Last Sunday morning a friend and I took in the movie Predators at the local multiplex theater.

I’m a big fan of the original film. I think Predator was a near perfect summer action movie. The sequel, Predator 2, I saw in the theater and frankly it bored me and I have scarcely any memory of it at all.

The Alien V Predator movies are an even further step down, so when I heard that Robert Rodriguez was getting a crack at revitalizing the franchise I was interested.

I particularly liked that he planned to ignore all the films in the franchise save the first one. This movie is the direct sequel that should have been

If you have seen the trailers and the commercials there won’t be any spoilers in my review, however some plot details, one in said previews, are going to be mentioned.

Rather than rehash the first film by having a Predator return to Earth, as Predator 2 did, (I remember that much.) Rodriguez has the Predators scoop up a number of humans and drop them into a hunting preserve. He wastes zero time in getting the plot started. There is no build up, os scene setting, or even recap of the previous movie. The characters and the audience are dropped straight into the action.

We quickly meet our cast of international characters, and without hesitation the game is on.

The action comes fast and furious — some times a little too fast. We lost one character about a thrid of the way through the film and I had totally missed that he got killed.

Still despite the fast action and the non-stop gunplay, the producers, writers, and directors find time for actual character moments. In fact I dare say this film has more character in it than the first film. We can certainly trace an evolution for Adrian Brody;s character and see the changes he undergoes much more than anything that happened to Dutch in the first film.

Frankly I enjoyed myself and for matinee price I certainly got my money’s worth.