It’s already delighting fans of the Alien & Predator Cinematic Universe
The new Prey movie has become the highest-rated Predator film of all time, breaking the series’ record within just three days of its Disney+ debut on August 5.
Released as a Hulu Original and on Disney+ exclusively, the new film is the fifth in the iconic sci-fi action horror series and serves as a prequel to the original film.
Dropping on Friday last week, the film landed an instant 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes and while the critic rating has now dipped to 93 per cent, it still boasts an audience score of 82 per cent – often the harder of the two to nail.
Set in the era of the colonial America frontier (1719, to be specific) the latest instalment runs for just one hour and 39 minutes and follows the story of Naru (Amber Midthunder), a skilled warrior turned survivor who belongs to the Comanche Nation or Nʉmʉnʉʉ Native American tribe.
After coming across the new threat in the area, Naru fights to protect her tribe – represented almost entirely by actors of Native American heritage – from the “highly-evolved” new predator which has been dubbed a “Feral” variant of the original and technologically advanced antagonist from John McTiernan’s original 1987 hit.
While it might not be boasting all of the same tech and hardware made famous in the first four films and the character’s crossover with the Alien franchise, this version of the Yautja as the species is designated is still showing off some new weaponry.
Even in its relatively modest run-time, the film is jam packed with the suspense and gory action we’ve come to associate with the franchise and goes some way to weaving this latest entry into the wider cinematic universe – one particular story detail being the 1715 flintlock pistol which appears in Predator 2.
This is the first film since Shane Black’s attempt at soft-reboot with The Predator in 2018, which received a fairly lacklustre reception, sitting at just 33 per cent with both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
Meanwhile, the original 80s flick still enjoys an 80 per cent critics rating and a slightly higher audience score of 87 but it seems there is finally a new predator giving the blade-wielding and perpetually clicking creature a run for its money.
We recently spoke to director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, The Boys) about the project about how beyond Comanche culture, games like God of War also influenced his vision for the film.
You can watch the Prey trailer down below:
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