Review: `Predators' multiplies the original

The little "s" in "Predators" winkingly promises more beasts in the latest sequel to John McTiernan's 1987 original (and singular) "Predator."

The subtle ploy worked for "Aliens," and one wonders if a simple twist of plurality would entice as well in follow-ups such as "Taxi Drivers" or "The Apartments."

Nevertheless, true to its pledge, "Predators" supplies a whole bunch of 'em, in various shapes and sizes.

This, the third "Predator" film (there have also been two "Predator vs. Alien" spinoffs), opens with Adrien Brody in free-fall.

His parachute barely opens in time, and he crashes hard onto the floor of a jungle. Others fall around him, and soon a group of eight gathers to make sense of their situation.

They are all mercenaries of various sorts, among them a Mexican drug cartel veteran (Danny Trejo), a Brazilian black ops sniper (Alice Braga) and a Yakuza assassin (Louis Ozawa Changchien).

Topher Grace, playing a doctor and the least muscular of the bunch, also drops in for comic relief. The always entertaining Grace does help enliven the purposeful grimness of "Predators," as does Walton Goggins (exceptional in the FX series "Justified"), who plays a wild death-row inmate, still clad in orange jumpsuit.

This motley crew knows not how or why they've been assembled. But when they get their first sense of the lurking predators (still with the dreadlocked monster look of the original) and notice the sky contains a few too many moons, it dawns on them that they've been transported to another planet to serve as little more than the game of a predator game preserve.

There are, of course, a few holes in such a plot and, thankfully, "Predators" doesn't try to explain them. It's enough that a gang of alien predators and a gang of human predators square off — or so goes the appeal of this and earlier "Predator" films.

The "most dangerous game" thrill is so much the center of "Predator" movies that there's almost nothing else to it. The hunter vs. hunted dynamic climaxes when the star — first Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Brody — covers himself in mud.

For those unfamiliar with the sensory capabilities of the predator species, mud-caking is done to disrupt their infrared vision. As in the original, we're occasionally treated to their blurry, red-and-orange point-of-view, which remains the most interesting visual of the series.

Director Nimrod Antal ("Kontroll," "Armored") has preserved that trademark and kept the bloody action set in the gritty green of a jungle, all slickly shot. The predators still bleed glowing neon green, like a spilled lava lamp.

"Predators" stays close to the more hallucinogenic original, to which it pays homage when Isabella (Braga) recalls being a witness to the events of McTiernan's film: "`87. Guatemala," she intones.

The new movie has its origins in a script written by Robert Rodriguez in the 1990s. When Twentieth Century Fox decided to do it, Rodriguez was enlisted to produce. His name lends the film credibility and fans will likely be pleased to see the Quentin Tarantino collaborator.

There isn't anything as comically grisly as the exploding head or Carl Weathers' arm removal, both well-remembered moments from the original "Predator."

Much of the drama in "Predators" comes not from the aliens but from the infighting among humans, who are predators, too. Laurence Fishburne, in a Col. Kurtz-like cameo, plays a loony survivor who has managed to stay alive.

"Predators," a Twentieth Century Fox release, is rated R for strong creature violence and gore, and pervasive language. Running time: 107 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.