'Predators' is an awesome, very slick Sci-Fi movie

I finally got the chance the other day to watch the newly released movie, “Predators,” and I thought it was an awesome, very slick Sci-Fi movie.

Released in July and directed by Nimrod Antal, this science fiction movie starred Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali and Louis Ozawa Changchien. The movie was written by Michael Finch and Alex Litvak and is based on characters created by brothers, Jim and John Thomas.

This movie is the fifth to be released in the Predators franchise and takes place on an off-world alien "game preserve." The movie begins when a group of humans is dropped onto another planet and eventually figure out that they are being hunted by an alien race bent on developing their fighting skills against the universe’s toughest warriors. The aliens are also big into trophy hunting.

I thought this movie was cool because of the all-star group of tough guys they assembled to fight the Predators. The group included a former American special forces soldier turned mercenary, an Israel Defense Force sniper, a psychopathic doctor, a Russian Spetsnaz Alpha Group commando, a death row inmate from California’s San Quentin Prison, a Japanese mafia enforcer, a Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front death squad solider and a Mexican drug cartel enforcer.

One member of the group is killed when he’s dropped in and his parachute fails to open. He’s seen wearing a pixel-gray Army combat uniform, indicating that he was most likely an American Army solider.

It was very cool to see how each of these characters brought a different set of skills to the table, and how their skills helped some of them survive while others fell at the hands of the Predators. (About half way through the movie you realize that the title of the movie, “Predators,” could just as easily apply to the humans in the film as it does to the four alien hunters in the movie.)

This movie made a very decent financial showing in theatres, both in the U.S. and abroad. It posted gross revenues of $126.8 million against a shooting budget of $40 million.

In the end, I enjoyed this movie. It was full of good, old-fashioned Sci-Fi action, and the story moved along at an attention-keeping clip.

For those of you interested in watching the other Predator movies, they include “Predator” (1987), “Predator 2” (1990), “Alien vs. Predator” (2004) and “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007). Also, if you liked “Predators,” you might also be excited to hear that there is talk of a sequel. Keep you fingers crossed.