It Is What It Is: Part Three – Narrative and Originality in Predators

June 3rd, 2011 | POSTED BY Sean Watson

How many people watched the trailer for Predators and knew that the yakuza Hanzo would fulfill the same role and character arc as the Native American Billy from the original? Everybody, right? They’re both laconic, brooding, spiritual characters, classical representations of a warrior archetype who will die in an act of sacrifice at the exact same point in both films.

Hanzo’s death is the best example of what Predators wants from you: it echoes the memories of Billy’s sacrifice in the original, while attempting to make it “cooler.” Billy dies off screen; a scream is heard; his sacrifice is given dignity—a warrior’s death. Whereas, in Predators, we have to sit through a five-minute battle that doesn’t look very good, and everyone watching knows they’re waiting for Hanzo to die anyway. Its not like McTeirnan forgot to film Billy’s demise, and it wasn’t absent to simply allow the character a dignified death. The original’s pacing is close to perfection; at the point of Billy’s death, the film is marching towards the final act, we’ve been spoiled with action, and now we’re waiting for the inevitable confrontation between Schwarzenegger and the villain of the piece. Adding another action scene with a secondary character that everybody knows is destined to die is only slowing the momentum and distracting the audience from what they should really be focused on: the main protagonist and the unavoidable conclusion.

Hanzo’s death underlines the fundamental problem with Predators. The film takes and takes from the original and when it decides to add extra, it’s all style and no substance, which in turn subsequently damages what makes Predator work so well narratively. It’s unforgivable, like fan fiction that cost millions of dollars; the creators’ fixation on it being cool instead of considering how their film needs to be paced, whilst simultaneously attempting to structurally repeat the exact same narrative from the original makes my head hurt. The entire film functions on the flawed formula of: first film + more cool stuff = original film.

The argument from anyone I’ve spoken to about the film is that “both Predator and Predators are disposable B-movies, so what’s the problem?” And if Predators was simply a poor throwaway action movie, I wouldn’t care, but it has to be original, right? I understand the argument that it has to cater to both new viewers and old, whilst erasing Predator 2 and both Alien vs. Predator movies from our memories, but I doubt the only option left was to make the first film again and hope everyone is too distracted by thinking of the original to notice how poor and derivative it actually is. If your opinion is that the most important aspect of a Predator movie is that it needs to cool, if that’s the paramount theme, then fair enough, but why make it identical to the original? Why is it set in a jungle? Because it reminds you of the first film. Why are we dealing with a band of soldiers? Original again. Why for no reason at all does the film end on Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally”?

The original Predator sits in a weird place critically; everyone kind of likes it but nobody expects much from the franchise, and in a way it’s unfair to treat Predators as a sequel in the same mould as Aliens. Predators has no continuing lead character and has to start from scratch, which makes it harder to directly compare it with other attempts. So you cast Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody, and how do you decide to use his critically acclaimed acting ability? Cheap Arnie clone, obviously. The film could have been anything; it has a recognizable tone and musical score and an iconic villain. For a franchise like this, nothing else really matters. The idea that you have to invent new characters shouldn’t be seen as a negative, it should allow you the freedom to tell a new story in your own way. I wonder if J.R.R Tolkien sat in his chair about to begin The Fellowship of the Ring desperately fretting about how he was going to repeat The Hobbit while making it more “badass.” “The much cooler Smaug obviously needs pointless robo-eagle tracking things and Smaug dogs,” he thought, all the while ignoring the fact that he’s trampling all over his legacy. Comparing Predators to LOTR might appear as heresy, but the point remains: talented people within a franchise or series will only expand and push the narratives in unexpected and interesting directions. Here, instead of giving the audience something new, we received a slightly broken version of the original.

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Adrien Brody, Aliens, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Avatar, Carl Weathers, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Cameron, Jesse Ventura, John McTeirnan, Lawrence Fishburne, Lord Of The Rings, Narrative, Nimród Antal, Pitch Black, Predator, Predators, Robert Rodriguez, The Hobbit