Kill or be killed: Predators ‘reboot’ rises above rest

It may be the fifth film in a 23-year-old sci-fi horror franchise, but Predators is being hailed by some as the true successor to the excellent 1987 original Predator which pitted Arnold Schwarzenegger against an invisible alien big game hunter.

Hugely popular, Predator spawned the ultra-violent, crowd-pleasing 1990 sequel Predator 2 (which saw Danny Glover replace Schwarzenegger) as well as two forgettable spin-offs - the 'Alien vs Predator' films which did neither franchise any favours. In contrast, Predators is a more solid and suspenseful offering with some impressive names on its credits.

Predators' script is based on one written by Sin City director Robert Rodriguez in the mid-Nineties and it is directed by Nimrod Antal, the man behind the 2003 cult Hungarian film Control. Meanwhile its cast boasts Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (buffed up as a mercenary with a penchant for quoting Hemingway), City of God star Alice Braga as an Israeli sniper and Hollywood elder statesman Laurence Fishburne in a striking cameo.

The film follows a band of hardcore killers - including a yakuza, a death row inmate and a serial killer - who find themselves stranded on an alien planet. Led by Brody, they soon discover it is a game reserve for an evolved generation of super-Predators - and that they, the mercenaries, are the prey.

Predators gets a worldwide release this week, launching in the UK today and in the United States on Friday. Of those who have had an advance preview, some have admittedly been disappointed that, despite the talent involved, Rodriguez's reboot is somewhat lacking in ambition and imagination.

Empire's Kim Newman notes: "The biggest missed opportunity is that... the monsters are conceived solely in terms of how cool they'll look as action figures". By contrast Time Out praises it as "the sequel that... the 1987 original deserved, as director Nimrod Antal delivers enough hard core sci-fi, explosive action and monster mayhem to justify its  belated arrival".

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:
Nigel Floyd, Time Out: "Forget the official sequel and the lame 'Alien vs Predator' spin-offs, this Predator sequel deserves one of its own." (4/5 stars)

Kim Newman, Empire: "The biggest missed opportunity is that - again - the monsters are conceived solely in terms of how cool they'll look as action figures. Whatever characterisation they once had, mostly in Predator 2 and AvP admittedly, is dropped: we still don't know why a spacefaring civilisation is so obsessed with big game hunting - much less why they believe that hairstyle and those vests look better when not invisible." (3/5 stars)

Ryan Lambie, Den of Geek: "Like watching a solid, competent tribute band in a local pub, Predators replays all the beats and hits from its stadium-filling predecessor with crowd-pleasing enthusiasm, but there's no escaping the feeling that it's all been seen before." (3/5 stars) ·