Plot: After a vengeful drug lord (Trevor Goddard) escapes from prison and murders the wife and son of former secret agent Derek Leigh (Maxwell Caulfield), Derek seeks revenge. Inspired by his son’s drawings of a superhero named the Jaguar, he assembles a stealthy costume and becomes the dark defender. After training with a martial arts teacher and collecting an arsenal of weapons created by a toy maker, Derek infiltrates the criminal underworld and fights his way to justice.
I hadn’t seen Prey of the Jaguar since the 90’s and forgot what a fun time it is; it’s low budget stuff but it still managed to have a great cast including Maxwell Caulfield, Stacey Keach, Linda Blair, Steven Vincent Leigh, Cyborg’s Vincent Klyn and Trevor Goddard as the villain, Bandera.
It’s a rather straightforward superhero movie with our lead Derek Leigh (Caulfield) vowing vengeance on the villain Bandera who murdered his wife and son in cold blood. His son came up with an idea for a superhero called the Jaguar who has no powers, but fights crime and brings the bad guys to justice. Derek decides to honour his son he will take up the mantle of the Jaguar to bring down Bandera and his operation once and for all.
What’s interesting about this movie is that it manages to tell a compelling story, makes us care about the protagonist and hate the villains while giving us plenty of action in just under 90 minutes. These days it would be 2 and a half hours long, so a lot could be learned from it.
There are regular fight scenes with some explosions and a thoroughly satisfying finale with a showdown between Bandera and the Jaguar.
The costume itself is a bit silly and it would be cooler if he actually wore a mask to conceal his identity, so the costume does feel a little pointless in that respect.
*Spoiler alert* It was a pleasant surprise that Stacey Keach doesn’t end up being a villain which you think he will do as something feels a little off about his character at first.
The music is surprisingly awesome with a choral theme that works perfectly for the story.
It’s well paced and we’re never waiting long before there’s an action scene and Trevor Goddard always made for a decent villain; he was definitely taken from us far too young sadly passing away at aged 40 back in 2003.
Overall, Prey of the Jaguar may not have big production values but it still makes for an entertaining and rapidly paced superhero tale with plenty of action, regular fight scenes and Trevor Goddard (R.I.P.) at his villainous best.
