Promotheus: Commando Stellaire

They have the same budgets, and probably more. Hunter Prey is just the kind of thing that channel should be filled with, but instead all we get is silly, dimwitted, fodder designed for nothing beyond a Saturday evening with beer and burgers. I hope to god this film doesn't wind up on SyFy. Hunter Prey was better than some genre films I've seen that even got a theater showing. It has all the right elements that make a good science fiction film. Great characters and production design, beautiful cinematography, lots of aliens and a good story. What more can you ask for? Hunter Prey delivers the goods and left me wanting more. Bring on the sequel!

Full disclosure - Sandy Collora and I go way back, and have been struggling film makers for most of our adult lives. Also, I was not that big of a fan of "Batman: Dead End" - you throw The Joker, a Predator, and an Alien into a short film and show it at Comic Con and the fanboys were bound to loose their minds. However, I thought the trailer for "World's Finest" rocked - it looked like a trailer for an actual feature and was far more refined than "Dead End", at least in my opinion.

As a filmmaker, you dread watching a friend's movie because if the movie sucks, you don't know what on earth you will say. Well, after finishing "Hunter Prey", I breathed a big sigh of relief because the movie is good, solid and strong all the way through. It looks and feels and sounds like a movie shot in the late 60's or 70's, and I mean that in a good way - the compositions are widescreen and flawless, the story is character-driven, and the effects are used when needed. The music is also rich and orchestral, a feature sorely lacking in most low-budget features. The movie takes an inspirational page out of "Planet of the Apes" and goes from there.

I won't give away any plot details, but don't go into this looking for rock-'em sock-'em "Avatar" action - this movie is mature and evenly paced, and uses its wares sparingly, surprising and twisting as it goes. If you are looking for gore or an "in your face" music- video style, go rent a modern horror re-make. But if you like kickin' your Sci-Fi old-school, then the line for "Hunter Prey" forms to the left.

Good job, Sandy!!

What a relief a movie like Hunter Prey is in this world of grade Z "SyFy channel" entertainment. The focus on this movie is not on special effects (although they are excellent) but on character and story which sadly isn't the norm.

Above average in this film are the cinematography and score, which gives the film the appearance of being big budget. The film itself feels like it was shot in the 1970s, I mean this in a positive way as it takes it's time to develop the characters and stories.

Hunter Prey is the kind of science fiction movie we don't get enough of, one that puts the substance over the style.

If you like movies that are more story driven, you'll like "Hunter Prey".

It has the look and feel of one of those made for TV movies of the 70's. I mean that in a really good way. You see, way back when, before all this CG crap, filmmakers had to use ingenuity and talent to craft their films. They had to tell their story through... Well, telling a story.

This is not a film for anyone seeking a fast paced, mindless, mess. It's a film for hardcore sci fi junkies like myself, who grew up on Star Trek, The Outer Limits, and The Twilight Zone.

It's more about the story and characters than special effects.

I would have liked to have seen the version of Hunter Prey where Collora followed his gut instincts and made a pure art film, instead of trying to make it more commercial or sellable. I see this all the time with indie genre films, particularly ones that don't have a bankable star in them. The producers feel they need an element that can take the place of a notable actor, especially in the foreign markets. What that usually ends up being is some really awful, bad CG ridden, formulaic mess that ends up on the SciFi channel. What we have here, is a film that thankfully isn't that, but what it does end up being is a bit of a confused movie, unable to define itself.

It's good, but it's clunky in places. Sometimes this is a result of performance issues, but sometimes it lies more in the writing and editing choices. There are a few elements of Hunter Prey that simply don't match up or make much sense.

The most glaring example of this, is the score. It's fantastic, but doesn't fit the movie, especially after the first act. It's way too big for a small, personal movie like this. I just felt like the filmmaker was trying to pound me over the head with music that maybe was representing what he wanted to be there visually and perhaps didn't have the budget to do. It seemed like they took the score from a big, popcorn action movie and stuck it on Hunter Prey in an effort to make it seem bigger or more commercial, but all it does, is make the audience wish there was more movie or less music. A more subdued, un-inflected, moody soundtrack would have served this film much better.

I'm predicting this film will eventually become Collora's "Blade Runner" of sorts... An awe inspiring, visual feast with a story that some people will get into and some won't. Like most art films, it will be unsuccessful and commercially disappointing at first, with an audience that slowly builds over time. As his body of work grows and he makes more films, people will come to appreciate Hunter Prey.