Prey

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

Running time: 1hr40 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY

Amber Midthunder in Prey

Critics are sometimes lambasted for being far too hard to please and snobbishly unwilling to recognise that what a large chunk of the movie-going public want is simply to be entertained. I would cordially submit that this is complete nonsense. Critics are, of course, delighted by complex artistic works from visionary auteurs presenting us with new ways of thinking about the world, but we’re equally likely to rhapsodise about a pure popcorn movie, given half a chance. It’s just that we’re not given that chance nearly often enough. (See, or, rather don’t, the woeful likes of Jurassic World Dominion, Bullet Train, The Gray Man, and the other assorted CGI slush heaps we’ve had to suffer through in recent times). 

But give us a Top Gun: Maverick, a Jackass Forever, a Scream — entertainments which legitimately entertain — and we’re putty in your hands. You can add Prey to that list. It’s not that it is a masterpiece, but it does what it says it will do: it entertains. The fifth film in the Predator franchise (following in the footsteps of Predator, Predator 2, Predators and The Predator, and charitably discounting the Alien vs Predator films as their own special madness), this time out of the gate, the rather witty decision has been taken to set things in the 1700s. This instantly solves half of the “why don’t they use their mobile phone?” and “haven’t they ever seen a movie before?” problems of survival-based films. In Prey, the invention of the telegram is still handily a century off, never mind phones and movies.

Set in the Northern Great Plains of America, the action is mostly seen through the initially disbelieving eyes of our hero Naru (Amber Midthunder), who witnesses what we realise is a spaceship dropping off everyone’s favourite intergalactic safari fan. Naru is a likeable and courageous sort, handy in a pinch without being boringly invulnerable. The narrative is a pretty straightforward interlinked series of escapades, some alien-related, some born of other hazards — Naru isn’t viewed as prey exclusively by the beastie from outer space.

It must be admitted that there’s the odd bit of clunky CGI, but only really around occasional digitally-constructed animals. (This film happily doesn’t suffer from that feeling that 95% of the thing has been constructed inside a computer in a mad rush, by overworked battalions of underpaid digital artists in the face of ever-shifting goalposts dictated by one of the worst brands ever to involve themselves in cinema.) It’s still hard to fully trick the human eye into seeing a real bear where we’re clearly looking at the VFX kind. But given the implications of filming bear-attacks the old-fashioned way, I’m more than happy to give a few CGI critters a pass in an otherwise engaging adventure romp. 

PREY (2021) Written by Patrick Aison | Shot by Jeff Cutter | Edited by
Angela M. Catanzaro, Claudia Castello

On Disney+ now.