Prey [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

Person that fights predator scarier, then predator

Dan Trachtenberg’s 2022 film, “Prey” – the fifth film in the “Predator” franchise and sixth overall including the two crossovers with the “Alien” franchise – takes the series back in time to the Northern Great Plains in 1719. It focuses on three groups of predators: the alien hunters who seek sport, the French fur traders who hunt for commercial gain, and the Comanche who take what they need to survive among other strategies. The plot begins with Naru (Amber Midthunder), a healer, dreaming of becoming a hunter liker her brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers). She interprets strange lights in the sky as a vision and assists her tribe in pursuing a mountain lion. When she finds herself trapped in a bog and threatened by a bear, an invisible creature (Dane DiLiegro) slays the bear and saves her. Naru is found and trapped by French voyageurs. The French attempt to make her talk, but she and her friend refuse. The invisible creature attacks and wipes out most of the French except for Raphael (Bennett Taylor), who Naru gives healing herbs that reduce his body heat. Raphael teaches Naru how to use a flintlock pistol. Naru’s tribe rescues her and weakens the invisible creature, but the creature pursues. She manages to set a trap and defeat the creature.The “Predator” franchise had been faltering for a bit, with elements of lore introduced in various comic books or films not connecting. “Predator 2” began introducing their lore, showing that the alien hunters had visited Earth in the past. “Predators” was an interesting twist with humans transported to an alien world, while “The Predator” was middling and introduced a giant Predator and alien body armor. “Prey” is a return to form, with an original story that does something unique with the franchise while also connecting to some of its deepest lore. The Feral Predator represents a great early version of the alien hunters while Raphael Adolini connects to the finale of “Predator 2” and some of the early comic books. Amber Midthunder gives a phenomenal performance and the focus on and inclusion of First Nations actors and production members both in the story and filmmaking process shows the importance of bringing new perspectives to major franchises. “Prey” has singlehandedly revived the “Predator” franchise and pointed the way for other studios.This Blu-ray is a great way for fans to bring the film home as it originally premiered as a Hulu streaming exclusive. Bonus features include a making-of featurette; a panel discussion from the “For Your Consideration” promotional event; deleted scenes and an alternate opening; audio commentary from director Dan Trachtenberg, actor Amber Midthunder, director of photography Jeff Cutter, and editor Angela M. Catanzaro; and a full-length Comanche audio track in addition to English, Spanish, & French tracks.

if you do not have Hulu you cannot see it unless you buy like this. It is a really great movie

