blenderdumbass . org
Reviews
Prey 2022 tries to be annoying to concervatives
October 14, 2025👁 17
https://blenderdumbass.org/reviews : 👁 1
https://blenderdumbass.org/reviews/tmnt_2007_is_borderline_suicidal : 👁 1
https://blenderdumbass.org/reviews/red_heat_1988_is_unintentionally_funny_for_those_who_speak_russian : 👁 1
#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".
From 1 years ago.
Information or opinions might not be up to date.
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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"?
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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...
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
Or you can theorize a completely different thing. Maybe Trachtenberg refused to remind people of the drug, to catch conservatives.
↩ Reply
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.
↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!!
↩ Reply
0
Find this post on Mastodon
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
👁 17 💬 114
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 Sudbury Devil is when you mix Nicolas Winding Refn with Wes Anderson
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/40/The_Sudbury_Devil_poster.jpg/250px-The_Sudbury_Devil_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 23 ❤ 2 💬 1
Andrew Rakich's self-distributed 2023 film The Sudbury Devil is quite a piece of cool horror film-making. Made for a mere $25 thousand, the film is surprisingly good. It is tense and intense. It is rather fucked up. And it is smartly written and directed.
#thesudburydevil #andrewrakich #atunsheifilms #film #review #movies #horror #cinemastodon
The Odyssey to see The Odyssey (2026)
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/YVK9X1UWS9TUUQWG.png)
Troler
👁 12 ❤ 1 🔄 1 💬 3
As it is, the movie is infused with Nolan realism. Everything is serious and grim. The contrast between mythological events and reality creates this clash. I have not seen Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, so I cannot tell how much of this juxtaposition has existed before. Still, the contrast of what I saw on screen and how the movie portrayed such events, threw me off the loop.
#theodyssey #christophernolan #LudwigGoransson #AnneHathaway #MattDamon #RobertPattinson #Batman #odyssey #film #review #movies #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
👁 10 ❤ 1 💬 3
As I observed 2 hours ago in my review of Machete, the first film is about US politics of 2025. The second movie Machete Kills is something else entirely. If the first film is a semi-parody of exploitation films. This one is a full on spoof comedy, parodying not just exploitation films, but other things too. By the end of the film, the bullshit is so absurd, that you cannot stop laughing. And then Elon Musk appears out of nowhere to send Machete into space.
#MacheteKills #RobertRodriguez #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
One Battle After Another 2025 is PTA doing a Machete remake
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5d/One_Battle_After_Another.jpg/250px-One_Battle_After_Another.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 47 ❤ 1 💬 7
In my review of Robert Rodriguez's film Machete Kills I speculated that Quentin Tarantino introduced a small reference to Grindhouse movies in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood to fulfill a rather outlandish promise from the fake trailer of Machete 3 in the beginning of Machete Kills. That there would be a Grindhouse movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. I think Paul Thomas Anderson just beat Tarantino in this regard. His 2025 film One Battle After Another ( starring DiCaprio ) is a straight up remake of the first Machete.
#OneBattleAfterAnother #PaulThomasAnderson #LeonardoDiCaprio #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The Fifth Element 1997 is the most tragic film in Luc Besson's career
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Fifth_element_poster_%281997%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 63 💬 1
It is not a spoiler in 2025 that the message of Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element is "Love". The fifth element itself ( a revelation in the end of the film ) appears to be Love. And the thesis is that Love is the thing that can defeat the evil in the world. But looking at the film and the behind the scenes drama around it, you can say that Besson didn't really mean love in its purest sense. But he was instead preaching a Bonobo Philosophy. Where "love" or in modern language sex, is used to deescalate conflict. Bonobos are known to fuck each other instead of fighting with each other, making themselves more peaceful. Looking at how horny The Fifth Element ( and Luc Besson ) is, the Bonobo philosophy theory sounds to be a much more plausible reading of the film. Making it very tragic indeed.
