A low angle shot of the Predator attaching a wolf’s head to their belt is sort of mirrored at least twice. The first instance of this scene being mirrored (at least from my perspective) comes when the Predator kills a Comanche hunter and holds his head by their side for a second before throwing it away. The second variation on that scene (that I could recognize) shows up after Naru kills the Predator, and it shows her carrying their head with her as a trophy.
Long (and sometimes high angle) shots are likely used to convey distance during scenes where the Predator is hunting in a plains biome. Two examples that come to mind here are the scene where they kill a wolf (that one mostly uses long shots), and a scene where they’re chasing Naru and one of her fellow hunters (that scene has two high angle shots and a lot of long shots).
Close up shots are used sometimes in scenes from the beginning of the movie where the Predator is killing their prey (Examples of this could include the part where they killed a snake or the scene with the wolf that I mentioned earlier). Later scenes featuring the Predator don’t do this as often, and it makes those scenes feel a little bit faster, which probably serves as a visual clue that the Predator isn’t focusing on hiding their presence as much now that they have more challenging (and therefore more entertaining) targets (in this case, humans) to hunt.
The Predator feels like they’re just hunting their prey because they think it’s fun, kinda like how some rich people (usually men) hunt animals for a fun challenge. The French are mostly just hunting for money and people to exploit. And the Comanche are just hunting to survive.
The Predator feels like they embody a certain kind of masculinity that’s focused on hunting things for fun. It’s a specific brand of masculine behaviour that I associate with characters like Kraven the Hunter in the Marvel Universe (basically, he’s a hunter with mystically enhanced senses and strength who usually fights Spider-Man) or Artemis (Olympian goddess of hunting and the Moon. Asexual icon. Will feed you to your own dogs if you’re creepy around her) and Orion (her hunting buddy who mistakenly thought she was into him (I know the Olympians are hot, but like, why couldn’t he have just settled for being with Atlanta? Was she just not around at the time?) and almost killed every animal in the Mediterranean to impress her.) that some people in our world try to emulate poorly (looking at the Manosphere, but especially Andrew Tate and similar grifters who make boot camps for so-called “alpha males” that are essentially just modern counterparts to the Hitler Youth from Nazi (the Nazis think they’re good hunters too, when in reality, they’re actually just sentient punching bags) Germany).
The French are adherents to plain old colonial masculinity. Indigenous People? Property or heretics to be smited and tormented for fun. The non-human inhabitants of the Comanche Nation? Food and free money. The Predator? If they lived to tell the tale, they’d be calling them a literal demon from Hell.
The Comanche are capable of having fun while hunting, but they’re mostly just trying to survive and make sure they don’t take too much from their land. They do what I see as the most positive form of masculinity in Prey, letting Naru join them as a hunter, even if they’re not completely used to the idea of women doing what men can do, and I find that kind of interesting. (I don’t know enough Predator lore to be sure that the alien empire that the Predator belongs to would be as egalitarian as other societies, but part of me wouldn’t be surprised if it was)
I haven’t seen the original Predator movies, so I can’t accurately comment on how they do their action heroes, but I’d say that Prey at least partially subverts some action movie related tropes by having the Predator destroy a lot of enemies who try to fight them by charging headfirst into battle, and only go down when faced with a particularly creative opponent like Naru.
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