Prey (was: Predator 5)

[Silent Runner]

Thought this was tremendous. Pity it didn't get a cinema release because that one line would have absolutely killed. 

[Eighthours]

39 minutes ago, Silent Runner said:

Thought this was tremendous. Pity it didn't get a cinema release because that one line would have absolutely killed. 

 

I pretty much did this after that line.

 

[teddymeow]

This was pure class.

[boomeh]

There's a very good doggo in this.

[Hanzo the Razor]

I enjoyed it well enough but it didn't blow my hair (what's left of it) back.

[DarhkFox]

I thhought it was a decent movie, it wasn't earth shattering or anything. To me it was just a remake of the original movie, in a different setting with different chatacters.

 

Nice bit of gore and the CGI was mostly okay. Also a very good doggo.

 

Only concern is it will get a sequel that pretty much rehashes the same plotline like some of the other predator movies did and failed.

[marcus]

I could feel my body tense every time the dog looked like it might be harmed.   Could not care less about the humans getting decapitated and so on though.  A nice surprise this, really enjoyed it, the movie did not try to be anything too clever just got on with providing good action sequences.

[ckny]

Thought this was excellent, the runtime flew by and I was gripped throughout.

 

This might not be the right thread, but can someone explain the economics of streaming services to me? Like, if this had a cinema release let's say it pulls in £200m worldwide or something. If Disney+ is a tenner a month (I know it's not, but for simplicity's sake let's say it is) does that mean they need 20 million new subscribers to justify putting it on streaming or something? Obviously not, but I don't get it.

[Alex W.]

No inside info but I have to assume that Disney doesn’t want to compete with its own blockbuster slate, and anything that might appeal to the Marvel/Star Wars demographic will be straight to video from now on. There’s only so many movie screens after all, and the franchises are a safer bet.

[instasis]

Disney+ has 139 million subscribers, so it's making somewhere over $1b per month.

 

By releasing Prey on it, they don't have to do marketing, they don't have to sign distribution deals internationally, they don't have to only take a cut of ticket sales, they don't have to have a box office bomb on their hands again (The Predator tanked). But, they do get to put premium content on a service that is making them boatloads of cash and is part of the long term plan for the business, helping drive subscriber retention in an increasingly competitive market.

 

See also: their tentpole releases landing six weeks after theatre release.

[Pob]

So I keep thinking back to the final fight in this and wondering what happened:

Spoiler

Naru uses the French trapper as 'bait' but realises he has to be armed and mobile for the Predator to consider him worthy prey. Does the Predator totally ignore Naru because it has decided that she's not a threat? That makes sense thematically as it mirrors how the male Comanche disregard her and how the Predator ignores prey in favour of predators (the snake, the wolf and the bear). Or is it because she's eaten the blood-cooling medicinal plant? If it's the former, then how do you explain the previous fight where Naru and her brother inflict several wounds on the Predator? Naru has been in the prey situation up until then (against the bear, when held captive by the trappers) but wasn't she ably fighting back just a few scenes earlier? And if it's the plant, how come the Predator finds and skewers the French translator dude? He was both totally incapacitated and has also taken the medicine so it felt a bit out of order when Pred ran him through!

 

[Percy Filth]

On the last bit 

Spoiler

the predator treads on the French translated causing him to scream

 

[Pob]

15 minutes ago, Percy Filth said:

On the last bit 

  Hide contents

the predator treads on the French translated causing him to scream

 

Oh right, that was an accident? I thought it did that on purpose.

[Alex W.]

Spoiler

Yet another reminder that IR vision is a liability and the Predator is a fucking loser. They’re the space equivalent of those weekend warriors in the second act of a monster movie, who jump in their pickup with all their toys to go kill the monster.

 

[JohnC]

Someone mentioned it already, but the Predators are just cheating twats. And still managed to lose to humans who didn’t start out with the benefit of their advanced tech, multiple times. 

[Stifler]

Watched this last night after briefly dipping in for a wee check of this topic the other day and hearing lots of positive noise - can't say I was disappointed, this was really enjoyable!

 

The CGI was absolutely fine, perhaps with the exception of a couple of fights (but that might have been more about the choreography) - really enjoyed it and it's given me a real urge to rewatch Predator 2 and Predators (I know Predator by heart and not too fussed about rewatching any of the others...).

 

Also

Spoiler

I've had this bastard song in my head all day.... thanks Disney!

