Hunter Prey (2010)

Hunter Prey is living, breathing comic strip, lifted almost panel for panel, straight out of the pages of the European Heavy Metal magazine. Everything from the brilliant, understated simplicity of the story and characters to the vibrant color palette is inspired by great comic artists such as Jean Giraud, Enki Bilal, and Phillipe Drulliet. It is refreshing to see a film that so wonderfully captured the starkness and desolate reality of the landscape without the dreadful, MTV type editing or overbearing imagery thrown at the viewer, utilizing the sparse nature of the dialogue, letting the visual imagery tell story. The only down side to that of course, is that American audiences will not understand the subtleties and undercurrents of this marvelous piece of work. In the world of American cinema dominated by the Michael Bays and James Camerons of the world, it was delightful to see such subtle and artistically driven sensibilities especially from an American director. While most have cited “Star Wars” as the inspiration for this film, I see much more of a French new wave and Japanese influence. It has the European artistic qualities and the Japanese, Kurasawa elements to the story. If you’re a fan of seventies fantasy art, or the old Metal Hurlant comic strips, you will absolutely fall in love with Hunter Prey