siderite

Tiny Chinese kingdoms battling each other, intrigue, more intrigue, a lot of weird gadgets and fancy armor, nice battles. This is quite fun. Unfortunately, it's often ridiculous as well. There are many changes of situation, only they are kind of telegraphed a long time before, so when they happen they have to add more twists and it compounds the ridiculousness of it all.

Bottom line: Visually pleasant movie, complex plot, very symbolic in story and acting, but a lot over the top as well.

The movie is a combination of anti-communist propaganda and surreal events. Other than the terror of a regime that mutilates the past in order to control the present, tortures its people in order to cement power, power that is used for nothing else than keeping power, nothing is clear. Everything is vague, dream-like, making the viewer feel they didn't understand anything. It's pure emotion, as good propaganda must be.

I didn't read the book, but I know that the book end is much more precise than the ambiguous ending of the movie. I don't want to spoil it, but if that clear finale is muddled in the film, I have to wonder about the rest. It's not likely I will read the book anytime soon - this film is bleak and horrible enough as it is - but would I not have seen the movie, I'd advise myself to read the book instead.

I really disliked the dream-like portrayal of the story. Now, I don't know, maybe the book is the same. I know Zamyatin's book "We" had the same problem. While Orwell worried about the Stalinist Communism and the rise of Fascism, this kind of storytelling makes me doubt any of it was actually real. Hmm... which may be the whole point :) What I am trying to say is this sort of movie is not easily digestible today.

I understand why people feel it's relevant and will always be, I praise the acting - I mean, it's all British Golden Age - but I cannot say I liked the movie, nor can I recommend it. Read the book, maybe you're better off.

Olivia Munn got naked twice and they only showed her head? One star! I've not watched this when it was released because everybody said it was bad. But given the state of cinema in general in 2025, I decided to give it a go. And damn if I wasn't entertained.

Now, this is not a good movie and I am pretty sure that it started as something else then the studio interfered or something, because it is a combination of good ideas which expand the Predator universe, amazing cast and really silly and dumb cringe inducing scenes. It's for Predator as Alien Resurrection was for Alien. It's not good, but it has great parts.

The movie has a bit over an hour and a half, back when people were still making films this short, but it packed a lot. Some recognizable actors appeared for just a few scenes and you could feel that they were part of some subplot that was cut out in editing. Jake Bussey, for example, was there probably just for continuity's sake, Mike Dopud has just a few scenes, so does Niall Matter. Yvonne Strahovski is beautiful as ever, but her role is just... being confused all the time. I get that some or most of the known cast are TV actors, but still they were severely underused.

Then the plot: Predator dogs, super predators, human hybrid predators, humans using Predator tech, predator on predator, predator evolution, more scenes about the human efforts to study the predators, hints on predator designs on Earth. I mean, come on, this has to be one of the most ambitious Predator projects yet, even if it went in weird directions. Think about this: at the end of the film, there is a fully functional Predator spaceship left.

And there are the fights. Before the main cast comes in and the Predators are contractually obligated to toss them around the room without hurting them, there are some sweet scenes of absolute mayhem and carnage. See how strong, efficient, deadly and intelligent the Predators are. Their society is based on testing themselves against any aggressive species in the galaxy. Compare that to even the most hardened and heavily trained person on Earth and you should realize the gap. Well, in these scenes this gap is made obvious.

So, bottom line: something that probably started with great ambition, stifled in its crib by pencil pushers and/or bad creative decisions. Maybe I liked the potential more than the actual thing, a kind of glass half full situation, but I enjoyed this film.