to her brother later in the film. She literally doesn't believe anyone can kill it. But as her brother ( Dakota Beavers, I couldn't come up with a better name, lol ), does a reference to the first film, by telling her "if it bleeds, we can kill it", she starts to think that maybe she can possibly come up with something. Maybe some trap, or sorts. Something that she can do with her mind, rather than her physical strength. And that is exactly what ends up happening in the end of the film.
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I could say that Trachtenberg made a slight directorial mistake. In the final battle, there are moments where Naru does fight the creature here and there, while trying to force him into the trap of hers. And you kind of start thinking about the fact that the creature isn't fighting as well as he used to fight when killing all of the unnamed background characters earlier. It is not illogical per se. She did take her drug, which makes her invisible for him. And therefor he is a bit clumsy when trying to kill her. But Trachtenberg seemingly forgets to show it clearly. There are no shots of the Yautja's POV during the battle, which reminds the audience that he can't see her. We kind of have to remember the fact that she took the drug earlier. And actually flex a little to understand how everything works.
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The film does show the drug in action earlier, before the fight, once. There is a POV shot, where Yautja sees a different character, but not Naru, who just took the drug. Maybe, an argument could be made that refusing the constantly remind people of the fact that he can't see her, is Trachtenberg respecting the audience.
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Or you can theorize a completely different thing. Maybe Trachtenberg refused to remind people of the drug, to catch conservatives.
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Think about it, Trachtenberg specifically makes a movie that annoys the fuck out of the conservatives. The period of time is chosen to annoy them. The main character is chosen to annoy them. The main character's main motivation is chosen to annoy them. And then all of the criticisms that he knew they will have, are addressed, but are addressed in such a way that you actually need to watch the movie and focus on it to notice them. If you simply skim it, to make an angry post about how "unrealistic" or "illogical" it is due to all of the things the movie is going for, well... then... I'm sorry, but the joke is on you.
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Happy Hacking!!!
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Foxtrot 2017 is a weird surrealistic tale
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/db/Foxtrot_%282017_film%29.jpg/250px-Foxtrot_%282017_film%29.jpg)
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Watching Foxtrot ( a film by Samuel Maoz ) I felt a strange feeling. The film moves and feels like surrealistic horror movies by directors like Nicolas Winding Refn and Panos Cosmatos, yet the film is not a horror. It is a drama.
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Death Proof 2007 is a genius art house action film that people didn't get
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b4/Death_Proof_USA_Poster.png/250px-Death_Proof_USA_Poster.png)
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Quentin Tarantino's 2007 film Death Proof is considered the only bad movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. For the uninitiated the film seems like a boring film where 90% of the time nothing happens. And for those who know Tarantino it feels like Tarantino is trying too hard to flex his dialogue muscle while forgetting to tell an actual story.
#DeathProof #QuentinTarantino #film #review #movies #grindhouse #horror #action #cinemastodon
Vicious 2025 is a cool little therapy movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f3/Vicious_film_poster.jpg/250px-Vicious_film_poster.jpg)
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A lot of horror films are therapeutic in nature. They let you see and examine some dark things about yourself or the world. And that is a good thing. For example, some people were "cured" from suicidal thoughts by watching the Saw franchise. A running theme in those films, is that Saw would choose some rather depressed, suicidal individuals for the "games". Where they need to do some utterly bad shit crazy things to themselves, to survive. That puts the whole suicide thing into perspective. Making you really understand how pointless it is, as a solution. The 2025 film Vicious written and directed by Bryan Bertino and starring Dakota Fanning is also a therapy horror film.
#vicious #dakotafanning #horror #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Hollow Man 2000 takes the horror trope of not seeing the monster to a whole new level
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e1/Poster_Hollow_Man.jpg/250px-Poster_Hollow_Man.jpg)
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Before Kevin Bacon played a much more complex man with a psychological sexual abnormality in 2004's The Woodsman, he played a man with a psychological sexual abnormality in 2000's Hollow Man. Where the fetish is voyeurism and the crime is ghostly rape. You kind of know it is a Paul Verhoeven movie from this description.
#hollowman #paulverhoeven #film #review #kevinbacon #movies #cinemastodon
Rebel Without a Cause is a very epic movie about teenagers
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Rebel_Without_a_Cause_%281955_poster%29.jpg/250px-Rebel_Without_a_Cause_%281955_poster%29.jpg)
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If you know anything about Tommy Wiseau you know that his "You are tearing me apart, Lisa" line in The Room was directly inspired by the 1955 Nicholas Ray film Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean. In which Dean actually pulls this line off.
#rebelwithoutacause #jamesdean #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The Fury 1978 what the hell is this movie?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d6/The_Fury_%281978%29.jpg/250px-The_Fury_%281978%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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While Brian De Palma was making Carrie ( as a part of his Alfred Hitchcock imitation films ), Alfred Hitchcock himself was making his last picture Family Plot, where he used the composer from Steven Spielberg's Jaws John Williams for the score. De Palma, probably knowing Williams through Spielberg, decided to mess around with Hitchcock himself, making a sort of yet another Carrie ( a film about people with superpowers ) but this time hiring John Williams himself for the score. And weirdly enough ( while Spielberg was finishing Close Encounters and starting 1941 where his camera sexually obsessed over De Palma's GF at the time Nancy Allen ) De Palma hires Spielberg's girlfriend at the time Amy Irving for the lead role.
