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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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Basic Instinct 1992 is Verhoeven trying to be De Palma who is trying to be Hitchcock
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f9/Basic_Instinct.png/250px-Basic_Instinct.png)
Blender Dumbass
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It is known that the best films from Alfred Hitchcock were done during the days of the code. The restrictions on nudity and graphic violence gave us iconic Hitchcockian moments like the shower scene in Psycho, where Hitch pulls of a totally kosher psycho-sexual ejaculation of ultra-violence. When the code gave way to the MPAA rating system, Hitchcock didn't really know how to react, producing mediocre films, giving way to directors like Brian De Palma who stepped into his shoes, to give us, more-modern Hitchcockian thrillers like Dressed To Kill. But by the end of the 80s, as De Palma stepped down from this Hitch-immitation role, and before Robert Zemeckis ultimately took this title with his 2000 film What Lies Beneath, there was also Paul Verhoeven and his psycho-sexual thrillers, like 1992 Basic Instinct.
#BasicInstinct #PaulVerhoeven #SharonStone #MichaelDouglas #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Is Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets better than The Fifth Element?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/Valerian_and_the_City_of_a_Thousand_Planets.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 31 ❤ 1 💬 3
It is funny that I was just watching Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets while drinking Valerian. I was pissed at Luc Besson because I just watched and reviewed The Fifth Element. That review was more of a ramble about my theory surrounding his personal life. Which ties in neatly into the message of the film "Love". But for some reason I completely forgot to talk about it's qualities. Which I suppose this review will fix. I will compare the two grand space-operas from Luc Besson. And hopefully we will learn something in the process.
#Valerian #LucBesson #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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
👁 18 ❤ 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
Blue Steel 1990 is the seed that grew into the reason Avatar didn't win best picture
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/Blue_Steel_%281990_film%29.jpg/250px-Blue_Steel_%281990_film%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 12 ❤ 3 🔄 1 💬 3
So it's 1990 and Kathryn Bigelow writes and directs an action thriller about a police officer. The police officer is female and the movie almost refuses to sexualize her. Bigelow casts a nice half-Jewish girl Jamie Lee Curtis. And pretty much the whole movie, not a single shot of her emphasizes or admires her body ( apart from one sex scene where we see a very erotic closeup of her stomach ). Making that movie technically feminist. Few years later, in 1994, as James Cameron ( who was married to Bigelow between 1989 and 1991 ) is trying to find the actor to play the wife in his film True Lies. He is reminded of Blue Steel by Bigelow. And decides to cast Jamie Lee Curtis in his film. Giving us that very strange, almost pornographic scene where she does a very erotic strip-tease scene with Arnold Schwarzenegger. More than a decade later, in 2009, both Bigelow and Cameron make a movie. And both of those movies are nominated for the best picture. Yet Bigelow takes home the price. Did Cameron lose due to his pussy curse?
#bluesteel #KathrynBigelow #JamieLeeCurtis #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #michaelbay
Hollow Man 2000 takes the horror trope of not seeing the monster to a whole new level
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e1/Poster_Hollow_Man.jpg/250px-Poster_Hollow_Man.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 12 💬 1
Before Kevin Bacon played a much more complex man with a psychological sexual abnormality in 2004's The Woodsman, he played a man with a psychological sexual abnormality in 2000's Hollow Man. Where the fetish is voyeurism and the crime is ghostly rape. You kind of know it is a Paul Verhoeven movie from this description.
#hollowman #paulverhoeven #film #review #kevinbacon #movies #cinemastodon
How didn't I know about Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec?
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/da/Adele_Blanc-sec_Louise_Bourgoin_Luc_Besson.jpg/250px-Adele_Blanc-sec_Louise_Bourgoin_Luc_Besson.jpg)
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D'une manière ou d'une autre, je ne connaissais pas le film de Luc Besson 2010 Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec. Excusez mon français. I will continue in English now. I just had a pleasure of listening to people speak French for 2 hours straight, because I just learned about the existence of a movie that for some reason passed my radar. As you know I'm a big enough Luc Besson fan that sometimes I take his personal life blunders personally. I knew about his more obscure Arthur films. And I am anticipating his upcoming 2 films, that nobody seem to know nothing about. But somehow only now I heard about the 2010 Luc Besson film The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec.
#adeleblancsec #lucbesson #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Foxtrot 2017 is a weird surrealistic tale
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/db/Foxtrot_%282017_film%29.jpg/250px-Foxtrot_%282017_film%29.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 13
Watching Foxtrot ( a film by Samuel Maoz ) I felt a strange feeling. The film moves and feels like surrealistic horror movies by directors like Nicolas Winding Refn and Panos Cosmatos, yet the film is not a horror. It is a drama.
#foxtrot #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
Havoc ( 2025 ) is a pornographically satisfying violence movie
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/Havoc_%282025_film%29.jpg/250px-Havoc_%282025_film%29.jpg)
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👁 13 💬 2
Again I found a movie that makes me question my own ideas as a filmmaker. Havoc ( directed by Gareth Evans ) is so stylized and fucking awesome that they had to go a CGI route for a lot of the shots to even be possible in the first place. Which created a similar situation, which I discussed in my review of Shazam! 2.
#havoc #tomhardy #GarethEvans #film #review #movies #action #martialarts #cinemastodon
Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are 1994 makes me want a 2 hour long Michael Bay musical
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Meat_Loaf_Objects_video.jpg/250px-Meat_Loaf_Objects_video.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 16 ❤ 4 🔄 2 💬 11
In 1994, just before Bad Boys Michael Bay directed a music video for a song "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" by Meat Loaf ( Michael Lee Aday ), which shows striking resemblance to his 2001 film Pearl Harbor and has some interesting choices that echo throughout his career. Choices that beg for a psycho-sexual analysis.
#meatloaf #music #video #musicvideo #michaelbay #review #movies #film #rock #metal #cinemastodon
Alita: Battle Angel is Robert Rodriguez's Pearl Harbor
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Alita_Battle_Angel_%282019_poster%29.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 14 ❤ 2 💬 2
In my review of Michael Bay's Bad Boys II I brought up an interesting theory people have about the film. The amount of Bayhem! it holds in could be a direct response to the out-of-the-comfort-zone feel Bay must have had experienced making Pearl Harbor. Basically, the film was so different from what Bay usually does, he had to crank the next movie's Bayhem! up to 11, to make it feel right again. After Robert Rodriguez directed Alita: Battle Angel with an estimated budget of about $200 million, he had to come back to his comfort-zone too. And 3 months later ( that same year in 2019 ) he released Red 11. A micro-budgeted horror film made on almost exactly $7,000.
#alita #alitabattleangel #robertrodriguez #jamescameron #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
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