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The setup assures fans that the story will honor the franchise’s science fiction and horror origins, but the filmmakers have a vastly different execution in mind. Despite the danger-filled sequences, Dek’s quest for revenge, and creature-on-creature violence, this film is a screwball comedy. And not just any screwball comedy, either; “Predator: Badlands” is “It Happened One Night” with a Predator monster. Believe it or not, this approach works like gangbusters. As the Claudette Colbert to Dek’s Clark Gable, Elle Fanning is an absolute, hilarious joy as Thia, an expert on all Genna’s lifeforms who offers to assist Dek if he takes her with him. As an homage of sorts to Colbert’s famous hitch-hiking scene in “Night,” Thia even stops a vehicle by doing something unpredictable with her legs. They’re not attached to her body at the time, but never mind. There are as many thrills to be had here as there are intentional laughs. Though he speaks in a subtitled language, Dek is a Yautja of few words. By comparison, Thia does nothing but talk. She asks question after question, and is only invited on the journey because Dek sees her as a useful navigational tool who knows where the Kalisk is. A natural empath, Thia gets under Dek’s armor with her talk about feelings and empathy. She also longs to be reunited with her fellow synthetic, Tessa (also Fanning), who was a victim of the Kalisk but may still be alive. If Thia and Dek were the same species, “Predator: Badlands” would morph into a romantic comedy. At least there’s a Meet Cute. Thia’s introduction is reminiscent of the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow. She warns Dek of impending danger, and he has to follow her voice to find out where she is in a forest full of murderous agriculture. After she saves his life, he begrudgingly accepts her companionship. Turns out that Thia is missing everything below the waist, but she’s still capable of conversation. That’s because, like Ash in 1979’s “Alien,” she’s a synthetic made by the evil Weyland-Yutani company. The two “Predator”-“Alien” crossover movies made this connection possible, but thankfully, “Predator: Badlands” is content to deal with its own creature creations. Trachtenberg gives us a peek at the Yautjas’ planet, a desolate, dark, and ominous place befitting a species whose primary reason for existence is to hunt other creatures for sport. The first 20 or so minutes are spent here, with Dek interacting with his stronger, older brother Kwei (Michael Homick) and his unforgiving warrior father. Yautja hunt alone, and thin the herd by killing their weakest members. This introduction gets us used to the idea that this is a story told from the Predator’s point of view, not the prey’s. These opening scenes also set up the reasons why Dek hunts the Kalisk, reasons that are motivated by vengeance. “Predator: Badlands” is a lot of fun, not just because of the banter between its two leads. The screenplay pays dividends to those who pay close attention. Lines of dialogue predict later events, and specific characteristics of Genna’s murderous inhabitants prove useful during the big action climax. Plus, certain events mirror one another, including the discovery of a runt of a different species who joins Thia and Dek. Under all that F/X and makeup, Schuster-Koloamatangi makes us root for his stubborn, yet oddly endearing, character. Fanning is clearly having a good time with her “good cop, bad cop” dual role as both synthetics, and she has chemistry to spare. When Tessa turns up, she’s as much trouble as you’d expect from one of those blasted synthetics, and her outfit is fashionably fierce. “Touching,” “funny,” and “bittersweet” aren’t adjectives you’d expect to find in a review of a “Predator” movie, but here we are. As much as I loved “Prey” (it made my 10 best list back in 2022), I was not expecting “Predator: Badlands” to be as clever and ingenious as that film. The visuals here are creative and memorable as well. Of course, the next movie in the franchise is teased at the end, but Trachtenberg does so in a manner that doesn’t undermine the emotional weight of this film’s concluding moments. Most franchises use a cookie-cutter approach to their entries, so it’s refreshing when a sequel tells its story in a different tenor than its predecessors. On that note, “Predator: Badlands” is a rousing success. ★★★½ PREDATOR: BADLANDS Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. Written by Patrick Alson. Starring Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Michael Homick. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 107 minutes. PG-13 (tamer violence than its R-rated predecessors) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
