Copyright Variety
For nearly 40 years, the company formerly known as Fox has had a killer property on its hands in “Predator,” but the studio hasn’t really known where to go with it — on the big screen, at least (the mythology flourished in countless comics and novels). Without Arnold Schwarzenegger aboard, the films floundered, missing the point that the lethal species of intergalactic trophy hunters — dubbed “Yautja” in the books — was the series’ real star. In “Predator: Badlands,” director and franchise custodian Dan Trachtenberg recenters the narrative around Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), the “weak” son of a Yautja chieftain, and turns him into an unlikely hero, considering that Predators have always been the antagonists (except where Aliens are concerned). The runt of his clan, Dek is so desperate to prove himself that he travels to Genna, the so-called “planet of death,” where he’s pledged to slay the Kalisk, a seemingly unkillable creature that intimidates even his father. That all sounds like pretty standard Predator fare. Heck, it sounds like a live-action version of Lewis Carroll’s most famous poem: “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! / Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun / The frumious Bandersnatch!” Be warned that this logline leaves out what makes “Badlands” most interesting — and the strongest film with “Predator” in the title since the 1987 original (Trachtenberg’s earlier “Prey” notwithstanding) — though it’s tough to discuss without spoiling a few of those surprises. “Badlands” belongs to my favorite category of movie: the kind that airdrop audiences into a completely unfamiliar world and then trust us to figure out how gravity works alongside the main characters. When executed correctly, that strategy respects our intelligence, even as it immerses us in a culture or place we knew little about before — a description which applies equally well to sci-fi classics (like the adapt-or-perish Vin Diesel thriller “Pitch Black”) and art-house movies (à la Iraq’s official Oscar submission, “The President’s Cake,” this year). No one would mistake “Predator: Badlands” for an art-house movie, though it follows the “Avatar” formula reasonably well (after a stylized, “Dune”-like prologue, that is), sending Dek to an unfamiliar planet, where it expects us to navigate the deadly flora and fauna as they present themselves. There are swift, serpentine vines dexterous enough to snatch Dek’s supplies; combustible little slugs that detonate like grenades when triggered; and exotic flowers that swell up and squirt paralyzing darts when something approaches. If you’ve ever played the game of speculating who the first person to eat oysters or poisonous red berries might have been, “Badlands” serves as an accelerated run through half a dozen such scenarios, with zero room for error. Dek arrives with a full range of Yautja weapons, but relying on them would make survival too easy. It’s more satisfying to watch him stripped of his arsenal and obliged to improvise using elements he finds there. Is Genna really the deadliest planet in the galaxy? Not by a long shot: The air is breathable, the terrain is intuitive and there are no volcanoes or extreme temperatures to contend with. It does host a few Lovecraftian species, however, and that (plus the razor grass) is plenty to make Dek’s task difficult. Long before meeting the Kalisk, Dek stumbles upon Thia (Elle Fanning), a synthetic straight out of the “Alien” movies, which makes sense, since Fox gave us its “AvP” crossover back in 2004, and the studio has been proactively exploiting both franchises ever since. Though Dek speaks exclusively in the Yautja’s native tongue (which sounds like Klingon, with clicks and snarls thrown in for good measure), Thia has a universal language function that conveniently allows us to understand what she says without subtitles. What she doesn’t have are legs, which were ripped clear off her torso during an early run-in with the Kalisk. That does make her fairly useful as a guide — or “tool,” as Dek prefers to think of her, since it’s cheating for Yautja to have help when hunting. Fanning also plays a second synth, named Tessa, with a personality so different from Thia’s, the star has the chance to test her limits in either direction: wry comedy and chilling villainy. The obedient Tessa has been tasked with capturing the Kalisk and bringing it back to the Weyland-Yutani corporation. She’s even more ruthless than Dek, who doesn’t take nearly as much convincing as one might expect to abandon his Yautja ways. This “weakness” is the reason Dek’s father planned to snuff him back home, but of course proves to be his strength over the course of the movie. That’s a lesson peddled often enough in such machismo-critical cartoons as “Ferdinand,” “Shark Tale” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” the key difference being that “Badlands” has no interest in pacifism. In fact, the film is so violent, it’s kind of a miracle that it got by with a PG-13 when all but “Alien vs. Predator” before it were slapped with an R — presumably because synths ooze a milky white substance and Yautja bleed antifreeze green, while the other species’ innards are either purple or orange. It’s a clear sign the MPA system isn’t working, when a movie whose very concept would give most adults pause is made available to kids, but that’s nothing new. Being comfortable with arms lopped off, skulls crushed and brains probed by ear-piercing tendrils makes it easier to enjoy a handful of gags involving the bisected Thia, whose legs can do kung fu on their own. That’s an example of something sorely lacking from the other Predator movies: a welcome sense of gallows humor that makes it reasonably easy to accept the film’s vaguely Jar Jar Binks-like Bud, a cute CG creature that becomes a sort of sidekick. Dek’s dad may disapprove, but then, the point of this mission is to expand the Yautja mythology and set up potential sequels. Callooh! Callay! In the end, “Badlands” is about the value of teamwork and learning that “alpha” and “apex” don’t mean the same thing where Predators are concerned.
