Stans (Walton Goggins, left), Isabelle (Alice Braga) and Royce (Adrien Brody, right) feel like they're being watched in Predators. Provided to China Daily

Unofficial official sequel to a cult classic understands its roots and mostly basks in them, Elizabeth Kerr reports.

Where have all the manly men gone? You know the ones: all bulging biceps, sweaty brows, and bitten off cigars. The kind that don't have time for emotion or human connection because they're too busy shooting things in hostile yet delicate jungles - both the traditional and urban kind. The guys that always have time for a quip after a dagger in an enemy's eye or while basking in the warm glow of a trip-wire explosion. Oh, wait, never mind. They went into politics and became governor of California.

Way back in the day - the 1980s - hizzoner Arnold Schwarzenegger was merely the most recognizable of a lot of recognizable Hollywood tough guys. There was also Sylvester Stallone (coming soon in the possibly ironic The Expendables), Swedish menace Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Carl Weathers, a raft of pro wrestlers, and of course, the Muscles from Brussels - Jean-Claude Van Damme. All were global superstars that trafficked in a hyper-real form of military masculinity while audiences ate it up. This was, after all, the "Greed is Good" decade and excess was the accepted norm.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century. As is the nature of zeitgeist, attitudes shifted, and more importantly demographically distinct consumer groups aged. With a global banking system in shambles, the G20 dogged by protesters at every turn, and "tree-huggers" that didn't seem like crackpots anymore, it was time the action hero got an update. Social influences slowly started trickling into art in the late '80s (it was a short but intense affair with the macho that we had), and by the time Mel Gibson gave the world Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon, the pendulum had already started swinging. Depressed and suicidal but still able to kick butt and blow stuff up, Riggs was a refreshing oddity at the time; a character that colored the dominant masculine paradigm.

Riggs was so challenging in fact that audiences started to show a preference for accessible and emotional he-men. Which has brought us to Predators. In the years since the original Schwarzenegger cult classic - which also starred future Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura - came out, our traditional go-to tough guys have become grandfathers, and younger, distinctly more craft-focused thespians have taken up the action-man mantle. Whether that's by necessity or choice is irrelevant. Gone are the days of hyper-men.

Look around: Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes), Bradley Cooper (The A-Team), Jake Gyllenhaal (Prince of Persia), James McAvoy (Wanted), Brendan Fraser (The Mummy), Matt Damon (the Bourne series), Gerard Butler (300), Keanu Reeves (Speed), Josh Brolin (Jonah Hex), and Paul Bettany (Legion, the upcoming Priest) have buffed up to takes roles that would have been Ah-nuld's 20 years ago. And for the second time Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (King Kong) has done his ab crunches and strapped on the guns. Really big guns.

We meet Royce (Brody) as he plummets from the sky and thuds into the jungle. Apparently there are more of these crash-landers and soon the Disparate Group of Survivors includes Cuchillo (veteran supporting player Danny Trejo), Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), Stans (Walton Goggins, The Shield), Isabelle (Alice Braga, I Am Legend), Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), Edwin (Topher Grace, Spider-Man 3) and Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali). Each is initially mistrustful of the others, but they nonetheless cooperate enough to discover they're not on Earth and they're being hunted by something bigger, stronger and more deadly than they are. All this happens inside a swift-moving 30 minutes, which gets us to the explosions, gunfire, and disemboweling that much faster.

Producer and professional fanboy Robert Rodriguez, director Nimrod Antal (Kontroll), and first-time writers Alex Litvak and Michael Finch make no acknowledgement of the dreadful sequels and Alien vs Predator spin-offs and pick up the story after the original film ends. That's a wise choice. They do, however, exploit elements of Aliens, The Most Dangerous Game (duh), and underrated cult gem Pitch Black in carrying Predators forward.

And carry it forward they do, if in a pedestrian way. Predators suffers every ailment films like it can: Gee, could Mexican Cuchillo be in a drug cartel? Does Yakuza thug Hanzo know how to wield an ancient Japanese katana? Is African Mombasa mixed up in a brutal civil war? Of course! Granted there's a larger point to those characters' traits - everyone in the film is a predator of some sort - but that doesn't make it any less irritating. It also goes a long way to propping up that other great action movie trend wherein anyone that gets brutally slaughtered is either 1) the plot device that starts the narrative or 2) somehow deserving of it. Puritanism is alive and well and there are no shades of gray in Predators.

Also lacking is a sense of bonding. It's easy to understand why none of the characters would lift a finger to help another at the outset - but that doesn't change. Personal sacrifice is meaningless when the motivation isn't there. Believability isn't one of Predators' goals, but it would smooth out the film's flow and take advantage of some real acting talent on hand; only Goggins makes his lines remotely awesome. Top it off with some creaky dialogue and conveniently located rocks and vines and such and you have the makings of a disastrous waste of time.

But what Predators does have is a strong sense of self. The film is faithful to the original in style and atmosphere and the Predators retain Stan Winston's creepy design. Antal has juiced the proceedings with a modern tone that removes the silly from the story and makes it more menacing. There are no zippy one-liners this time around and more than a few moments where you have to wonder if the film will take an expectation-busting turn. Cinematographer Gyula Pados crafts several visually arresting sequences (always remember colored flares when your budget is low) and John Debney's Aliens-esque score adds a propulsive edge that complements rather than overwhelms. Previews got the ultra hip crowd at Austin's SXSW festival buzzing way back in March, and the finished Predators is likely to satisfy the geek set - even if the hero does want for a moment of introspection before busting heads.

Predators opened in Hong Kong Thursday.

Predators

Directed by Nimrod Antal, written by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. Starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, and Laurence Fishburne. USA, 103 minutes, IIB.

Adrien Brody in his second star turn as an action hero as Royce in Predators. Provided to China Daily

(HK Edition 07/10/2010 page4)