I think it's pretty awesome you can watch it in Comanche, albeit dubbed.

tommy wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:55 am I think it's pretty awesome you can watch it in Comanche, albeit dubbed.

Agreed.

Was shot in Alberta, entirely outdoors and often at golden hour. It is surprisingly beautiful.

Trachtenberg and his crew filmed Prey entirely outdoors and using natural light. According to the Prey press notes, this sometimes presented unique challenges, with Trachtenberg mentioning having to ford a river to get to set. The director praised the quality of light available in the Alberta location, with much of the filming taking place during the "golden hour" near sunset or sunrise. The result is an action movie that, at times, feels as beautiful as a nature documentary.

https://screenrant.com/where-was-prey-movie-filmed/

Dave N. wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:02 am Comanche in jungles? Someone is going to have to explain that one to me.

Edit- never mind….didn’t realize this takes place in the Great Plains. I assumed a Predator movie would be in the jungle.

I mean, Predator 2 was in LA…

Gramsci wrote: Fri Aug 19, 2022 1:36 pm

Dave N. wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:02 am Comanche in jungles? Someone is going to have to explain that one to me.

Edit- never mind….didn’t realize this takes place in the Great Plains. I assumed a Predator movie would be in the jungle.

I mean, Predator 2 was in LA…

That just goes to show you how much I know about Predator movies. Anyhoo, I enjoyed Prey.

Andrew wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:17 am

Trachtenberg and his crew filmed Prey entirely outdoors and using natural light. According to the Prey press notes, this sometimes presented unique challenges, with Trachtenberg mentioning having to ford a river to get to set. The director praised the quality of light available in the Alberta location, with much of the filming taking place during the "golden hour" near sunset or sunrise. The result is an action movie that, at times, feels as beautiful as a nature documentary.

https://screenrant.com/where-was-prey-movie-filmed/

Opening montage, and the later scene where Naru and a guy are hiding in the grass definitely had some Malick vibes!

Bummer this didn't get a theatrical release--I believe that's because this was produced under the 20th Century banner, and if it had opened theatrically than HBO Max would have then gotten it initially streaming or something. So it's all about rights and who gets the money, nothing to do with the actual quality of the film, which is certainly a step above most Netflix originals.

NC, CGI a little hokey, will definitely watch again w/ the Commanche dub.

Just watched this on rec of friend, what a pleasant surprise. Loved Predator, never really cared about this series of movies but 1) the non-CGI visuals were splendid and 2) it's fantastic see a popular American film that centers a community of indigenous people with almost none of the story being told through any European character. And that scene with the two main characters and the Predator was spectacular.

best in the series since Predator. Only downside to me was the CGI - but I thought the design on this era of predator mask was fantastic.

I also think it's a nod to the comic book arc (completely captured in Predator Omnibus ), and we'll see it in the second, and probably third movie in what I'm expecting to be a trilogy. Much prefer this 'origin' story of the main character to what the comics did.

that gun has to get on the ship somehow...

Movie rules. It hits that sweet spot in entertainment where it develops thematic stuff enough to keep me paying attention while still being fun, not high art.

My complaint is that it looked like they were in Montana when I'd think New Mexico would be more typical Comanche setting. But I'm not anthropologist and could be off on this.

Typing on phone and at work, apologies if this comes across as a jumble.

I thought it was pretty great. A couple dudes on a movie Discord I'm on told me I was out of my mind for saying it was better than OG Predator and, yeah, I get it: OG has all the psychological stuff about machismo's false front and what happens when societal suppression of vulnerability in men fails and also Ahnold fist-fights a monster.

This one also deals with gender roles and I had to confess my ignorance to my partner. Like I literally said, "I have to confess my ignorance here because I was always under the impression the first nations peoples had an egalitarian society." And then going on about how I know the first nations peoples were not a mono-culture, that each nation, each tribe had their own way of living and all that. But I do like how our protagonist, even with the shit she gets, is still included in the scouting party. Sure she has to demonstrate her worth / usefulness but that's a lot more than I'm willing to try to unpack with my thumb (on mobile).

Add to the story the alien invasion allegory in the trappers who, like the Predator, have superior weapons, don't speak the native language, and are just there to collect pelts, which is a lot stronger allegory than the black ops mission in the first (Which, help me out, was that a rescue or an assassination mission? It's been a long while since I saw the original.) and feels more potent in the historical setting.

But this wasn't a cultural ethnography, it was a Predator movie. This isn't being offered an as educational course, it's about an alien trophy hunter. So this movie could be wildly inaccurate for all I know but I still enjoyed it. It kept my attention the whole time and I came away from it thinking, yeah, this might be better than the first one. It's not a hill I'm willing to die on, no, just an opinion about a movie. Even if someone convinced me the first is better, I'd still rank this a close second.

As far as the CGI animals, when they brought the first one out, I blurted out, "Did they CGI a deer?" I looked at my partner and asked, "How hard could it be to just get a deer?" At least for the still stuff; you're not going to be able to choreograph a deer-chase sequence. But the rest of them? The CGI needed to be stepped up a lot but I was otherwise OK with it after some thought; it'd be better than using real animals in hunting / fighting sequences.

The CGI animals looked like they were about to start speaking.
But otherwise I thought this ruled. Fun to watch, looked good. I give it a thumbs up.