In Pursuit
Reviews will be light for a while because somebody put off watching panels from last year’s Nebulas and now doesn’t have time to watch much else ;).
Review: Prey
I am remembering something a Black person said on a panel…I am paraphrasing, but it boiled down to “You might be tired of chocolate cake, but some of us haven’t been allowed any chocolate cake, so let us have it.”
They were talking about minority writers writing tropes, but it also fit this movie.
In this case, the chocolate cake is the Final Girl, and the people who haven’t had much of it are Native Americans.
And Naru is an absolutely amazing Final Girl.
At turns lovely and badass, feminine and gender conforming, Naru is a character I wish wasn’t in a standalone. More like her, please. In many ways, she’s a more feminine Ripley, in other ways she’s much more innovative.
My hat is off to Amber Midthunder for her performance. She is only 25 in this movie, but carries it like somebody much more experienced. May she have a long, varied, and interesting career.
I’ve had it said that this is the best of the Predator movies, and I’d believe it. In some ways, it’s formulaic. The Predator lands on Earth looking for something interesting to hunt, and ends up hunting Naru.
Except, in a mirror image, Naru is facing a coming of age test as a hunter. The test is to hunt something that is hunting you.
Her desire to hunt is not forbidden, but it’s not exactly liked either. Men hunt, not women, and Naru also has a talent as a healer, much more appropriate. She has to prove herself.
It’s this mirroring of culture that makes Prey actually interesting beyond the usual “Monster hunts man, man fights back” plot.
Both Naru and the Predator have the same goal, circling around each other, and her ultimate victory is as much about dogged perseverance as anything else.
Speaking of dogs, the dog steals the scene over and over again. And lives. This is a gory horror movie, but the cute dog gets to live.
And that gets it points too. This is my favorite Predator movie…because by reflecting its desire to hunt onto Naru’s, the Predator becomes, while not sympathetic, at least understandable as a sentient being with a culture…one that would be perfectly understandable if it could be convinced to stop hunting fellow sentients. It’s that dark note that splits the two apart…while Naru isn’t above killing other humans, she has a reason other than proving herself.
She has no choice but to hunt the Predator, but it could have stopped at the bear.
Okay, so, yes, I loved this movie. It really is the peak of the franchise…and nothing more needs to be done.