Prey is the franchise's most accomplished film since the original and one of the most impressive genre revivals of its decade. Dan Trachtenberg's 2022 film is set in the Comanche Nation of 1719 and follows a young warrior named Naru who must prove herself to her tribe while confronting a Predator on its first hunt on Earth. It is a film of considerable visual intelligence and dramatic economy that uses its historical setting with a specificity and conviction that gives the franchise's central premise a freshness and resonance the more contemporary entries have not achieved. That it was released directly to streaming rather than receiving a theatrical release remains one of the more baffling distribution decisions of recent years.
At a Glance
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Runtime: 99 minutes
Starring: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, Stormee Kipp, Michelle Thrush
Release: 2022
Critics Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, the franchise's most accomplished since the original)
Audience Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, broadly enjoyed as visceral, back-to-basics Predator filmmaking)
Review Breakdown
Plot
Naru tracks a lion stalking her tribe and discovers something far more dangerous hunting the same territory. Trachtenberg constructs the plot with considerable economy, establishing its world, its characters, and its stakes with a completeness that makes every development feel both surprising and inevitable. The film's structural intelligence is one of its most important achievements: it earns its action sequences through patient character work, so that when the confrontations arrive they carry dramatic weight. The Predator's gradual escalation through the local food chain, from animals to French fur traders to Naru herself, is handled with a precision that gives the creature's eventual confrontation with its most capable opponent a sense of earned consequence. The final confrontation stands as the franchise's most satisfying action sequence since the original.
Characters
Naru is the franchise's most compelling character addition since Dutch, a young warrior of extraordinary intelligence and emotional depth whose determination to prove herself gives the film its central dramatic engine. Midthunder plays the character with a physical authority and emotional intelligence that makes Naru feel entirely real, and her performance is the franchise's most accomplished since Schwarzenegger's Dutch. What distinguishes Naru from the franchise's other protagonists is the specificity of her intelligence: she wins not through superior strength or firepower but through careful observation and the application of knowledge, and the film rewards that intelligence with a victory that feels earned. Dakota Beavers's Taabe is the film's most dramatically interesting supporting character, and his sibling relationship with Naru is the franchise's most emotionally engaging secondary thread, giving the film a human core the more action-focused entries have not always provided.
Tone
Trachtenberg pitches the film at a register of atmospheric dread and sustained dramatic economy, using the 18th-century setting to strip the franchise back to its most essential elements. The creature's gradual revelation is handled with a restraint and conviction that recalls the most effective passages of McTiernan's original, and the film's pacing is assured throughout, never pausing long enough to lose momentum or rushing past moments that deserve to breathe. The natural environment is used with a specificity that makes it feel threatening rather than simply picturesque, and the film's practical effects give the Predator a physical presence the more digitally dependent entries have not always achieved.
Meaning / Themes
The film's central concern is the relationship between intelligence and strength, and the suggestion that capability is a matter of observation and adaptation rather than simply of physical power. Naru's victory as a demonstration of intellectual capability gives the franchise's central concern with the nature of the hunt its most satisfying expression since the original. The Comanche setting gives the franchise's central premise a cultural specificity and dramatic resonance the more generically contemporary entries have not achieved, and the film's treatment of the French fur traders as a secondary threat gives the narrative a historical dimension that adds depth to the survival horror mechanics.
Direction
Trachtenberg's direction is the franchise's most accomplished since McTiernan's original, a demonstration of atmospheric and kinetic craft that gives the film a visual identity of considerable distinction. The final confrontation is the film's directorial centrepiece, a sequence of spatial intelligence and dramatic consequence that stands as the franchise's most satisfying action passage since 1987. The film's use of the natural environment is equally impressive, with the landscape functioning as an active participant in the narrative rather than simply as a backdrop. Sarah Schachner's score is the franchise's most atmospherically precise recent entry, building from quiet tension to full orchestral release with a precision that gives the film's escalating dread its most powerful sonic expression.
Cultural Reception
Prey received outstanding reviews on its release and was widely regarded as one of the strongest films of 2022, praised for its direction, its central performance, and its bold creative decision to set the franchise in a radically different historical period. The streaming-only release generated significant debate about whether the film deserved a theatrical run, with many critics arguing that it was one of the year's most accomplished genre films and that its distribution represented a significant missed opportunity. It is now consistently ranked as the franchise's second-best entry after the original, and Midthunder's Naru is increasingly recognised as one of the most accomplished action heroines of her generation.
Who Should Watch
Everyone. Prey works as a standalone film for viewers with no knowledge of the franchise, and as a deeply satisfying return to form for those who have followed the series since 1987. One of the strongest genre films of the 2020s.
Final Verdict: The franchise's most accomplished film since the original, and a confident demonstration that the series still has creative potential when given the right vision. Midthunder's Naru is the franchise's most compelling character addition since Dutch, the final confrontation is the franchise's most satisfying action sequence since 1987, and Trachtenberg's direction gives the material a visual intelligence and dramatic economy the franchise had not achieved in thirty-five years. Essential viewing.
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