“If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It”: Prey (2022) Review
When it comes to the Predator franchise, most of the films don’t reach the highs of a movie like Aliens, but are more quality-consistent than the Alien franchise. Installments like Predator 2 still greatly expand the franchise’s world and storytelling possibilities. I’ve seen nearly all of the films, but Predators is the only one I saw in theaters and remember loving it a lot. I’ve always been disappointed that a couple of the sequels somewhat wasted the storytelling potential set up by the basic premise. Particularly, I’ve been wanting to see a period piece installment for a long time as there’s so many possibilities with the idea.
Completely living up to those possibilities, Prey is undoubtedly one of the best franchise comebacks in recent memory. In Prey, an 18th century young Native American woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder) attempts to prove herself as a hunter among her tribe as the Feral Predator (Dane DiLiegro) arrives on Earth to hunt.
Far and away, one of the absolute best things about the movie is Midthunder’s performance as Naru. I watched the Comanche dub first before watching the English version and it’s cool to see how she conveys different inflections with dialogue between the languages. Her biggest strength is really her silent facial expressions in crucial scenes, especially towards the end.
