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Predator Badlands Movie Review: At least you can’t accuse the Predator franchise of not trying new tricks. With Predator: Badlands, the question isn’t whether it does something different - it’s whether you’re ready to accept how different it is. Dan Trachtenberg, who already delivered two strong instalments with Prey and the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, takes a bold turn with this one. The result is a film that’s refreshing in ambition but oddly familiar once you peel away the alien skin. 'Predator: Badlands' First 15 Minutes Unveiled at Comic-Con. Since the first Predator in 1987, we’ve learned quite a bit about these dangerous hunters who stop at nothing to claim their prey. We now know they’re called Yautja, living on a distant planet, and that Earth isn’t their only hunting ground - though they keep coming back here, only to be defeated time and again. But Badlands shifts the focus inward - this time, the creature itself is the underdog. 'Predator: Badlands' Movie Review - The Plot Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is one such Yautja who comes with a disadvantage. Though fearless, he’s considered the runt of his clan, so his remorseless father (also played by Schuster-Koloamatangi) wants him killed. His elder brother’s sacrificial act, however, sends him to Genna - a dangerous landform also known as 'Death Planet' - where Dek hopes to kill the Kalisk, a monstrous predator even his father couldn’t defeat, to prove himself worthy. Watch the Trailer of 'Predator: Badlands': Genna, as its nickname suggests, is not the kind of place that likes to give anyone second chances. Everything here wants to kill you - from trees to bugs to slugs. Amid his hunt, Dek encounters Thia (Elle Fanning), a half-destroyed Weyland-Yutani synth who still manages to be charmingly talkative despite missing her lower body. She strikes a deal: she will guide him to reach the Kalisk’s lair, where she hopes to find her missing lower torso and also to find her missing synth sister Tessa (also Fanning). 'Predator: Badlands' Movie Review - What Works Visually, Predator: Badlands is Trachtenberg’s most ambitious work yet. The planet feels alive - dangerous, vibrant, constantly on the verge of devouring its characters. The VFX work is strong, even if some wide shots, like the Weyland transport rumbling through Genna’s jungles, occasionally betray their digital seams. Still, there’s an undeniable cinematic heft to how the environment breathes. [caption id="attachment_7195018" align="alignnone" width="1678"] A Still From Predator Badlands[/caption] What’s genuinely surprising is how Trachtenberg transforms the Yautja mythos. He gives this creature, traditionally a figure of terror, the emotional depth of an outsider story. Dek isn’t the monster; he’s the misfit. The film even carries unexpected warmth for a Predator story - almost Bumblebee-like in parts - thanks to Dek’s bond with Thia and later, a mysterious primate-like creature that even Thia, well-versed in the planet’s fauna, can’t identify. Who’d have thought the Predator franchise would be pitching itself to younger audiences… and the toy market? [caption id="attachment_7195016" align="alignnone" width="1974"] A Still From Predator Badlands[/caption] Elle Fanning, as the talkative (borderline annoying) Thia, is a delight - her arrival injects much-needed life into the film. So much so that when she’s off-screen, Predator: Badlands hits a lull both in pacing and energy. 'Predator: Badlands' Movie Review - What Glitches But here’s where the trouble begins. If you’ve always preferred your Yautja to remain mysterious and merciless - the kind of hunter that only teams up with humans under extreme duress - Badlands may feel like a soft reboot in every sense. We’ve seen attempts to humanise the creature before (Shane Black’s The Predator comes to mind), but this one goes all in, turning the hunter into a sympathetic protagonist. That too, without a Xenomorph in sight... [caption id="attachment_7195017" align="alignnone" width="2042"] A Still From Predator Badlands[/caption] The action is violent and yet surprisingly tame. This paradox - that also gave it a PG-13 by American standards - is earned by swapping human gore for alien ichor; there’s plenty of violence, just not the kind that splatters red. The absence of real humans also takes some of the sting out of the carnage; synths make for visually convenient but emotionally hollow victims. Once the novelty wears off, the screenplay starts to feel a little too comfortable. A villain reframed as misunderstood? How Maleficent of them! A lethal alien world where everything kills? King Kong says hi. And a corporation trying to control an alien ecosystem while an outsider learns to see beauty in the chaos? James Cameron waves from Pandora. Should I also mention the done-and-done plotline of a grumpy man travelling across a dangerous terrain with a chatty companion, who he ends up caring for? Predator: Badlands may not be The Last of Us about doing this formula. Prey Movie Review: The Hunt Begins As Amber Midthunder’s Predator Reboot Is a Return to Form For the Franchise! [caption id="attachment_7195015" align="alignnone" width="1638"] A Still From Predator Badlands[/caption] Elle Fanning’s dual performance gives her a chance to flex two very different modes - one warm and witty, the other cold and calculating. She’s fabulous in both, though Tessa’s character isn’t fleshed out enough for how crucial she becomes in the second half. She’s more a vessel for absent human authority than a true antagonist, never quite feeling formidable enough for a Predator film. 'Predator: Badlands' Movie Review - Final Thoughts Predator: Badlands is a fascinating direction for the franchise - a film that dares to find humanity in a monster, albeit at the cost of losing the fear that made the Predator legend endure. It’s ambitious, sleek, and uncharacteristically warm, but in the process of softening the hunter, it dulls the hunt. The result is a visually arresting, thematically diluted adventure that may impress the eyes more than it reinvents the hunting arena.
