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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
Iron Lung undersells itself
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Iron_Lung_%28film%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 17 ❤ 4 🔄 2 💬 4
Watching the trailer of Markiplier's Iron Lung movie made a certain type of impression on me. The movie is obviously low budget. The set looks hilarious ( outside of the context or the source material ). And shot choices look rather amateurish. Watching Iron Lung itself, on the other hand, makes me believe that Mark Fischbach ( Markiplier ), the writer and director of this movie, had a cinematic Ace up his sleeve. And he was just playing the long game.
#markiplier #ironlung #film #review #movies #horror #cinemastodon #games #youtube
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
Terminator 2: Judgement Day is James Cameron's Leon: The Professional
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5e/Terminator_2-Judgment_Day.png/250px-Terminator_2-Judgment_Day.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 10 ❤ 2 💬 1
Ever since Piranha II James Cameron shown his friendship with Luc Besson. Both directors are obsessed with marine biology, both are obsessed with strong female characters and both have a strange fascination with the youth. Luc Besson's Leon, The Family and Arthur films have strong child characters in some rather fucked up situations. James Cameron with Aliens, Terminator 2 and the Avatar franchise does the same thing. But have you ever thought how similar both the Terminator and Leon actually are?
#terminator2 #terminator #leon #jamescameron #lucbesson #film #review #movies #cinemastodon
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - made me cry
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/TF2SteelPoster.jpg/250px-TF2SteelPoster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 9
It is infamous at this point that the production of the Michael Bay quickly assembled into something from which a good script could be written. This movie started production without a script, only a rough idea of the story, which is not a bad rough idea. But all of the little details were not there at all by the time of production, leaving Bay pretty much at the helm of coming up with stuff on the spot.
#transformers #revengeofthefallen #michaelbay #film #review #cinemastodon #movies
Red Heat 1988 is unintentionally funny for those who speak Russian
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/af/Red_Heat.jpg/250px-Red_Heat.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 12 💬 3
Our main character Ivan Danko ( Arnold Schwarzenegger ) is introduced with a shot showing his magnificent muscular butt-cheeks, right before a fight breaks out between naked men in the snow, all trying to scream words and sentences in Russian, sounding utterly stupid doing so. That is how Red Heat, a 1988 Walter Hill movie, begins.
#RedHeat #WalterHill #ArnoldSchwarzenegger #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #action
Until Dawn is good if you cut out the beginning
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fc/Until_Dawn_%282025%29_poster.jpg/250px-Until_Dawn_%282025%29_poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 11
I enjoyed the movie. The actors were more than good enough, apart from the first scene. The director is phenomenal, especially at this kind of stuff. The image looks good. I dislike the fact that it is Sony. But what the hell. The film overall is kind of amazing.
#untilldawn #davidfsandberg #film #review #movies #horror #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
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
👁 14 💬 2
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
Spaceballs takes the Jews vs Nazis theme to a whole new sexual climax
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/45/Spaceballs.jpg/250px-Spaceballs.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 27 💬 1
Jewish filmmakers like to poke fun at Nazis. Spielberg did that with Indiana Jones and Mel Brooks does it here with Spaceballs. But unlike the original Star Wars for which Spaceballs is almost direct parody, Brooks goes onto another level to measure pipis with the Nazis.
#spaceballs #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #comedy #starwars #melbrooks
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
Predator: Badlands 2025 is like Avatar 2009 but Horror
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/90/Predator_Badlands_Poster.jpg/250px-Predator_Badlands_Poster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 5 ❤ 2 🔄 1 💬 5
Predator: Badlands is Dan Trachtenberg's third Predator movie after Prey 2022 and Killer of the Killers 2025. And strangely enough non of these movies have any kind of connection to one other. They are not sequels. They are stand alone films, different in style and tone. Telling different stories and having different structure. The only thing that binds them together, so to speak, is the fact that they are all technically a part of the Predator franchise.
#predatorBadlands #predator #ellefanning #DanTrachtenberg #horror #action #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
👁 15 ❤ 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
The Neon Demon 2016 begs for a psycho-sexual analysis
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9d/The_Neon_Demon.png/250px-The_Neon_Demon.png)
Blender Dumbass
👁 27 💬 3
Nicolas Winding Refn seems to be making only cult-classics. His 2011 Drive was a moderate box office success. But a banger of a cult-classic later on, as people understood that it is not a mere action film. Then he made Only God Forgives. A strange psycho-sexual movie where the plot lives in the crack-space between reality and dream-land. The film got misunderstood and barely made its money back. Yet those people who like it, like it very much. And then he made a straight box-office disaster The Neon Demon that made only half of its ( rather small $7.5 million ) budget back. Yet it is seems like it's the kind of movie that just begs for a deep analysis.
#TheNeonDemon #NicolasWindingRefn #movies #film #review #cinemastodon
The Driver 1978 is not quite the original Drive from 2011
![[thumbnail]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a1/TheDriverPoster.jpg/250px-TheDriverPoster.jpg)
Blender Dumbass
👁 27 💬 6
A lot of people say that Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 film Drive is a remake of 1978 film The Driver by Walter Hill. And to some extent it is true. Both are about a getaway driver. And both drivers are these tough, melancholic characters played by a guy who's first name is Ryan. But that seems to be about it.
#theDriver #WalterHill #action #film #movies #review #cinemastodon
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