Two hugely anticipated pieces of entertainment dropped onto streaming platforms last week and I’ve only just been able to finish them and give you an opinion.
First, on Disney+, we have Prey, the latest instalment in the Predator franchise. I had mixed feelings. Let’s face it, the last decent Predator movie was in 1990, Predator 2. It was the first 18-rated movie that my friends and I snuck into the cinema to see underage. It wasn’t received hugely well at the time, simply taking the plot of the original and putting it in a city. But it added a few things to the story: new weapons and abilities for the Predator itself, a deepening sense of it’s moral code beyond refusing to kill the unarmed or those that didn’t present a threat, and of course, one of the earlier cinematic shared universes when 20th Century Fox woke up to the fact they owned the two biggest alien movie franchises and decided to cross them over, much like Universal had done with their monsters decades beforehand.
As usual, I haven’t read any other reviews before writing this, but I did read a piece on the post-credits ‘scene’ of Prey on a popular UK entertainment site, written by a normally reliable and interesting author. I’m not naming names. I don’t want to throw them under a bus. It was, frankly, embarrassing. Quite apart from completely failing to understand what the post-credit scene signified, the article stated that Naru, the protagonist of Prey was the ‘first good protagonist in this franchise since Arnold Schwarzenegger.’
This is massively disrespectful to Danny Glover, who plays the cop who takes on the alien hunter in Predator 2 (and who, let’s remember, actually kills the massive gnarly critter himself rather than allowing it to live long enough to blow itself up like the first one). Glover and Schwarzenegger were direct analogues of each other. They were both treble-hard-bastards in an elite unit who disrespected authority. They were both massive. They both had an intensely loyal band of followers. And they both had about as much depth as a Boris Johnson apology. To say one is better than the other is silly. Naru on the other hand… is an actual character.
For those who have managed to avoid any marketing, I won’t spoil anything other than to say that Naru is a Comanche warrior in 18th Century America. That was another thing that Predator 2 added to the franchise, the realisation that these monsters have been visiting Earth for centuries. The series has been crying out for a historical battle involving ancient human warriors, so when I learned that Dan Trachtenberg, director of the excellent 10 Cloverfield Lane had won the right to make this, I gingerly held my breath and cut myself off from the marketing, trying hard not to get as excited as I had when it was announced that Shane Black (who starred in and wrote some of the dialogue for the original movie) was writing what turned out to be the crushingly disappointing nonsense that was 2018’s The Predator.
The story of Prey, co-written by Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison, is somewhat deceptive. On the one hand, it does nothing new. It just gives you the historical setting and then allows the plot to follow the same journey as the first two movies, a fight to the death with a far superior alien opponent that lives for the hunt. But, as I said earlier, this is very much 21st Century movie as opposed to a 1980s/early 90s action movie. The protagonist has more than one dimension. Someone has sat down and thought about how to make her more real and more engaging as a proxy for our enjoyment.
As such, the movie takes its time setting things up, with a few beats that might surprise or even frustrate, but it’s more rewarding for it. The Predator and Predators (2010) tried to do too much. They were trapped, in my view, by the success of Aliens. Indisputably one of the best sequels ever made, that film was a masterclass in adding to the mythos of something already successful, both adding to and constraining the story in such a way that audiences got an enthralling evolution of the original film. Since then, many franchises have tried to repeat the trick … but it’s a light storm in a bottle.
Prey is an effective reboot. It’s a good story, well told, with compelling characters, fantastic set pieces and some breathtaking visuals. You couldn’t ask for more as a sequel/prequel… well, you could ask for Aliens I suppose, but short of that, this is a great start, a great platform from which to take the story forward. Further movies are inevitable… like it or not. I hope the next is as intelligent and as cared for as this one. It would be great to let Trachtenberg take his time with this and to see where he can take it next.
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I haven’t read enough of Neil Gaiman’s work. His short novel ‘Ocean at the End of the Lane’ was my first and I found it absolutely spellbinding, a mini-masterpiece. I thoroughly enjoyed his Doctor Who story, The Doctor’s Wife, one of the highlights of the Eleventh Doctor era, and I felt there were clear parallels with Stephen Moffat, the show-runner, an all-consuming love of stories, combined with a fiendish talent to make them real. The kind of talent that can make you give up writing altogether when faced with such skill, yet a man who loves to read and loves to encourage others to write.
I’ve read and enjoyed American Gods and a few isolated comics of his, but I’ve never read The Sandman, despite knowing the hushed esteem with which many of my friends hold it. Well, that has to change. Because if the TV adaptation which just dropped on Netflix is anything to go by, these comics may equal or even exceed those of my own comic book hero, Alan Moore.
Once again taking an idea that seems so brilliantly simple that the facepalm slaps from a million aspiring writers must be audible on Alpha Centauri, Gaiman’s hero is Morpheus, or Sandman, or a thousand other names. He is the god of dreams (though never refers to himself as a god, but rather as one of the ‘Endless,’ siblings who may be the children of a god, including himself, Death, Destiny, Despair, Satan and so on … it’s clear that the TV show only scratches the surface of a much greater mythos).
In simplistic terms then, it’s the story of a superhero, in the same way that our current superhero-obsessed culture is just a modern version of our ancestor’s enthralment to pantheons of all powerful gods. But like any worthwhile story, it’s a study of the human condition. And just like we’ve seen so many times from Moffat, it’s a story obsessed with stories. After all, as Moffat would say, once we’ve turned to dust, what else are we?
I need to read the comic because I feel there this story will truly take flight. As Moore has said about his work, it only really works in the format it was written for, which is one of the reasons he refuses to be involved in the (mostly disastrous) adaptations of his stories. In this case, Gaiman has been actively involved. In its own right, it’s a fantastic TV show, beautifully and lovingly made, moving, passionate, and destined to haunt your own dreams, both waking and sleeping. But… I suspect that the most ardent lovers of the comic will be tempted to agree with the prevailing belief that it’s unfilmable in scope and execution. There were certain areas that felt smaller if that makes sense. Episodes where the story structure is a little too transparent, some of the dialogue a little too written.
To be clear, these are minor criticisms. The show is brilliant. If you have any love of the fantasy genre, you should absolutely watch it. It’s just I’m a slight comics nerd. I refuse to call them graphic novels because anyone who knows how good comics can really be will know the term cheapens and underserves a magnificent format in its own right.
Very briefly and again avoiding spoilers as much as possible, the TV series essentially gives you two linked stories, beginning with Charles Dance as an Aleister Crowley-type figure in Georgian England capturing the Sandman and propelling the events from there. The whole thing has a deliberate dreamlike quality and some of the tropes used in the dream world will raise wry smiles of recognition. The cast is magnificent, with numerous great and established actors cropping up all over the place, but never in a way that distracts from the story, which, of course, is king. Tom Sturridge in the title role, is absolutely magnificent. Magnetic and compelling from his very first appearance and throughout. Big things are coming for that lad. The score, effects, and cinematography are absolutely top-notch. Having rewatched the Lord of the Rings trilogy recently, it is quite amazing to see how far special effects have come in 20 years, and this is a case in point. You will cry about a gargoyle.
Watch it, it’s great. I’m off to order the comics as soon as I finish writing this.
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I’m going to take a break from Twitter and news, albeit just as some fun positive stuff seems to be happening in the States. That’s unlikely to result in a tidal wave of GG articles (though there is some interesting stuff happening after my call for content). My day job is very demanding right now and I also have a lot of other work to be getting on with in my personal life. But, as always, and like a very bad penny, I’ll be back.
Until then… thanks for reading. Thanks for letting me write.