 

 

 

[instasis]

3 hours ago, Pob said:

So I keep thinking back to the final fight in this and wondering what happened:

  Hide contents

Naru uses the French trapper as 'bait' but realises he has to be armed and mobile for the Predator to consider him worthy prey. Does the Predator totally ignore Naru because it has decided that she's not a threat? That makes sense thematically as it mirrors how the male Comanche disregard her and how the Predator ignores prey in favour of predators (the snake, the wolf and the bear). Or is it because she's eaten the blood-cooling medicinal plant? If it's the former, then how do you explain the previous fight where Naru and her brother inflict several wounds on the Predator? Naru has been in the prey situation up until then (against the bear, when held captive by the trappers) but wasn't she ably fighting back just a few scenes earlier? And if it's the plant, how come the Predator finds and skewers the French translator dude? He was both totally incapacitated and has also taken the medicine so it felt a bit out of order when Pred ran him through!

 

 

Spoiler

The Pred ignores her because of the plant, that's it. It's why you have a scene where it can plainly see the trapper but not her, despite her being stood there, and she has to move her foot out of the way before he stands on it (avoiding what happened to the translator)

 

[Pob]

19 minutes ago, Pelekophoros said:

 

  Hide contents

The Pred ignores her because of the plant, that's it. It's why you have a scene where it can plainly see the trapper but not her, despite her being stood there, and she has to move her foot out of the way before he stands on it (avoiding what happened to the translator)

 

Spoiler

Ah okay cheers. That's a bit less satisfying as it's just the same method as the first film. I prefer the idea that she defeated it because it underestimated her.

 

[instasis]

18 minutes ago, Pob said:

  Hide contents

Ah okay cheers. That's a bit less satisfying as it's just the same method as the first film. I prefer the idea that she defeated it because it underestimated her.

 

 

Spoiler

Well, technically she defeated it because it's a fucking clown that doesn't understand how its wrist cannon works. Twice. But it did also underestimate her.

 

[hmm]

1 hour ago, Pelekophoros said:

 

  Hide contents

Well, technically she defeated it because it's a fucking clown that doesn't understand how its wrist cannon works. Twice. But it did also underestimate her.

 

 

I could only assume that the idea was that

 

Spoiler

weapon could be fired either guided or unguided and in the finale it didn't realise that she had setup the helmet with the sights enabled. Or something. Or maybe it was just an idiot, but that's a bit less satisfying - might as well had it tripping over and impaling  itself while out for a nice stroll in that case.

 

[instasis]

25 minutes ago, hmm said:

 

I could only assume that the idea was that

 

  Hide contents

weapon could be fired either guided or unguided and in the finale it didn't realise that she had setup the helmet with the sights enabled. Or something. Or maybe it was just an idiot, but that's a bit less satisfying - might as well had it tripping over and impaling  itself while out for a nice stroll in that case.

 

 

The thing is...

 

Spoiler

We'd seen it make the mistake earlier in the film. It had it's helmet knocked off and as her brother is riding in circles it repeatedly fires at him only to miss and they follow a trajectory into the tree where the targeting points.

 

So, at best, we can assume it thinks the helmet is lost, and out of a range where it targets something automatically, given we have no indication she plays with the tech at all. But that's not shown in the film so it's a leap of logic. So is it having different modes. We specifically see it fired only working alongside the targeting. 

 

As the film goes to great lengths to foreshadow lots of things, including the targeting, I think it's fair to take what it does at face value. 

 

Given that, I'm going with Clown Predator. It just doesn't know how that weapon works, or loses its rag and fires indiscriminately.

 

The Pred is repeatedly shown acting arrogantly, so it's not that bad an ending. 

 

[hauk]

Watched this last night, what an awesome movie! When you look at all the shit that has come before it, including the AVP movies and The Predator (not sure I would include Predators, which was decent), this movie did a fantastic job. Really loved "The Revenant" style setting and all the details of the native American culture. Cinematography and and action was really well done, just can't recommend it highly enough.  

[Vulgar Monkey]

I mean, she

Spoiler

sneaks up on him, caps him in the back of the head while he is tying his shoelaces, then runs off with his hat. Then trips him into a puddle, and twice does the 'stop hitting yourself' thing. I dunno abouts preds but most people would lose patience by then.

 

Predators are like gamers who get everything done on normal and only up it to 'challenging' once they have everything unlocked, so they have the satisfaction of clowning on the hard enemies without any real danger.

