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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
Novocaine is way more melodramatic than I expected
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Novocaine_%282025%29_poster.jpg/250px-Novocaine_%282025%29_poster.jpg)
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The premise of 2025 Dan Berk and Robert Olsen co-directed film Novocaine is very simple: An action adventure about a dude who doesn't feel pain. On paper it sounds like a kind of absurdist horror comedy that is constantly shocking the audiences with something that is utterly fucked up, but the joke is, the main character doesn't give a damn. And there is this, if you are looking for this, in Novocaine. But there is also more.
#novocaine #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
My Neighbor Adolf 2022 expresses the longing for peace
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/18/My_Neighbor_Adolf.png/250px-My_Neighbor_Adolf.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 15 ❤ 4 🔄 1 💬 3
My Neighbor Adolf is an Israeli, English language film about an old Jew living in Argentina, who got a new neighbor, who has a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler. And it is about the paranoid obsession of this man with his neighbor.
#myneighboradolf #leon #udokier #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
Nosferatu (1922) Is Not Scary
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/nosferatu.jpg)
Troler
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Horror and thrillers seem to be quite ubiquitous in recent times. Nosferatu, a classic from 1920s cinema, has spawned a lot of recreations, making it modern. Yet they fail to see Nosferatu is not horror... at least not in the way the term is usually used.
#GustavvonWangenheim #JohnGottowt #GretaSchroder #horror #Nosferatu #Murnau #film #movies #review #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)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 2
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
Footnote 2011 is a suprisingly good Israeli film
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/he/thumb/5/58/Footnote.jpg/250px-Footnote.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
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Footnote originally הערת שוליים is an Israeli film written and directed by Joseph Cedar. The film is about a very strange dramatic bureaucratic situation, where two professors, a father and a son, are in the same field, and one of them gets a honorary award for his achievements. But the bureaucrats made a mistake and told about the award to the wrong one of them.
#footnote #הערתשוליים #JosephCedar #LiorAshkenazi #Israel #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #jews
Ultraviolet 2006 is my guilty pleasure movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3a/Ultraviolet_poster.jpg/250px-Ultraviolet_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 14 ❤ 1 💬 3
With 9% Rotten Tomatoes score 2006 Kurt Wimmer film Ultraviolet starring Milla Jovovich cannot possibly be any good, can it? Well I re-watched it for this review and while I somewhat see where the critics are coming from, I also have enjoyed the hell out of it.
#Ultraviolet #MillaJovovich #KurtWimmer #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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)
Blender Dumbass
👁 11 💬 2
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
So Did Avatar 3 Use AI?
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/thumbs/avatar_ai.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 40 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 2
While James Cameron has denied that Avatar 3: Fire and Ash used any generative AI. On January 24, 2026 Joe Letteri ( the visual effect supervisor from Weta Digital ) sat with the Corridor Crew for their weekly show of VFX Artists React where he said that the facial animation for the hero characters for both Avatar 2 and 3 involved a neural network. A neural network? Isn't that a fancy way to say "AI"?
#avatar #jamescameron #fireandash #avatarfireandash #movies #review #film #cinemastodon #ai #art #mastoart #aiart #neualnetwork
Juror #2 is 12 Angry Men meets Minority Report
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/Juror_No._2_%282024%29.jpg/250px-Juror_No._2_%282024%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 8
Imagine being born in the year 1930, starring in films since the 1950s and yet in 2024 ( at the age of 94 ) releasing a movie you directed. If you want to talk anti-ageism Clint Eastwood is the motherfucker you point to. Hell he even made a movie about anti-ageism in the early 2000s, called Space Cowboys which is a light rip-off of Armageddon. This time thought he swings at us with a great rip-off of a 1957 Sidney Lumet classic 12 Angry Men.
#juror2 #clinteastwood #nicholashoult #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The Taking of Pelham 123 ( 2009 ) is Tony Scott continuing to mess with Michael Bay
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/Taking_of_Pelham_123_%282009_film%29.jpg/250px-Taking_of_Pelham_123_%282009_film%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 30 💬 4
Tony Scott's 2009 film The Taking of Pelham 123 is a remake of a 1998 TV movie with same name, which is a remake of a 1974 movie with the same name, which is an adaptation of a 1973 book, with the same name. Strangely enough, apart from Denzel Washington playing the hero and John Travolta playing the villain, the film also prominently shows John Turturro and Ramón Rodríguez which, the same year, also appeared in a Michael Bay film Transformens 2: Revenge of the Fallen.
#TheTakingofPelhamOneTwoThree #TonyScott #movies #review #film #cinemastodon
Jojo Rabbit would not be possible without Inglourious Basterds
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Jojo_Rabbit_%282019%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 10 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 3
Quentin Tarantino told numerous times that the two places which gave the strongest reactions to his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds were Berlin and Tel Aviv. Why? Why reactions? Well... prior to Inglourious Basterds films about the subject of conflict between Jews and Nazis in World War II were largely serious pieces of cinema. Think Schindler's List. But as I pointed out in my review of Schindler's List, there was a considerable amount of effort on the part of Steven Spielberg to make the movie actually watchable. Tarantino with Inglourious Basterds made a movie that is not merely watchable, but outright enjoyable. He made a movie about this conflict where the audience are allowed to laugh. Taika Waititi's 2019 film Jojo Rabbit takes this premise and dials it to 11.
#jojorabbit #taikawaititi #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
The cheesy homoor of Vanamehe Film
![[thumbnail]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/EW8YBTZZRJXMA8VV.jpg)
Troler
👁 13 💬 10
Some movies are cheesy, some are creamy others are lactose intolerant. Vanamehe Film is just plain horny. Horny for that milk. It is no wonder milk is used as an euphemism for other type of a white liquid. That of course is the correction fluid of all the mistakes made! Was I misleading to talking about white paint? I tried it, it doesn't taste that good.
#Vanamehe #OskarLehemaa #MikkMägi #MikkMägi #OskarLehemaa #JanUuspõld #Estonia #Eesti #EstonianFilm #Cinema #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Domino 2005 is Tony-Scott-hem!
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/10/Dominoposter.jpg/250px-Dominoposter.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 23 💬 1
Tony Scott appeared to be trying to outgrow Michael Bay in the 2000s. In 2001 he does Spy Game which is a kind of slightly bayhem-ish movie. Where Tony Scott is no longer trying to make pretty pictures, but is trying to go for ultimate intensity. His Enemy of the State before that, is still more of a classic Tony Scott. While making Spy Game his brother Ridley Scott was making Black Hawk Down while Michael Bay was making Pearl Harbor. While Pearl Harbor has the Bay's explosions and stuff, the colors of the film still look relatively normal. Only his next film ( 2003 Bay Boys II ) go crazy with colors. Spy Game, while being more energetic in directing and editing department, than even Enemy of the State still looks like a normal movie, albeit it is a little desaturated. But Black Hawk Down ( probably in attempt of messing with Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan ) is super moody, with extreme contrast and intense colors. A thing that Michael Bay tries to replicate right away for Bad Boys II and then Tony Scott also replicated for Man on Fire in 2004. And then on Domino in 2005, Tony Scott goes even harder with the style. While Bay is doing roughly the same thing in his own way in The Island.
#Domino #TonyScott #MichaelBay #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
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
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