Hunter Prey (Part III)

...to wander alone around the desert for an hour. Centauri 7 finds and loses the alien several times before the end, and both characters encounter far too few obstacles between their confrontations. Only one new character is introduced before the endgame, but is barely worth mentioning, since he/she/it contributes so little to the story.

There are some good bits along the way, though. Once the alien acquires a headset from his victims, there are some nice dialog exchanges between it and Centauri 7. As the characters' histories are revealed, it becomes obvious that Collora and co-writer Nick Damon are painting their story in shades of gray. Without giving anything away, Collora wisely never tells the audience who to root for...or if they should root for either being at all. The final confrontation, a battle of wills (neither characters' strong suit), is more than a little silly, with each character alternating back and forth between being ridiculously clever and ridiculously gullible, but it's still a refreshing climax.

But even the good parts don't work like they should, because the story's big one-two twist (done in the wrong order) is revealed fifteen minutes into the movie. It's a good one, but Collora can't top it, even when the movie works. How much of this is due to the film's shoestring budget and tight schedule, I don't know -- but someone needs to give Collora a proper budget and shooting schedule, because he could make a movie equal to Hunter Prey's potential.