#LucBesson #Maiwenn #MillaJovovich #Love #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Was the 2014 "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" directed by Michael Bay?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/09/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_film_July_2014_poster.jpg/250px-Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_film_July_2014_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 16 ❤ 1 💬 4
While Steven Spielberg was producing a Michael Bay film Transformers 4, Michael Bay was producing a Jonathan Liebesman 2014 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And like with a Spielberg-produced film The Poltergeist by Tobe Hooper about which people started claiming that Spielberg himself directed the movie in question. With the 2014 TMNT people started claiming Michael Bay was the actual director on this film. It is absolutely and utterly poetic that both Tobe Hooper and Jonathan Liebesman also made movies in the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.
#tmnt #michaelbay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Disclosure Day 2026 is quintessentially Spielberg
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Disclosure_Day_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 11 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 7
"Listen" is the message of Steven Spielberg's 2026's alien picture Disclosure Day. Why would Spielberg do this specific movie, about this specific subject matter? What should we listen to? What is the Disclosure of the Disclosure Day?
#disclosureday #stevenspielberg #spielberg #emilyblunt #et #movies #film #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
👁 60 💬 4
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
So what is the meaning of Kill Bill?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Kill_Bill_The_Whole_Bloody_Affair_poster.jpg/250px-Kill_Bill_The_Whole_Bloody_Affair_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 21 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 1
In December of 2025, my neighbor, Quentin Tarantino finally released Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. The film that was originally meant to be, but that was unfortunately cut into two volumes upon its original release, 2 decades ago. Therefore for this review I will be treating Volume 1 and Volume 2 as one film, even though it has a rather substantial intermission in its not-directors-cut version. Re-experiencing the story of the Bride and her revenge, for this review, filled me with some rather profound questions. Questions that I believe I started asking in my review of Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood. Questions as to: what is the meaning of Kill Bill?
#killbill #quentintarantino #tarantino #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The weirdness of Star Trek Into Darkness 2013
![[thumbnail]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/50/StarTrekIntoDarkness_FinalUSPoster.jpg/250px-StarTrekIntoDarkness_FinalUSPoster.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail)
Blender Dumbass
👁 4 ❤ 2 💬 4
I remember 2015. I remember the hype people had when the first teaser of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was dropped. I remember the memes depicting screenshots from old classic Star Wars movies, with super-imposed, fake lens-flares all over them. The meme was: it is J.J. Abrams, he is going to lend-flare the fuck out of Star Wars. I also remember the disappointment watching The Force Awakens for the first time, not really seeing many of those lens-flares people so anticipated. What happened? Well... Star Trek Into Darkness happened.
#startrek #jjabrams #lensflares #theforceawakens #starwars #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #edgarwright
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)
Blender Dumbass
👁 17 💬 2
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 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
👁 14 ❤ 1 💬 4
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
Drive-Away Dolls 2024 is Ethan Coen's attempt as a Grindhouse picture
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/Driveaway_dolls_poster.png/250px-Driveaway_dolls_poster.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 1
Ethan Coen is a brother of Joel Coen with whom they made a lot of cool black-comedies and other cinema throughout the years. From starting a mock-religion with The Big Lebowski in 1998, to winning a best picture Oscar in 2007 with No Country for Old Men and doing other great cinema before, after and in between, those motherfuckers know how to make movies. So then comes a movie just from Ethan ( and his wife Tricia Cooke ) about lesbians, that is intentionally trying to be a bad film ( like the bullshit Robert Rodriguez is doing with Mechete )? Interesting...
#driveawaydolls #ethancoen #MargaretQualley #film #review #comedy #movies #cinemastodon
Weapons 2025 should be nominated for best picture
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/Weapons_film_2025.jpeg/250px-Weapons_film_2025.jpeg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 27 💬 6
It is not often that a horror films appears to tickle the right nerves from the high-brow crowd of cinema critics. With 93% Rotten Tomatoes score though, it is safe to assume that Zach Cregger's Weapons from 2025 is one of those rare movies.
#weapons #horror #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Powered with BDServer
Plugins
Themes
Analytics
Contact
Mastodon