The Predator is unable to discern Andolini’s deception because the heat vision in his visor was unable to read Andolini’s signature. His liberal utilization of wide shots manages to both encompass and show the scale of the open areas and also manages to impact the viewer with the framing of the shots as the violent acts occur. Not losing sight of the coming-of-age aspect of the story, he also manages to flesh out the world with its foliage and greenery, aided by Jeff Cutter’s fantastic cinematography. Trachtenberg’s pacing of the story is on point. It ultimately boils down to Naru, with her knowledge of the world around her and her ingenuity in combating the Predator. But the Predator’s arrival just enhances all of these aspects, putting the Voyageurs on the back foot, their reliance on their modern weapons failing against the far more advanced weaponry and the enhanced strength and cruelty befitting that of the Predator. It also could work as a slow march of modernity’s tendrils affecting the day-to-day lives of the indigenous tribes (as seen by the weapons utilized by the French Voyageurs). It still would have worked as a period-western dealing with the effects of colonialism and its encroachment over lands not yet affected and unvarnished (as inferred by the skinning of the bison off of their pelts and leaving the entire herd). For Naru and the rest of the tribe, things become a mite bit complicated when French Voyageurs capture her while she is trying to escape after having seen the Predator for the first time. On the one hand, it is a coming-of-age story for the young Naru, on the other hand, it is a fish-out-of-water scenario for the Predator itself, as it is figuring out its terrain and its prey and the world itself. is in sharp contrast to the predator itself, who we see stalking, trying to figure out the animals and how to intercept and hunt them. By following her as she understands and tries to figure out why the animals are, in a way, getting disrupted because of the presence of a mysterious apex predator, we see her developing her tools and figuring out her terrain and its inborn rustic treachery (the quicksand). This ensures a fantastic representation of the Comanche Nation, but the secret sauce in Trachtenberg and Alston’s story is how the story is essentially Naru’s coming-of-age story of evolving as a Comanche hunter and later tribe chief. It’s fascinating how much Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Alston manage to delve into and expand on both the Comanche Nation and the character of Naru.
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