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Prey 2022 tries to be annoying to concervatives
October 14, 2025👁 16
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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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Prey 2022 tries to be annoying to concervatives
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Prey_2022_poster.png/250px-Prey_2022_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
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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.
#Prey #Predator #movies #review #film #cinemastodon #DanTrachtenberg
The Audition 2015 is an interesting short-film, when it comes to film history
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4f/The_Audition_%282015_film%29.jpg/250px-The_Audition_%282015_film%29.jpg)
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You may think that 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon is the first time Leonardo DiCaprio have worked with Robert De Niro. In fact the first time was 30 years earlier in 1993 with This Boy's Life. Yet a lot of people will suggest Killers of the Flower Moon is still at least the first time both DiCaprio and De Niro worked with Martin Scorsese. That is also not true. That would be 2015's short-film, directed by Scorsese called The Audition.
#theaudition #martinscorsese #leonardodicaprio #robertdeniro #bradpitt #film #review #movies #shortfilm #vfx #cinemastodon
Machete Kills 2013 is trying to beat Spaceballs
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/04/Machete_Kills.jpg/250px-Machete_Kills.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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#MacheteKills #RobertRodriguez #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Blow Out 1981 is De Palma's take on The Conversation
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ce/Blow_outENG.jpg/250px-Blow_outENG.jpg)
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47th Academy Awards from 1975 ( giving awards to movies from 1974 ) was an interesting spectacle. Francis Ford Coppola's film The Conversation ( which was nominated for Best Picture ) lost to The Godfather Part II also by Francis Ford Coppola. In 1981 Brian De Palma, one of the people who hanged out with Francis at the time, decided to remake a 1966 Italian film Blowup, but doing it like Coppola's The Conversation. Where sound plays a critical role in the plot of the picture.
#BlowOut #NancyAllen #BrianDePalma #JohnTravolta #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The Phoenician Scheme is a very Wes Anderson film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/The_Phoenician_Scheme_theatrical_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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The film, this review is intending to be about, is a gorgeous example of the phenomenon that could be described by the words "Wes Anderson".
#ThePhoenicianScheme #WesAnderson #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Max Fleischer's Superman flew to the Sun and didn't fall
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/HZP91B02YOJ1O5W3.jpg)
Troler
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Oh Superman, who hasn't heard the story of the classic American superhero? Even in this coming-to-close year Superman still stories are being told. Knowing that 2038 the superhero is going to be a century old, it would be good to reflect on history, where it really started. It was born in the head of then 24 Jerry Siegel, child to American immigrant Lithuanian Jews, who fled oppression. Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood, made up of immigrants who fled oppression, meant he heard a lot of stories about their suffering. The competitive character common amongst Judaic culture, is not always well regarded. In a negative environment, they had to adapt and blend in the crowd. This sort of environment together with his love for Science Fiction meant the young Siegel had a particular worldview, a Jewish one. To what extent it was present can be seen in his first major breakthrough — Superman.
#Superman #MaxFleisher #Fleisher #1941 #ClarkKent #film #JerrySiegel #MyronWaldman #BudCollyer #review #movies #cinemastodon
Gone in 60 Seconds ( 2000 ) is better than it's rating suggests
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2a/Gone_in_sixty_seconds.jpg/250px-Gone_in_sixty_seconds.jpg)
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What is it with Jerry Bruckheimer of the late 90s and early 2000s and with Nicolas Cage? First in 96 we get Michael Bay's The Rock. A year later in 97 Jerry puts Cage in Simon West's Con Air. And then in 2000 Dominic Sena under the supervision of Bruckheimer puts Nicolas out of his Cage and into a driver's seat of 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, in the subject of this review, the loose remake of H. B. Halicki 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds.
#goneinsixtyseconds #nicolascage #angelinajolie #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Kite 2014 attempts to be a Luc Besson film but fails miserably
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Kite2014poster.jpg/250px-Kite2014poster.jpg)
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South African filmmakers, writer Brian Cox ( who directed some bad films himself ) and a director Ralph Ziman decided to try to adopt what appears to be a hentai ( animated pornography ) film from Japan ( with the same name ) into a cool-ass female-empowerment action flick. They even got Samuel L. Jackson ( an objectively good actor ) involved in the project somehow. Yet almost every decision made in the production of this film was a wrong decision.