#TheFury #BrianDePalma #AmyIrving #StevenSpielberg #JohnWilliams #Israel #Palestine #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Black Swan 2010 is Aronofsky trying to outcompete Charlie Kaufman
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/Black_Swan_poster.jpg)
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2002 Spike Jonze film Adaptation ( written by Charlie Kaufman ) is a story about a guy named Charlie Kaufman who is tasked with adapting an article about flowers into a Hollywood picture. And the best he can do is to make a meta-adaptation, where the movie you are watching is the story of writing the movie you are watching. 2010 Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan is a similar kind of meta-adaptation, this time of a Swan Lake ( ΠΠ΅Π±Π΅Π΄ΠΈΠ½ΠΎΠ΅ ΠΎΠ·Π΅ΡΠΎ ) by Tchaikovsky. While in the same time being a movie about adopting Swan Lake.
#blackswan #swanlake #natalieportman #darrenaronofsky #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Predator: Killer of Killers knows how to do a lot with very little
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/Predator%2C_Killer_of_Killers.jpeg/250px-Predator%2C_Killer_of_Killers.jpeg)
Blender Dumbass
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It seems like the movie Trachtenberg was going for here was way too risky and way too ambitious for a studio to green-light it normally. But if he can do that on a fraction of budget. As animation. And not a budget, something like Pixar uses for their ultra-realistic stuff and fluent motion. But on a fraction of that. He can use the trend of animating on-twos and making everything painterly, to cut all of the corners necessary to make this insane movie with the small amount of money that he is given.
#predator #killerOfKillers #PredatorKillerOfKillers #animation #film #movies #cinemastodon #review #DanTrachtenberg
Why Hitchock's "Family Plot" 1976 is so kosher?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3a/Family_plot_movie_poster.jpg/250px-Family_plot_movie_poster.jpg)
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Alfred Hitchcock is known to be a hell of a filmmaker at the time of the code. When everybody were required to be kosher, Hitch found every loophole in the rule book to get us exciting stuff. He was able to make sexy and violent psycho-sexual thrillers when sex and violence were not allowed. His final film, 1976 Family Plot was already shot during the MPAA rating system. Other filmmakers like Brian De Palma took the thrown the master of the macabre. So what does Hitch do? He does the safest, most PG movie of his career.
#FamilyPlot #AlfredHitchcock #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
Last Breath's story is too short for a feature film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Last_Breath_2025_film_poster.jpg/250px-Last_Breath_2025_film_poster.jpg)
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Last Breath directed by Alex Parkinson is based on a real event when a diver named Chris Lemons got stranded on a bottom of the sea for a long time without oxygen. And the movie is about the tense rescue operation that was done to try to save him.
#lastbreath #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Invasion of Astro-Monster teletransported to Brahe
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Invasion_of_Astro-Monster_Theatrical_Poster.jpg)
Troler
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Instead of an action roller-coaster, the film provides a Sci-Fi political story with a 3 headed Ghidorah. As is the case with previous installments, the costumes were repurposed, just changed to fit the slightly different aesthetic.
#Godzilla #Gojira #InvasionofAstroMonster #IshiroHonda #NickAdams #AkiraTakarada #AkiraIfukube #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Citizen Kane feels like a Scorsese picture
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Citizen_Kane_poster%2C_1941_%28Style_B%2C_unrestored%29.jpg/250px-Citizen_Kane_poster%2C_1941_%28Style_B%2C_unrestored%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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Orson Welles ( born in 1915 ) being a 25 - 26 year old flipped the cinematic landscape upside down with his 1941 black and white film Citizen Kane. A film that feels like a mandatory watch for anybody who is even remotely interested in cinema. People say that Citizen Kane is the best film ever made and stuff. Almost forcing that film onto people in an uncomfortable way. Making you be sure that it is some sort of experimental, black and white extravaganza that you will not understand. And that it is way too old, for today's audience, to enjoy. And that to appreciate the qualities of the film, one needs to learn some academic bullshit and pay very strong attention, to try to understand why back in 1941 critics specifically, might have liked what they saw. The thought of watching Citizen Kane feels like homework. But then you actually watch it.
#citizenkane #orsonwelles #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #martinscorsese
The Long Kiss Goodnight 1996 is how you make a feminist film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Long_kiss_goodnight_ver1.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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At one point in time ( roughly before Tarantino ) Shane Black was the hottest writer in Hollywood. He wrote stuff like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero ( the man is obsessed with Last anything ). And his Last film before he recovered from Tarantino induced depression and returned to the scene with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, was the 1996 movie he wrote for director of things like Cliffhanger Renny Harlin The Long Kiss Goodnight, starring Harlin's wife at a time Geena Davis.
#TheLongKissGoodnight #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood 2019 is Tarantino respecting the audience
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a6/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood_poster.png/250px-Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
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People often complain about dumb movies with too much unnecessary spoon-feeding. We get so much explaining and over-explaining that the brain hurts sometimes. You already know what is going on. You are following the story. You don't need no god damned reminder of what you are watching. And yet the studio heads still think that you are too dumb to understand what's going on in front of you on the screen. Respecting the audience on the other hand is a leap of faith on a part of a film-maker and only the greatest do that well. Quentin Tarantino with his 2019 film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood takes the hardest such leap of his career.
#OnceUponaTimeinHollywood #QuentinTarantino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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