Prey

The Greatest Movie to Never Get a Theater Release

Way back I teased a few ideas that I had for the Substack. Though I want to re-visit Mad Max: Fury Road eventually, I have written about all of those ideas except one: The Greatest Movie to Never Get a Theater Release. Well, let’s stop beating around the bush. Here it is. The Greatest Movie to Never Get a Theater Release is Prey. If we remove the two Alien vs Predator movies, Prey is the fifth movie in the Predator Franchise.

Prey is a great movie. It has one flaw and it’s that the CGI is a little stodgy at times. Now, I’m a firm believer that there is no excuse for bad CGI effects in the 21st Century. Jurassic Park gave us near-perfect CGI dinosaurs in 1993 so it’s perfectly reasonable to expect nothing from the best today. If my grizzly bear is CGI, I want to question reality and wonder if that grizzly bear is actually real.

Now that I got that off my chest, Prey overcomes that one flaw in very big ways. It is wonderfully written. It has “edge of your seat-type” moments. It is shot amongst beautiful nature. The Predator is genuinely petrifying. Most importantly, it has an amazing protagonist. Prey should have been one of the biggest movies on 2022. Very sadly, it was not. It was relegated to the annals of streaming history. Disney, after acquiring 20th Century Fox, wanted to grow the subscriber base of Hulu so they only released the movie there. As a movie lover, it saddens me that they would deny this piece of art and the viewers a true cinematic experience.

The Plot

The story of Prey is centered on a young woman, named Naru. She is part of the Comanche Nation. While the tribe and her family expect her to fulfill traditional gender roles, she wants to be a hunter. Her older brother teaches her how to hunt, but also discourages her from pursuing it further. Her mother implores her to focus on the responsibilities that women are often asked to take on. Naru insists on and persists in being herself. She ignores the ridicule and joins her brother and his friends on their hunts. She uses her tracking skills to find a young man that went missing and her medicinal skills to heal his wounds. This expedition leads to her multiple face-to-face encounters with the Feral Predator, a being from another planet set on hunting the inhabitants of Earth. Eventually, Naru must do what she can to hunt down the Feral Predator to protect her tribal family.

The Predator

I go through phases with my NBA fandom. Right now, I don’t care as much about the world’s top professional basketball league. At other points in my life, I have been incredibly passionate about the NBA. It’s a cycle that changes every few years, to be honest. One of those times that I really cared was in the early-2000s. The Sacramento Kings were a squad. Jason Williams, then Mike Bibby, playing point guard. Doug Christie and Peja Stojacovik. Chris Webber and Vlade Divac. Man, those were some fun teams between 2000 and 2003, quite possibly the most fun team to never win a title. One big reason they never won a championship, let alone reach the NBA Finals, was the referees….but also the Shaq and Kobe Lakers. The Predator in this movie reminds me of Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq was an unstoppable force. Get him the ball near the rim and there was no defending him. As someone who rooted against those teams, it sucked. You knew that it would take a miracle and even that might not be enough.

While previous Predator films had an alien that had a little more finesse in their hunting, the one in Prey is a bulldozer inflicting blunt force trauma. He is Shaq, Mike Tyson, and Lawrence Taylor all wrapped into one. The Feral Predator is a force to be reckon with. Just look at what he does to the French Trappers here:

I found this picture from the film’s set and I had to include it. It’s too good to not be in this piece. The Feral Predator just chilling in the actor’s chair with a spear and arrow in his body while the film crew does their work. It’s great.

The Ellen Ripley Badass Scale

This is a scale that I created way back when I wrote about Alien. Basically, where should the female action hero rank in overall action hero “stuff”? There are only two perfect tens in the history of film: Ellen Ripley, the namesake for the award, and Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies.

I’m going to give Naru an 8/10. Her growth in this movie is astounding. She always had the bravery and the skills to hunt. She just needed the opportunity. The Predator was that opportunity and Naru meets the challenge.

Naru has an incredible line when French trappers tie up her and her brother as bait for the Predator. She tells a story of when a big flood came during their childhood. She saw a beaver that was trapped and it was so desperate to survive that in gnawed off one of its legs. Her brother is panicking as she is about to set a trap to cut of their bindings. Right after it snaps, she goes, “I’m smarter than a beaver.”

Sequels?

Predator: Badlands is set to release later this year. There has not been a lot communicated about this film beyond Dan Trachtenberg directing and Elle Fanning starring. Badlands being in the title makes me wonder if we have another western frontier setting.

The interesting nugget came from Fede Alvarez, the director of Alien: Romulus. During a press tour interview, he mentioned that he would love to co-direct an Aliens vs Predator film with Trachtenberg. While the previous two AvP movies were disasters, this one has potential. You have two very skilled directors that care about the lore so you could get a very good, fun, and scary movie. Sign me up for a first night premiere if we get the Feral Predator against a rabid group of Xenomorphs!

Closing Out

From start to finish, Prey is a great piece of cinematic art. I would assume that most Predator fans would have it ranked second behind the original. I, personally, have it as my number one. You are emotionally invested in the main character as she embarks on her journey and you are genuinely stunned by the brutality of the Feral Predator. The movie is shot in some beautiful areas of Canada. It’s breathtaking.

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A Quick Programming Note

I have a very special essay coming out this Friday. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I am very excited for it to be released. Stay tuned for the big drop!

In saying that, I will either be taking a hiatus from writing in the month of April or only write one or two pieces. I have a big series planned in May, but it’s going to require a bit of research and a little extra work. This is a project that I really want to commit the proper time to and make it the best content possible. I’m very excited to get to work and share it with you all!

Thanks for reading!