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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
The poseur of Last Night in Soho
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/GQ1BNMVU03TH59Q7.jpg)
Troler
👁 11 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 6
Last Night in Soho depict horrifying imagery not so much through gore, the primal horror, more so from the traumatic past. It deals with the less so appealable aspects of the Swinging Sixties. The thriller is used more as a hook, to lure in audience to a film, mostly dissecting and understanding the spirit of the 60s.
#lastnightinsoho #edgarwright #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
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)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 103
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
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
👁 62 💬 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
No wonder The Fabelmens takes place in the desert
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/0SUX9D9NIS9XH9EH.jpg)
Troler
👁 10 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 6
In the year 2022 Steven Spielberg directed a film about his own life, in a little known feature The Fabelmans. Although not a full documentary, it's semi-fictional nature was still education. The movie was teaching the audience how to make movies, how a single spark of The Greatest Show on Earth inspired Spielberg to become a director.
#TheFabelmans #MichelleWilliams #PaulDano #SethRogen #WarOfTheWorlds #TomCruise #DakotaFanning #StevenSpielberg #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Mindlocking Trickery of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/864W0G9NI8W9YPAI.jpg)
Troler
👁 14 ❤ 1 💬 3
Pairing a mystery, where each clue matters with a director behind Revolver, where the symbolic meaning of the film is hidden unless the viewer has pen and paper, and knowledge of gematria, and Hebrew. As such, a detective movie, of Sherlock Holmes nonetheless, is quite an invigorating blend.
#SherlockHolmes #GuyRitchie #HansZimmer #RobertDowney #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Black Hawk Down ( 2001 ) tries hard to beat Saving Private Ryan
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0c/Black_hawk_down_ver1.jpg/250px-Black_hawk_down_ver1.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 2
In 1998 Steven Spielberg shocked the cinematic frontier with his film Saving Private Ryan which had one of the most brutal depictions of warfare, with its opening battle-scene. This caused a small shift in the ways Hollywood was trying to cinematically portray war. And who's better than Ridley Scott, to attempt at beating Spielberg at war footage. Which he tried to do with his 2001 film Black Hawk Down.
#blackhawkdown #ridleyscott #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Nomads (1986) is quentessencially 80s Citizen Kane
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Nomadsposter.jpg)
Troler
👁 9 ❤ 1 🔄 1 💬 2
The movie is not told by walking to various unreliable witnesses. The second protagonist, Dr. Eileen Flax (Lesley-Anne Down) just gets the pieces of the visions, as if this was some sort of Edgar Wright film.
#Nomad #BillConti #JohnMcTiernan #LesleyAnneDown #PierceBrosnan #AdamAnt #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Gladiator 2000 is Ridley Scott's turn at mimicking Michael Bay
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Gladiator_%282000_film_poster%29.png/250px-Gladiator_%282000_film_poster%29.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 12 💬 1
There are quite some differences between the Scott brothers ( Ridley and Tony ) and the Maximus himself Michael Bay. You can read Troler's observations and then my rant in the comments to see why they aren't quite the same. But specifically Tony Scott films sometimes feels almost like Michael Bay movies. Especially early Tony Scott and early Michael Bay, before both of them knew how similar they are and before they started trying to develop each other into opposite directions. Which happened roughly in time with the 21st century. And yet with all this the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator which was shot at 20st century and released at 21st, bluntly steals one of the shots Michael Bay is known for.
#Gladiator #RidleyScott #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Pulp Fiction 1994 is kind a amateurish actually
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3b/Pulp_Fiction_%281994%29_poster.jpg/250px-Pulp_Fiction_%281994%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
🔐 4 👁 67 ❤ 4 🔄 2 💬 2
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary at some point in their early film-maker lives came up with a bunch of tiny little stories that they wanted to develop into movies. And one day a stroke of genius struck these two. Those little stories could be told together as one film, with interconnected characters. Quentin took off with the concept and wrote the final script. And then took off with said final script and made the movie itself. A movie that a lot of people consider to be one of the greatest masterpieces ever made. Yet, with that, re-watching it for this review, it struck me how amateurish the movie feels, despite its greatness.
One of things that slightly annoyed me on this re-watch...
#pulpfiction #film #review #cinemastodon #movies #quentintarantino #tarantino #stevenspielberg #spielberg
Dreadful Revelation of Spielberg's Disclosure Day
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/PV4B19GD4OJ4418B.png)
Troler
👁 8 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 3
Listen, I do not know how describe the movie. Besides the obvious fact that it is the most Spielberg Spielberg can ever Spielberg. It starts off with people in the boxing ring, from the first perspective. Which is quite queer to me, since in school there was a special event, when...
#disclosureday #stevenspielberg #spielberg #emilyblunt #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
Cleaner 2025 is a feminist take on Die Hard
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Cleaner_2025_poster.jpg/250px-Cleaner_2025_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 11
I heard bad things about Martin Campbell's 2025 film Cleaner starring Daisy Ridley. People found this movie dull or whatever. And then I found out that the director was indeed Martin Campbell, the guy who brought us films like Mask of Zorro and a some of the good James Bond films, like Casino Royal ( arguably the best film in the 007 franchise ). The bad things people say and the director's reputation didn't make sense together. I had to see for myself what the fuss is all about.
#cleaner #DaisyRidley #MartinCampbell #DieHard #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
Angel's egg boils my heart
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/Y1NOR6V3VL1PHG3L.png)
Troler
👁 18 ❤ 1 💬 3
It is far too easy to drown in the flow of information we have to endure. Most with to take a break from it by rejecting it all together. I say, one ought to train themselves by entertaining to a slow dance. It can be a book, or... a movie. One of such movies is Angel's Egg
#Angel's Egg #angelsegg #Mamoru Oshii #YoshitakaAmano #YoshihiroKanno #GKIDS #Little Amélie or the Character of Rain #AmélieNothomb #MaïlysVallade #bible #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
What Lawrence of Arabia 1962 by David Lean is about?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Lawrence_of_arabia_ver3_xxlg.jpg/960px-Lawrence_of_arabia_ver3_xxlg.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 22 💬 1
Steven Spielberg, who took a lot of influence from the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean, said this is a kind of movie that would not be done these days. And he is not talking about the epic production, about the elaborate sets, and very complex sequences, that today in the age of CGI would totally be faked to one degree or another. What he is talking about is more political. Thomas Edward Lawrence was not necessarily a good guy. He murdered a lot of people, some in cold blood. As he himself states in the movie: he quite enjoyed it. And yet the film is an epic tale romanticizing this man as a sort of broken mythical hero. Which begs the question: why?
#LawrenceofArabia #DavidLean #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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