Prey

A briefly captivating and partially thrilling story about a motley crew stalked and threatened by giant killer lions. A young couple (Ryan Philippe, Mena Suvari) have to flee from a paramilitary group in an African nation after traveling there to introduce the Christian religion. But the plane driven by Grun (Emile Hirsch) crashes and the group of travelers (Ryan Philippe, Mena Suvari, Jeremy Tardy, Dylan Flashner, Tristan Thompson) find themselves besieged by huge lions and confined almost entirely to the dangerous savannah, resulting in fateful consequences. And to make matters worse, the killer beasts continue to kill and they are attacked by soldiers while are in the wrecked plane where they have taken refuge. Fight for life!. Not an ordinary animal!. Prey to survive!. !. Sometimes the rustling in the bushes is actually a monster!. Human emotion laid bare!

This is a tragedy-adventure-drama film that took a few weeks to shoot in California, although I think it's more of a horror drama than an adventure film, as it deals with huge, hungry lions that have seemingly mythical and vengeful qualities, in order to relentlessly kill people. After their plane crashes, they must fight for their lives against beasts and bloodthirsty soldiers; the pilot is played in a mediocre way by Emile Hirsch and the young couple forced to abandon their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang is played by Ryan Phillippe and Mena Suvari, although the latter has a secondary appearance.

This is an uneven survival drama with not too much appeal and minimal quality in which the actors give all the value to a heart-stopping script, concerning a group of fearful people who find themselves pursued by huge lions who try to prove that the savannah has only one apex predator, themselves. The film is average and nothing special, it overuses computerized images of lions; in fact, the animals that appear in the film are generated in 3D; finally, the director to give more authenticity to the images, decided to bring a real one to the set one day. It contains some passable scenes, brilliant cinematography by cameraman Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi, an undistinguishing soundtrack, complemented by spectacular highlights when the ferocious lions attack here and there and adding other additional attractions. The cast is acceptable but not remarkable, such as: Ryan Phillippe as the stubborn husband who will stop at nothing to protect his wife Suvari, a role that sits easily on his shoulders and Emilie Hirsch as the tough pilot. There is also a brief description of the terrorist organization Boko Haram that mercilessly hunts and kills Christians, it is an Islamist jihadist terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon and Mali. In 2016, the group split, leading to the emergence of a hostile faction known as the West African Province of the Islamic State.

The film turns out to be very average, tending towards the low, there are other much better films about people besieged by the African dangers and the wildlife of the savannah, such as: ¨Sands of the Kalahari¨ (1965) by Cy Endfield with Stanley Baker, Stuart Whitman, Susannah York; ¨A Far Off Place¨ (1993) by Mikael Salomon with Reese Witherspoon, Ethan Embry, Jack Thompson; ¨Prey¨ (2007) by Darrell Root with Bridget Moynahan, Peter Weller and ¨Beast¨ (2022) by Baltasar Kormákur with Idris Elba.

The feature film was directed in an irregular manner by Mukunda Michael Dewil, being supposedly based on real events. But it was not filmed in Africa but at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California. Mukunda is a craftsman who has made a few films without much success and usually on a low budget, although on occasions he has managed to gather well-known actors: Emile Hirsch, Paul Walker, Kate Bosworth, Ashley Greene, Ryan Philippe, Mena Suvari for his cheap productions, which include the following films: Vehicle 19 (2013), Retribution (2011), Collide (2022), The Immaculate Room (2022) and Kalahari (2024). Score: 4/10. A short-budget and below-average ordinary film dealing with African survival.

Oh, no, not ANOTHER lion movie called 'Prey'! We had 'Prey' in 2007, 'Prooi' in 2016 (Prooi being dutch for Prey), and now again! Then there was the 2022 'Predator' prequel also called 'Prey'. All too confusing...

The film's alternate title is 'Kalahari', and now it sounds all too much like 1965's 'Sands of the Kalahari', which is about a small plane flying to Johannesburg crashing in the Kalahari. Only, in that movie there are baboons and no lions. 'Prey' sees a private plane (flying to Johannesburg) carrying a handful of passengers crash landing in the Kalahari, and the survivors are being hunted by lions - blah-blah-blah.

'Prey' (aka Kalahari) is as B as a B-movie gets. Very little was explained about why the handful of passengers had to make use of the private plane and the characters were bland and one-dimensional. As a result I didn't root for any of them. In short, I simply didn't care about any of the characters. What the hell is Ryan Phillippe doing in a film like this?? Someone get the man a new agent!!

If you were hoping to see lion attacks here, forget it; there are none. There are lions, yes, and there are attacks, yes, but nothing is shown on screen!! The attacks are pretty much left to the viewer's imagination. Now, this is as cheap as it gets. I mean, honestly, this film is from the bottom of the cheap barrel!! The plain wreck looked like a cardboard cut-out!!!! I'm not joking, it literally looked like a thing that was made out of cardboard with windows being painted on it!! Give me a moment while I compose myself and try to stop laughing...!!!!

Why on earth did Green Light Pictures greenlit this?? It's a horrible script, and even worse in its execution. Every attempt at adding emotional depth - or horror for that matter - failed miserably. This is as forgettable as they come. If you're into lion movies, 'The Ghost and the Darkness' is still the king of them all! 2022's 'Beast' starring Idris Elba was by no means a good lion movie, but it was far superior to 'Prey'. In fact, compared to 'Prey', 'Beast' is a masterpiece in film making!!! The best thing about 'Prey' is its poster!! Pffff!!!!

I have a relatively low threshold to meet for a movie to be passable. I dont mind some bad acting, bad special effects, loose plot holes, etc as long as the movie has some sort of storyline and a bit of a twist. This movie had nothing. No plot, no hero, no villain, nothing. Barely any animals are even shown and there's no big showdown between "man and beast". The acting was horrendous from all points which is shocking because some of them are decent actors in other films. The ending was the best part because it meant I could turn it off. There is absolutely no redeeming qualities in this entire film. Please do yourself a favour and find ANYTHING else to watch.

Hm. It's a tricky one, is this. How do I be polite yet be honest about this film. Firstly, what ever happened to the jeep? Secondly, I've seen turds dry up quicker under a solar lamp. Thirdly, how did they get the make up on the lion? Then between scenes it must have had a wash, for now it's 'sans' blood, so there must be water nearby to quench their thirst? I mean what the hell is going on? It's like The Grey made into a PG version, made suitable for children who don't have a clue what the hell is going on, but are happy to be entertained by the charming clown you're mother's petrified of. It's not a beast of a film, it's watchable just to see how bad it can get. And why the buggery didn't they use the jeep?

Could this really be the same Ryan Philippe who was in "Cruel Intentions"? Are things really that bad? Well now he's "Andrew" who runs a Christian missionary deep in the Kalahari. Forced to flee, they engage the rather untrustworthy services of pilot "Grun" (Emile Hirsch) and next thing they are amidst some wreckage in the middle of a wild game reserve with loads of hungry lions, hyenas, scorpions and a few heavily armed freedom fighters. Can they survive? There are some beautiful animals featured in this film and the Californian Vasquez Rocks National Park serves well enough as a location double, but the rest of this is all really quite poorly written and executed before a denouement that I could have done with half an hour earlier. There's nothing about the characters for us to care about, one being determined to smuggle artefacts out of the country whilst an other wants to indoctrinate the locals with a lifetime supply of bibles. Maybe he thought it was called "Pray" instead? It's not exactly predicable, it's not that structured - it sort of meanders along desperate to generate some sense of menace from it's arid and hostile environment, but all to underwhelming avail. Nope, nothing at all to recommend this to anyone, sorry.