Prey Movie Review

It's lions, lions, and lions (oh my!) in this overwrought and only vaguely insulting woman-and-children-in-jeopardy thriller. Here's the gist: Engineer dad (Peter Weller) and his new, impossibly young wife (Bridget Moynahan) split for Africa with dad's kids in tow. He's there for work, so during the day, kids and stepmom decide to go on safari. Well, they quickly decide to go off the "main road," and junior decides he needs to go potty. He hasn't even unzipped before he's promptly consumed by a den of lions.

Kids and mom end up holed up in the car as the lions prowl outside, still hungry. To make matters worse, grating and bratty teenage sis (Carly Schroeder) hates the stepmom and blames her for everything when she isn't listening to her iPod. Gosh! Why can't the lions just leave her alone!? Finally they spot the keys outside, and mom makes a run for it. Five seconds later she's wrecked the car completely. Eventually natives wander by and help them. Meanwhile dad has hired a ranger to search for the missing car.

Essentially what we have here is Cujo but with hungry lions instead of a dog. That's fine, but do these characters have to be so outright stupid? Lions are scary enough when you aren't contributing to them eating your family and friends.

Moynahan carries the picture when the lions aren't on camera, but it's some amazing animal training (I assume) that makes the film come alive to the extent it does. The lions are deeply impressive, and it's clear from the budget of the film they are not CGI.

Still, I had a major nagging issue with the film, which I guess I'll mark with a big spoiler warning: In Prey, the entire family survives while everyone who comes along to help them is eaten by the lions. Here we have a bunch of suburban nitwits surviving while four experts on living in the wilderness are eaten in rather short order. Hollywood can reach all the way around the world, it seems.