Prey
You ever watch a movie and go "... I've seen this before." The typical causes of this are plot points, settings, and the actors in it that cause this reaction. Sometimes the movie is copying another movie. This movie is original and I saw nothing like it in the past 10 years, maybe the same tropes but a new movie. Somehow I've seen this shit before. I dunno. What is more odd, at least for me, is seeing who starring in this. Goddamn, these white people are getting old to me. Then it's the 77% rating(as of writing this) the movie has on Rotten Tomatoes. ...ok how? Then it's seeing Voltage Pictures in the beginning and I'm shocked no pun intended they still produce shit. But it's watching the movie where I and many other critics feel like this was a quiet Christian movie. And what's worse is at the end of all of it you feel like you just rewatched a movie you saw 5 years ago. Maybe it's me and I've seen too many movies or something.
The movie is about a couple of Christian missionaries in the Kalahari Desert. One of the local gangs threaten the Christians to leave. It's framed because they're Christian when let's be real, it's Ryan Phillippe and Mena Suvari. Get yall white asses up outta Botswana! BTW! Mena got OLD on me! She's only 4 years older than me and she looked like she was a HARD 49 years old in this. Ryan still looks okay, Justin Timberlake may have taken a portion of his acting career but not his looks and acting ability. 2 outta 3 baby! The couple and their friendly African co-worker board a plane with a shady pilot, played by Emile Hirsch. There's like 3 other people who get on too but I'm not focused on them. The plane loses control and crashes killing one of the passengers. Mena is trapped under one of the seats but everyone else is alright. To make matters worse, they crash in the Safari zone. Not the Pokemon one, the real one with Lions, Hyenas, Timon's and Pumbaa's. So one batch of survivors walks to the village while Ryan stays behind with his wife. Mena is wedged and can't move and also she's kinda bleeding out.
The other survivors are very lost and the African says "We're not going the right way." That's when Emile...the white American says "Naw we good." Back at the plane, Ryan finds Rhino horns on the plane. This also makes Ryan realize that the village he was working at didn't get the meds they needed because Emile was doing all the pirate missions in The Privater. (It's an old Wing Commander game, KEEP UP!) Later the group who went searching made it back to the plane. Yup, they were walking in a circle. When they make it there they find out Mena was killed by lions. I mean you see the blood, so either lions or a lot of lions. Ryan shows up hiding from I dunno where and tells the group that Emile has been smuggling. And that the lions will be coming back.
As always I won't spoil the third act but it's unpredictable and yet very predictable. That's basically the whole problem with the movie. You've seen this shit before. White people vs Africa; rebels show up; Animals are a danger; and somehow the black guy dies. That last part wasn't a spoiler. The second he showed up talking English and mentioned the Bible you knew he was expendable. The third act is where the Christians overtones flex the hardest.
I give it a 5 out of 10. Nothing spectacular but also nothing that I liked at least.