The Predator franchise has been trucking along for almost three decades now, but it has long since lost its steam. There have been sparks of hope such as Predators, but then that would be followed up by hot messes like 2018’s The Predator. Directed by Dan Trachtenburg, Prey takes the franchise back to basics, turning the clock back to 1719 as a Comanche woman tries to prove herself as she hunts a being that is also hunting her.
Naru (Amber Midthunder) is a skilled tracker and hunter, but she is constantly underestimated by most of her tribe due to her gender. When she suspects that a strange, terrifying creature is hunting across her tribe’s territory, she sets off on a quest to hunt it, despite her brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers) insisting it must be just a bear. Soon enough, she sees the beast in action, and a group of her tribe’s warriors runs into it while they were looking for Naru. With a group of French poachers also trying to hunt the Predator, Naru has to gather her wits and fend for herself and her brother as the different factions come to blows.
Prey drew much skepticism when its trailer dropped because of its protagonist, who is a far cry from the eighties action hero that started off the franchise. Thankfully, nor is she just one of a group of interchangeable characters in a forgettable sequel.
Instead, Naru is clever and resourceful, and her occasionally tense relations with her brother and other Comanche Nation compatriots give the film depth.
The way the Predator continuously ignores Naru because it doesn’t consider her a threat comes full circle when she finally manages to defeat it. The Predator gets increasingly more reckless throughout the movie, and in the end, it pays for it.
One would think the Comanche warriors would get easily slaughtered by the Predator, especially since one of its kind had no trouble tearing through a team of hardened special ops operatives in the first film. However, they hold their own, especially Taabe and Naru, who learns more and more about the Predator as she observes its skills and abilities. The addition of the French poachers, whose dialogue is left only in French without any subtitles, adds another element of danger and unpredictability to the story. The Predator itself uses slightly less hi-tech weapons than its counterparts in the previous movies, but it still has more than an edge when going up against its human targets. It has a more haunting, animalistic design, and the film strikes a good balance between camouflaging its movements and showing it in its full savagery.
Amber Midthunder turns in an engaging performance which is very likely to become her breakout role.
Prey never portrays her as a bland female badass who somehow outfights men that are much stronger than her, much less the Predator. She’s scruffy and relentless, using whatever tricks and moves she finds in her arsenal to keep the hits coming, as it is when she has to fight a fellow Comanche warrior. Early in the film, she attaches a rope to her axe so she can easily retrieve it during fights. She practices throughout the film and then puts her skills to the test during a harrowing fight with several trappers.
“I have been very intentional about not doing a lot of like Indigenous specific roles,” Midthunder recently told THR in an interview. “You very rarely get good representation. Good being accurate, respectful or something to be proud about. You very rarely get good representation — good being accurate, respectful or something to be proud about…This is the first time you get to see an Indigenous female action hero at the center of a film. That in and of itself is a really incredible statement.”
Prey has already become a resounding success, achieving the biggest launch on Hulu for any movie or TV show so far.
Many critics loved the movie to such a degree that they were disappointed it wasn’t available in theaters. It’s not a perfect movie- there’s barely any supporting character other than Taabe- but hopefully, it’s a big step in the right direction for the Predator franchise.