I won't go into a detailed plot breakdown or try to give a balanced critique of 'Prey.' since you can find that on numerous other websites.Suffice to say that as a long-time fan of four out of the seven Films in the Predator franchise thus far, I'm a massive fan of 'Prey.'. I've watched it countless times and I think it's very nearly better than the 1987 original, so I couldn't possibly be objective.Instead I'm going to assume that you the reader have seen 'Prey.' at least once already and I'm going to do what a lot of people who collect blu rays may well take great exception to, and use the 4K HDR-enhanced blu ray of 'Prey.' to make a case for why I think HDR on 4K blu rays is over-rated.I should start by saying that I always appreciate the increased sharpness & resolution potentially afforded by 4K and whilst the Wider Colour Gamut (WCG) is often of great benefit as it appropriately and tastefully enhances the saturation of the colour palette, in my experience HDR always increases the contrast by simply darkening the Film across-the-board, rather than by darkening certain parts of each scene selectively - which I assume the technology can't do yet.Now whilst I'm certainly not suggesting that this across-the-board darkening of the image always results in an objectionably unwatchable image (and to the especially uncritical eye it may even make Films look more striking and dynamic), what I am saying is that it very often robs Films of a lot of detail - especially in their darkest scenes.What this means is that the darker the scene, the less shadow detail one can make out. In many instances not only can fine-point detail be obscured, sometimes whole objects are swallowed up in complete darkness.For a Film fan like me who's motto is: 'If the original cinematography captured it and the Cinematographer and the Director intended the audience to see it, then I absolutely want to be able to see it!', this HDR-created lack of detail in the image is extremely annoying. Especially when it's so easy for me to go into my TV's settings, switch off the HDR and discover the amount of detail that the HDR is hiding.But who wants to watch a 4K HDR blu ray with their TV's HDR setting switched off?The exception to my dislike of HDR on 4K blu rays is releases where I know that the image is endorsed by the Director, or at least by the Cinematographer and presumably by extension the Director.Anyway given that the 4K HDR-enhanced release of 'Prey.' includes the 1080p SDR disc, I've recently been able to swap the discs over and compare the same scenes on the two discs.To my dismay having waited for over a year to buy the 4K blu ray release of 'Prey.', what I've discovered is that on the 4K disc the HDR is so aggressive that during the Film's frequent forest-set torch-lit night-time scenes, the Comanche often look as if they're walking around in a completely jet black landscape in which hardly anything of the trees and the various other kinds of vegetation around them, is being illuminated by their torches.By contrast; on the 1080p SDR disc their torches illuminate noticeably more of what's around them.The best (or rather worst) example of this overly aggressive application of HDR is the shot during the scene in which Naru is trying to fend off an advancing Mountain Lion as it stalks her along the increasingly thinning tree branch high up off the ground. She hears the strange roar of the Feral Predator far off in the forest and she looks toward where the sound is coming from.What one then sees on the 1080p SDR disc is a wonderfully detailed, appropriately but not overly bright, quite beautiful shot of a large clearing with various clumps of vegetation on clearly very uneven ground. On the 4K HDR disc however, the level of detail in this same shot is severely limited by comparison.One notices very much the same thing when comparing the 1080p SDR and the 4K HDR versions of the long distance establishing shot which occurs immediately before we see 'Big Beard', the obnoxious French Fur Trapper, wake up to discover that Naru has relieved him of the lower part of his right leg. This long-distance establishing shot is far more detailed on the 1080p SDR disc.In fact not only is the overly aggressive use of HDR a noticeable drawback in nighttime scenes, it's also quite obvious during well-lit daytime scenes.Most obvious are the shots from inside Naru's family's Tipi looking out to the Comanche encampment through its open entryway. On the 1080p SDR disc there are many items clearly visible either hung up on or leant against the animal hide walls on the inside of the Tipi on both sides of the entryway.On the 4K HDR disc however, these items become barely visible the further away they are from the open entryway.Also; looking at the close-up shot of Naru framed against the open sky the first time she steps outside the Tipi, in which her overly darkened long flowing hair doesn't display a whole lot of detail in its individual strands on the 4K HDR disc, one could be fooled into thinking that the shot was filmed during a particularly overcast day - which in fact it wasn't.All of this to say that whilst even I, critical as I am, can usually overlook the unwanted added darkness that HDR casts over blu ray images, 'Prey.' is one Film where even though the 4K disc is a touch sharper (at least in freeze-frame if not necessarily in motion), I ultimately decided that I much prefer to watch the 1080p SDR disc and to be able to see everything that the filming captured.In watching the 1080p SDR disc I of course don't get the benefit of the WCG but to me it looks more vibrant, a little sharper and more colourful than the 4K HDR version that I've been watching on Disney+ over the past year.In fact the HDR on this 4K disc makes the image noticeably darker than the HDR on the Disney+ Streaming version. That really took me by unpleasant surprise.To be perfectly honest I've never watched a 1080p blu ray whilst desperately wishing that the colours were more deeply saturated anyway! Did anyone ever find themselves wishing that before the advent of 4K HDR blu rays?HDR has many fans so no doubt it's here to stay. I just hope that one day technology gets to the point where on 4K discs the WCG can be applied and the contrast can be enhanced, without unduly darkening every single shot of a Film.Until then perhaps the companies and the individuals involved in the production of 4K HDR blu rays might just decide to be a little more circumspect in their application of the technology.So right now I'm left stuck between a rock and a hard place...I have to decide whether to forego the potentially quite noticeably increased sharpness & resolution offered by 4K (sharpness & resolution always being the most important consideration for me when I'm deciding whether to buy the 1080p blu ray or the 4K bluray) and buy the SDR 1080p disc so that I can avoid the HDR and see everything that the original cinematography captured, or buy the 4K HDR disc and enjoy increased sharpness & resolution but not see all of the detail that the original cinematography captured -because so much of it is hidden by the HDR!Also; do we really need more than one version of Dynamic Meta Data HDR/WCG? How can more than one version be what the Director and/or the Cinematographer intended the audience to see?To me this is a perfect example of using technology simply because one can, rather than because one should.Finally; it's demonstrably true that HDR isn't always necessary given the existence of 4K blu ray releases like Alexandro Amenabar's 'The Others.' and Billy Wilder's 'The Apartment.'. Neither of which have HDR applied and both of which would look far too dark if it had been.So clearly the people involved in the production of 4K blu rays are capable of making considered decisions as to which Films need HDR, and which ones don't. I wish they'd decide NOT to apply HDR more often.Anyway I have no idea whether you'll find any of that useful.Perhaps I'm just spouting off about my frequent dislike of HDR in the hope that one day the people who do the Mastering of 4K blu rays will sit up and take notice!What I can say about the 4K blu ray release of 'Prey.' though, is that having watched and played close attention to both that and the included 1080p disc, the 1080p disc really looks no less impressive than the 4K disc. That is unless you freeze-frame and do a lot of direct comparisons between the two like I did. And you can take that from me because I'm REALLY picky about image quality!OK you don't get the Wider Colour Gamut on the 1080p disc but as far as I'm concerned it looks wonderfully (and realistically) saturated, whereas to me the 4K disc looks unnaturally dark and the colours look a little overcooked.In the end if you buy the 4K disc you get that and the 1080p disc anyway, so you can take your pick.I just wish I'd known in advance that I was going to end up preferring to watch the 1080p disc. I'd have just bought that and saved myself a bit of money!