Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Alain Moussi | ... | Jake | |
Nicolas Cage | ... | Wylie | |
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Raymond Pinharry | ... | Fisherman |
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Mary Makariou | ... | Fisherman's Wife |
Tommy Walker | ... | Private Tommy | |
John D. Hickman | ... | Hickman (as John Hickman) | |
Eddie Steeples | ... | Tex | |
Rick Yune | ... | Captain Sand | |
Marie Avgeropoulos | ... | Myra | |
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Philip Kkalas | ... | Soldier |
Tony Jaa | ... | Kueng | |
Frank Grillo | ... | Harrigan | |
Marrese Crump | ... | Forbes | |
JuJu Chan Szeto | ... | Carmen (as JuJu Chan) | |
Ryan Tarran | ... | Brax |
When Jake Barnes, a master Jiu Jitsu fighter, refuses to face Brax, an indomitable alien creature, the future of humanity hangs in the balance. Injured and suffering from severe amnesia, Jake is captured by a military squad unequipped to fight the merciless intruder who has descended upon the planet. Jake is rescued by Wylie, and an ancient order of Jiu Jitsu fighters who must help him recover his memory and regain his strength in order to band together and defeat Brax in an epic battle that will determine the fate of mankind. Written by Highland Film Group
The film is a weird combination between Predator and Mortal Combat with amazing fight sequences and the overall production quality way higher than your typical Martial Arts flick. However, it still feels like the crew was working on a tight schedule because most of the acting scenes could have benefitted from a few additional takes. Or maybe the actors just found it difficult to get into their characters when the film script didn't make any sense.
Alain Moussi - an amazing martial arts performer, second only to Scott Adkins among current English speaking 360-jump-spinning-hook-kicks throwing action stars, looks really lost here. I mean it's not just that his character is confused as he cannot remember where he came from, Alain himself looks utterly confused about how did he end up on a film set and what should he be doing there. That's a shame, because he did quite a decent job in Kickboxer series reboot but is completely overshadowed by pretty much all the supporting staff as an actor. And it's not like other performances are Oscar worthy - I mean when current days Nicolas Cage stands out as a superior actor, you know, how terrible others should be. The fact that Alain delivers only like five full sentences throughout the whole film doesn't help to build up his character as well.
To say that the film lacks a decent plot would be an understatement. 1987 Predator feels like a Shakespearean drama compared to this one. None of the main characters' actions make any sense and the whole story is so similar to Predator and Mortal Combat that it's difficult to consider this as a separate movie and not a kind of cross-sequel-spin-off of both original franchises.
But disregarding all that, the film provides a decent entertainment due to amazing fight scenes. Quite surprisingly, the best fight scenes are crammed up in the first 30 min of the film but they're so good that they make up for the non-existing plot and pedestrian acting. In terms of fight sequences, this is probably one of the best American-made martial arts films in the last decade. But once again, unless Mr Adkins is pulling off his Boyka magic or John Wick goes on a wild killing spree, there's not much of a competition. To sum up, the film is definitely worth to check for any hard-core Martial Arts film fans but any person looking for a comprehensive story and interesting, believably acted characters might be disappointed.