If you're talking about the specter of the motley crew as a whole surviving, I'd well agree with you. I certainly wasn't buying into that ruse. In fact, it was a game unto itself to figure the order in which the individuals outside of the 'leading couple' would bite the dust (with bonus points awarded for guessing 'how').
But of course, Dutch and Anna both managed to survive the predation in the first film. As such, the lone couple surviving (at least until the end of this film) was in keeping with that framework as it were just as Rose along with a few others survived in
Titanic. In that sense, I don't think it was a fault of the film makers of
Predators to create that hope that an isolated few would survive an encounter against the Predators. Have I understood you correctly?
In any event, I had several issues with the film. One was the casting, two in particular. Adrien Brody...Special Ops...growler? Really? And then, there's Laurence Fishburn who was a welcome surprise to be sure, but I thought he could've lost a few pounds (read 90) for the role especially for a guy who's, for all intents and purposes, living in the wild. It was as unsettling as when we saw Morpheus in part I turn into...Fat Morpheus.
But as you pointed out, it was wall to wall action with nothing much in between, and that's perhaps my main criticism. I recognize that there was a language barrier between the predators and the humans, not that they would've sat down to deconstruct the hows and whys of the particular situation that they found themselves in, and as such, there wasn't going to be an abundance of information available, but I don't think that's an excuse for having virtually no story. Also, with the wall to wall action, I thought there was a distinct lack of rhythm that's a common denominator among the action films in the upper echelon.
You basically got my "Titanic" analogy. What I also meant was that the end of "Predators" should have been a fait accompli. You know what happens to the Titanic from the first minute of the movie, and likewise you know what
should happen on a planet full of Predators. The fun of "Predator" was knowing Dutch and his boys had almost no chance of survival. As they gradually learned, the monster was the opposite of the Bond villain who traps his targets and reels off a speech while giving his would-be victim time to figure out a way to escape. In fact, so tough was the thing that Dutch only half-killed the Predator as it was (remember it self-destructed).
Now, if you throw some soldiers onto the Predators' home-world, I mean, forget it. Instant death. They did a decent job scrounging up a modicum of suspense but some of it felt cheap. The Predator on Earth would mostly just blast his targets from a distance. There was a little bit of gamesmanship, a little bit of badass hunting style to show off, sure, but basically if he had a shot at you, he took it. In "Predators" the things set traps, get close to their prey, use hellhounds, and one of them inexplicably jumps into a sword fight. Some of that "warrior pride" stuff was cool, but the movie didn't generate the same level of fear.
Also, the idea that they could escape on the ship was absurd from the get-go. I did like the Predator nonchalantly blowing it up by remote control. Very in-character and nasty.
I laughted at Fat Morpheus too. Wow, has that guy packed on the pounds. Difficult to believe he could fit through the spaceship doors let alone evade a forest infested by Predators. The "Cast Away" bit about talking to an imaginary friend did nothing for me.
Yes, great point about the rhythm. It did feel choppy and failed to build momentum. But as you said it was a game to see who would die first, who would survive, and who would betray the others, so maybe that wasn't so bad as it might have been.
I'll say this: the whole movie was just about redeemed by the one majestic shot of the humans stumbling out of the jungle to see the multiple planets/moons in the sky. Very cool in a classic sci-fi way and a sign the filmmakers' hearts were in the right place. You can always tell a cynical cash-grab ("Transformers") from a flawed but authentic sci-fi/adventure movie made by people who basically get it.
But thankfully,
Machete will be upon us in no time to fill the hole in my soul.
Hellz yeah!
THEY f***ED WITH THE WRONG MEXICAN.
