ONLINE ONLY: ‘Prey’ plunges into disappointment

The story begins in 1719 in the Northern Great Plains (Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming and Canada.) “Prey” opens with Comanche dialogue; viewers actually have the choice of swapping between the Comanche dubbed language and English.

That luxury would work for those wanting to experience the accuracy that the narrator telling the story that happened 300 years ago, this is an original idea the scenery was also a nice touch as it appears to touch base with the realism of the timepiece.

I did not have a problem with the strong female lead, Naru, played by Amber Midthunder, 5’6 able to stand her ground against vile threats.

In fact, the skills in hunting deer and bears would seem accurate on account that she was raised in a tribe of hunters and medicine makers. Not to mention that she and her tribe used flint and sticks to craft their weaponry; her tomahawk attached to a rope was my personal favorite. Even camouflaging herself in mud and her setting up the traps that Predator caught itself in was pretty nifty, a real opposition of primitive technology taking a stand to the advanced despite the lack of an explanation of acquiring it. Her tribe could not have possibly made that.

But what really did not sit well with me was that they just had to shoehorn misogyny into the picture, unwarranted. I do not deny the existence of female oppression, I’m saying that this content has cliched itself from ‘awareness’ into the ‘taste of bitterness.’ Hollywood seems to interject misogyny into almost any and every modern-day female lead. In this case, we see her fighting off her own tribe with her bare fists to where it took multiple men to restrain her. And the French Colonists that poked and prodded her while held in their captivity.

Female leads are not supposed to be about fighting oppressors based on their genders. At least not at this point. But based on what is right. And I have had just about enough of Hollywood (repeatedly) using the formula of the villains assuming that women are weak. This film is supposed to be about aliens and monsters and how “I’m human and will not let you take my land”, not about “I’m a woman, don’t take me lightly.”

Elpida Carrillo’s character Anna in the first “Predator” being 5’5 and a similar build to Naru, used her wits and what (realistic) advantages she could to fight off men who were jacked in the 1987 “Predator” original. Nobody in the film abused, took advantage, or hurt her in any way. We don’t know what the Guerilla warfare militant group did to train her or did anything else to her, but there didn’t appear to be any signs of oppression in the film unlike what we see in this prequel.

However, you would think that tribal women could stand their ground against serious threats to at least inflict serious damage to an extent, as Naru did. She uses her skills and wits against the terrestrial beast invading her land by doing the math (as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character “Dutch” in the first film) Predator’s mask was knocked off when it slaughtered the colonists, who were also invading the Comanche territory.

“My biggest pet peeve is that a supposedly ancient cast of characters has clearly had a shower in the last 24 hours,” said Sawyer Rachuig, Dallas College Eastfield Campus graduate. It was hard for him to like this film due to the lack of realism. Which should be heavily warranted if a director intends on installing a new chapter in a smash box office franchise.

If we saw this film in an actual theater, we would be thrown out halfway through with all the cringing we reacted to.

We watched the original “Predator,” to wash out the disappointing taste.

At the very least though, Midthunder’s character didn’t carry a bad attitude.

Grade: C+