Prey
Year: 2022
Rating: R
Length: 100 minutes / 1.67 hours
For a franchise at risk of becoming stale, I can appreciate the approach that a sci-fi series like Predator took with Prey (2022). With Alien cross-overs being hit-or-miss and the Predators (2010) reboot having an OK twist, Prey feels like a breath of fresh air. After all, going backward in time makes the challenge of facing a Predator much more thrilling and perhaps closer to the original Predator (1987) in terms of using true human survival skills to combat this threat from outer space. The context being from a Native American perspective just made it that much more interesting.
Set in the Great Plains of North America in the early 1700s, Prey follows Naru (Amber Midthunder), a Comanche woman who has aspirations of being a hunter but is held back by the gender stereotypes of her tribe. This alone is an interesting plot that pulls in elements of the white man’s invasion of native lands as well as the natural hazards of dangerous animals like bears. All these things make sense for why there would be a Predator in the same place and time—the American west is a dangerous and harsh environment full of worthy opponents.
Prey seems to get what made the original so popular. It’s not the modern weapons like guns that can take down an intelligent being bent on conquering worthy foes but instead a cunning and guerilla tactic that uses the home advantage of the prey to take out an impossible enemy. That an achievement like this is what it takes to overcome social stigma for what it means to be a warrior also empowers those who might feel like they’re fighting generations of cultural oppression just based on who they were when they were born.
A refreshing take on the Predator franchise, I give Prey 5.0 stars out of 5.
