For a while now, social media has been dominated with stories about movies and shows that are too “woke” and how there needs to be an anti-woke movement. This is nothing new. The whole “wokeness” concept has been around for a while. Although I’ve had my opinions, I’ve roughly kept them to myself as I felt I wanted to place them within the context of something. And I truly haven’t had a chance to until the release of Prey.
Right off the bat, I have to say that I’m a Predator super fan. When I was a kid, my father owned Predator 2 and I watched about a hundred times, even going so far as to spending my free time at school drawing different versions of the Predator and imagining different weapons he might wield (yes, I had issues). And as a Predator super fan, I thought Prey was amazing. It boiled down the essence of the original Predator — something that had been built upon with subsequent installments — and then applied it to a unique setting with focused characterization.
However, if someone were to go into this movie with the criticism that it was “too woke,” they would have plenty of ammunition. In contrast to the first Predator, which had a bulked up male Arnold Schwarzenegger as its hero, this movie had an indigenous female hero (Amber Midthunder) that outsmarted her opponent rather than beat him on strength alone. However, it was also a damn good movie. If this film indeed had a “woke” agenda, then it was merely the foundation of an incredible story and film that deserves its acclaim. What that means for any emerging anti-woke movement is that it is not so much about criticizing of a thing as it is about seeing that criticism in everything you experience.
Prey is streaming now on Hulu.
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