#kite #film #review #movies #samuelljackson #cinemastodon
Final Destination ( 2000 ) is a suprisingly well directed movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Final_Destination_movie.jpg)
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There is this hype wave over the Final Destination franchise because of a new movie that was released in the series. At first I resisted it, but then I saw a few shots from the opening of the first film, directed by James Wong and thought that it was actually something good, that at least worth my attention.
#finaldestination #jameswong #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Knock Knock 2015 is more of a Lars Von Trier movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d1/Knock_Knock_poster.jpg/250px-Knock_Knock_poster.jpg)
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👁 13 💬 1
Before there was 2025 Balerina there were two other movies ( I know of ) which were collaborations of Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas. One is the 2016 film Exposed which I am still yet to see. And then, before that, marking their first collaboration, there was a 2015 film by Eli Roth called Knock Knock, which I was curious to see for multiple reasons.
#knockknock #eliroth #anadearmas #keanureeves #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #larsvontrier
Westward Desperado Set the Standard of War Comedies
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/9AGEW7R8A90GS0IY.jpg)
Troler
👁 15 ❤ 1 💬 5
It could be said war and comedies don't work well together. How can anything humorous be said about the matters. Those who do must have lost their minds from the war! Cracking jokes and grinning while speaking of most horrific events in human history like it were a regular Friday night, is one of the best ways to come with the trauma. The trauma which never heals, always stays where-ever the eyes turn. Telling a story really helps get the pain off the chest. In a way, Westward Desperado is exactly just that.
#WestwardDesperado #KihachiOkamoto #MakotoSato #TatsuyoshiEhara #AkiraKubo #Japan #film #cinemastodon #movies #review
Red Sonja 2025 has good story but bad execution
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Red_Sonja_%282025%29_official_poster.jpg/250px-Red_Sonja_%282025%29_official_poster.jpg)
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I gave a look at the movie nobody seen in cinema this summer called Red Sonja, because the main character is played by Matilda Lutz, an Emilia Clarke look-alike that was very good in a Coralie Fargeat 2017 film Revenge. You may know Fargeat from her other film The Substance. Lutz was so perfect in Revenge and Revenge was so good, that I wanted to see more of Lutz. And then the trailer of Red Sonja dropped, advertising it as a yet another revenge flick, this time set in a medieval fantasy world. So of-course I was hooked.
#redsonja #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #fantasy #matildalutz
Backdraft 1991 is a HOT film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Backdraft_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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Ron Howard is a hell of a director. He knows how to get the image that he wants. And he knows how to do it so that it will hold up practically forever. His 1991 fire-fighters movie Backdraft is not an exception. The fire sequences are so real and so visceral in this film, despite being done 3 decades ago, that perhaps this film is even better when it comes to planning shots that hold up than his Apollo 13 movie ( where he used real weightlessness to shoot the space scenes ).
#backdraft #firemen #firefighters #fire #movies #cinema #ronhoward #film #review #cinemastodon
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![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/13_Hours_poster.png/250px-13_Hours_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 12 ❤ 1 💬 6
There are two modes for Michael Bay: The playful mode of him having fun. This is the Bay of Bad Boys and Transformers. And a serious mode. That is the Michael Bay of films like Ambulance, Pearl Harbor and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. The latter of which is his most serious film ever.
#MichaelBay #13Hours #Benghazi #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #juliabutters
Don't Look Up 2021 is Melancholia, but a comedy
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Don%27t_Look_Up_2021_film.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 37 ❤ 1 💬 8
A lot of people see the 2021 Adam McKay film Don't Look Up as something that fails to communicate the message of climate change well enough. McKay stated that the movie was written specifically to point people at the absurdity of the "climate crisis". And yet the film's allegorical comet / asteroid doomsday plot seems to fail at giving it justice. For once an asteroid that is about to destroy the planet is nobody's fault. While the climate change is somebody's fault. But if you look at the movie relatively to other disaster flicks of the same type ( like Armageddon and Melancholia ) you see something rather interesting.
#dontlookup #climatechange #adammckay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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