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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
👁 16 💬 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
Trap 2024: oh... M. Night Shyamalan is Back, Baby!
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5e/Trap_2024_%28film_poster%29.jpg/250px-Trap_2024_%28film_poster%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 4 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 3
We are living in the most exciting era when it comes to M. Night Shyamalan. The era I would call "A lottery". M. Night started strong. Critical acclaim and commercial success hit him hard, when he was a young film-maker. They were calling him "the next Spielberg". Then doubt possessed his sole. Some critics said something about something he did. And there he went. On a downward spiral towards the bottom. The Happening, The Last Airbender, After Earth... M. Night never truly recovered from this turmoil. He did great films since: The Visit, Split, Knock at the Cabin. But he then made strangely not so great films in between: Glass, Old, the strangely The Happening esque ending of Knock at the Cabin. Going today to an M. Night Shyamalan movie is truly a lottery. You never know what you are gonna get. With Trap we all got a fucking jack-pot!
#trap #mnightshyamalan #shyamalan #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Mission: Christmas is a fusion of joy
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/Y4P5OK3D02KVJN5X.png)
Troler
🔐 2 👁 17 💬 2
Christmas is all about spreading joy and happiness to all. Sometimes the festivities pierce your heart, other times you feel as about die from loneliness. The 3 movies reviewed here feature a wide spectrum of emotions. At the end, all end on a happy note.
#IgnasMeilūnas #AaronBlaise #KęstutisDrazdauskas #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Flight Risk 2025 is Mel Gibson failing to be Robert Rodriguez
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Flight_risk_2024.jpg/250px-Flight_risk_2024.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 6 💬 1
The first shot of the 2025 thriller directed by Mel Gibson called Flight Risk is an establishing shot of a location you might see on television, which already says a lot about the movie. But that's not all of it. The shot is also very much computer-generated. I wouldn't say it's Ai ( but anything's possible ). It looks more like a 2D composition using various elements. A modern matte-painting of sorts. It's hard to point out specifically what's wrong with it, but it looks obviously fake. And obviously put together on a computer. And then the rest of the film doesn't really shake off this fakeness.
#flightrisk #melgibson #markwahlberg #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
What is the meaning of "The Lovely Bones" 2009 by Peter Jackson?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9e/Lovely_bones_ver2.jpg/250px-Lovely_bones_ver2.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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In my review of Transformers 4 I touched upon the uncanny resemblance of it to Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. I have not seen the movie when I did that. I knew it existed. I knew what it was about. I've only seen it now, for the first time. And the uncanny resemblance ( as in, the father is played once again by Mark Wahlberg and the villain is played once again by Stanley Tucci and we have Steven Spielberg's involvement ) is rather strange. It begs a rather profound question, what was the point to make the movie?
#TheLovelyBones #PeterJackson #SaoirseRonan #film #review #movies #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)
Blender Dumbass
👁 18 💬 2
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
The Disappointing Impressiveness of The Sugarland Express 1974
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/97/The_Sugarland_Express_%28movie_poster%29.jpg/250px-The_Sugarland_Express_%28movie_poster%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 9 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 4
Steven Spielberg's first true theatrical feature film The Sugarland Express didn't make much money. It was a minor success since with the budget of just 3 million dollars it was able to gather 12 million in box office. But it is nothing like his next film Jaws, which on a budget of just 9 million made a whopping 495 million in box office. Yet with all that said The Sugarland Express is still a very interesting movie to try to take apart.
#theSugarlandExpress #sugarland #spielberg #stevenspielberg #film #review #movies #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
👁 58 💬 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
Die Hard is a phenomenal showcase of filmmaking talent
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ca/Die_Hard_%281988_film%29_poster.jpg/250px-Die_Hard_%281988_film%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 7
Somehow, for all these years I avoided the first ever Die Hard movie, even though I had watched the sequels. And even though the sequels are varying in quality, the first film is a fucking masterpiece.
#diehard #brucewillis #film #review #action #movies #cinemastodon
Caught Stealing 2025 is a bit dark for a comedy, but way too bright for Aronofsky
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e6/Caught_Stealing_poster.jpg/250px-Caught_Stealing_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 15 💬 3
Vincent D'Onofrio pops up on my radar lately. I somehow get attracted to the same movies as the actor, which probably means that I need to review Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick, where D'Onofrio had his, probably, most iconic role. In any case D'Onofrio played an Ashkenazi Jewish gangster motherfucker in a Darren Aronofsky 2025 film Caught Stealing. Something that I had to see, just based on the absurdity of it.
#CaughtStealing #DarrenAronofsky #ZoeKravitz #AustinButler #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" 2005 is too epic to be scary
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/83/War_of_the_Worlds_2005_poster.jpg/250px-War_of_the_Worlds_2005_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 14 💬 3
In the recent "lie detector test" video of the legendary Fanning sisters, it was revealed that Elle Fanning was indeed jealous of her sister Dakota Fanning, when Tom Cruise gifted her a fancy mobile phone back in 2005. Why would Tom Cruise gift anything to a ( then ) 10 year old girl? Well Tom and Dakota were the two leads of the 2005 science fiction horror film by Steven Spielberg called War of the Worlds.
#WarOfTheWorlds #TomCruise #DakotaFanning #StevenSpielberg #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Is Strange Days 1995 about James Cameron's personal life?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/Strangedays.jpeg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 17 💬 2
So in 1989 James Cameron divorces his second wife, the film producer Gale Anne Hurd, opening for her an ability to marry Brian De Palma that just divorced Nancy Allen. The same year Cameron marries Kathryn Bigelow ( the director of 1995 Strange Days ). They make the 1991 Point Break kind of together. But then that same year in 1991 they divorce. Yet, his script Strange Days about strange love dynamics and stuff ends up being actually made by Bigelow in 1995 ( four years after their divorce ). Hm...
#strangedays #KathrynBigelow #jamescameron #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Is Hancock 2008 about the tragedy of rejection?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c9/Hancockposter.jpg/250px-Hancockposter.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 7 ❤ 2 💬 3
Mary Embrey, the blonde woman played by Charlize Theron in the 2008 Peter Berg film Hancock, is surprisingly good looking. For the few people who read through the psycho-sexual analysis of me, you may know that for me in general, the name Mary, or the Latin version of it Maria, or the Russian version of it Masha, especially connected to a blonde, good looking woman, is very important. And yet, back when I saw Hancock for the first time. I didn't quite realize how important it is.
#hancock #peterberg #willsmith #charlizetheron #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
American Graffiti 1973 is some strong shit
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/American_graffiti_ver1.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 14
You will probably laugh at me right now, but so far I've seen 1973 George Lucas film American Graffiti just twice. First time I stopped at about 25 minute mark, not getting the hype around the movie. This time I decided to get through to the end, no matter what it takes. And believe me, if you are not laughing at me right now, you don't understand. This is fucked up! Holy fucking shit!!! I see it now!!! I see it!
#americanGrafitti #GeorgeLucas #HarrisonFord #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
Transformers is Good if You Take it Seriously
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/66/Transformers07.jpg/220px-Transformers07.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 38 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 2
I decided to re-watch the first Transformers film today, but differently. Instead of indulging in it as mindless entertainment, I decided I want to actually view it seriously, as I would with somebody like Steven Spielberg, who, by the way, was an executive producer on the film.
#transformers #MichaelBay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #ShiaLabeouf #MeganFox #VFX #CGI
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