And Naru's actions towards the bear are another good example of the writing not doing a very good job at showing her as either a skilled hunter or someone who "only wants to protect her people from a threat". But strange lights and a footprint? Really? That doesn't seem in line with anything we know about Native Americans from that period - it's just the script that insists this makes sense. For example: imagine a scenario where they went after the lion, and her brother defeated it - then out of nowhere comes this monster and kills her brother and Naru's the only one who saw it and nobody believes her - then she'd have a believable motivation to go after it. If on the other hand the script had made the stakes more personal (and more primal), it would have worked to the character's and the story's advantage in my opinion. I think the script does the character of Naru a huge disservice by making her look rather over-ambitious to prove herself instead of actually giving her a plausible reason for wanting to protect her village by going after the predator. The trap her dog got caught in at the beginning on the other hand IS a sign for a huge threat to the tribe, but she doesn't even think it's necessary to warn her people about it, let alone further investigate who/what put it there. What I'm trying to say is: the predator at this point hasn't done anything that would require any action from Naru (or anyone else), and it's only the audience who knows from previous movies that this creature is a threat - there's no way our heroine would logically deduct that from the evidence she has. So my problems are as follows (please hear me out - and excuse such a terribly long review, but I just can't help myself, lol): Why is Naru 150% convinced right from the first tiny hint at the predator that there's this HUUGE threat out there? As far as she knows, the predator hasn't hurt anyone except for a snake, and when Naru finds a weird footprint and sees the unnatural, purple lightning/light flashes just before she falls when the mountain lion attacks - how are those things indicative of a bigger threat than the metal trap her dog gets caught in at the beginning? And why does she even think the mysterious purple flashes and the footprint come from a creature of flesh and blood? The only thing she could possibly conceive of (remember: this is a Native American Girl from 300 years ago) is some forest spirit or even some kind of God that has come to these woods - certainly not a creature that any normal Native American would ever intend to hunt (on the contrary, such a creature would more likely be respected or even worshiped). Sorry if I start to ramble, but it really bugs me when I believe a film could have been greatly improved with a few tweaks of the script. I didn't hate this movie but I thought the writing was very sloppy, considering the fantastic premise offered so much potential. It's nice to know that movies like this can still surprise me, not to mention make me stand up and cheer. I was sucked in from moment one, and Amber Midthunder completely captivated me for the whole runtime. Nobody's going to give this movie an Oscar, but I'd rather watch a story like this than most movies with capes and poorly staged action sequences. I found the cinematagrophy breathtaking, I found the characters compelling, and I'm kind of all in on seeing what happens when we transport modern franchises into different historical/cultural contexts. I cared way more about Naru and her brother (not to mention her dog) than I did about anybody in the original. So I fully admit that I have limited context here. As far as I'm concerned "Predator" = jungles and body butter. Confession: I'm the guy who watched the original Predator way too many times thanks to the magic of VHS.but then never watched a single sequel afterwards.
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