Predators was exactly what it needed to be: A wicked homage to the original film. While Predator 2 certainly has its fans and detractors, and the AVP series were, well...anyway, suffice to say that Predators is the best movie in the franchise since the original. That doesn't mean it's as good, or even half as good, but I bloody well liked it. I had a great time with it. Adrian Brody was cool but underachieving. I liked a lot of the backing characters a lot more. There was a cool mix of characters from different origins, but the concept was, we're back to a group of people stuck in the jungle.

Blu ray special features are nice. There is a little profile on each of the characters, and a bunch of making-ofs. Cool stuff. I was very impressed with the locations. They really made it look like this jungle was no place on Earth, even though it was. Director Nimrod Antal guides you through the making of the film in an interesting way. Even my mother-in-law, who hates action movies, stopped and watched the making-ofs with me one afternoon because she thought they were interesting.

I doubt there will ever be a movie as good as Predator. I mean, you've got the magic cast there. You've got Arnold at his very peak right there, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, the whole bunch. There was a chemistry there that won't be repeated. Brody and his counterparts here have created characters with enough depth that you can get into the story and their plight. Some are, shall we say, inspired by characters from the original film. (Watch both, you'll see what I mean.) By the time the Predators show up, Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal have thrown so many homages out to the original film that you will either be won over or peed off. But that's the direction they went into, and I imagine future sequels (all but guaranteed) will expand upon the storyline and planet a great deal.

4 stars. Can't complain, I enjoyed this one a lot.