 

And speaking of games, I like how the dog

Spoiler

spent half the time doing his own thing elsewhere and then just shows up from offscreen for single hit-n-run attacks at pivotal moments, then fucks off again. He's like a summon, only exists for the time you can see him.

 

[instasis]

8 minutes ago, Vulgar Monkey said:

I mean, she

  Hide contents

sneaks up on him, caps him in the back of the head while he is tying his shoelaces, then runs off with his hat. Then trips him into a puddle, and twice does the 'stop hitting yourself' thing. I dunno abouts preds but most people would lose patience by then.

 

Predators are like gamers who get everything done on normal and only up it to 'challenging' once they have everything unlocked, so they have the satisfaction of clowning on the hard enemies without any real danger.

 

And speaking of games, I like how the dog

  Hide contents

spent half the time doing his own thing elsewhere and then just shows up from offscreen for single hit-n-run attacks at pivotal moments, then fucks off again. He's like a summon, only exists for the time you can see him.

 

 

Also

Spoiler

Clown Pred is constantly getting chunks torn out of it by everything else. The rattlesnake didn't get far, but the wolf took a bit out of its leg, the bear fucked it right up, it couldn't catch doggo, while it did a good job against the trappers eventually they hit it plenty, the two scouts poked holes all around it before it took them out, our heroine smacks it again and again before the final showdown and the brother was kicking the fuck out of it before it chickened out in stealth mode and stabbed him in the back - only to get distracted and stabbed in the leg again.

 

Pred was an absolute poser. It was great. 

 

 

[Stig]

8 hours ago, Pelekophoros said:

Disney+ has 139 million subscribers, so it's making somewhere over $1b per month.

 

By releasing Prey on it, they don't have to do marketing, they don't have to sign distribution deals internationally, they don't have to only take a cut of ticket sales, they don't have to have a box office bomb on their hands again (The Predator tanked). But, they do get to put premium content on a service that is making them boatloads of cash and is part of the long term plan for the business, helping drive subscriber retention in an increasingly competitive market.

 

See also: their tentpole releases landing six weeks after theatre release.

 

But wouldn't they still have all those subs anyway, but a theatrical release also means extra cash made from a cinema release too.

[hmm]

A lot of the economics are about retaining subs, not just recruiting them.

[instasis]

1 minute ago, Stigweard said:

 

But wouldn't they still have all those subs anyway, but a theatrical release also means extra cash made from a cinema release too.

 

A cinema release isn't free, or even free money.

 

The Predator, the last movie in the franchise, cost $88 million to make. Marketing costs I think typically double that.

 

Domestically it took $55m in the US, 20th Century Fox didn't get all of that, but I believe it's where US filmmakers get the biggest chunk of money back from ticket sales.

 

Internationally, it took another $110m. The studio gets a fraction of that back.

 

So, in no uncertain terms, it lost money for the studio.

 

Disney, faced with the option of either releasing the latest installment of an underperforming franchise to theatres after a global pandemic and uncertain audience turnout - at additional cost to do so - or punting it as a high profile release on to their streaming platform chose the latter.

 

The reasoning is simple; regular exclusive content is critical to keep subscribers high. The reduction in churn and retention of existing customers is the strategy - you want to keep that $1 billion dollars per month coming in.

[teddymeow]

Disney+ has all of the Predator films except the Shane Black one up for streaming.

 

Watching the OG now. It's so 80s!!! I love it!!!

[schmojo]

I had a good time with this. Logical enough, and a good blend of action, violence and thoughtful ideas. 

 

I'd happily see them go all Assassin's Creed and show predators taking on different groups throughout world history.

[Eighthours]

2 hours ago, Pelekophoros said:

 

A cinema release isn't free, or even free money.

 

The Predator, the last movie in the franchise, cost $88 million to make. Marketing costs I think typically double that.

 

Domestically it took $55m in the US, 20th Century Fox didn't get all of that, but I believe it's where US filmmakers get the biggest chunk of money back from ticket sales.

 

Internationally, it took another $110m. The studio gets a fraction of that back.

 

So, in no uncertain terms, it lost money for the studio.

 

Disney, faced with the option of either releasing the latest installment of an underperforming franchise to theatres after a global pandemic and uncertain audience turnout - at additional cost to do so - or punting it as a high profile release on to their streaming platform chose the latter.

 

The reasoning is simple; regular exclusive content is critical to keep subscribers high. The reduction in churn and retention of existing customers is the strategy - you want to keep that $1 billion dollars per month coming in.

I mean, that’s literally not the reason by the accounts of all involved, but OK.