Predator: Badlands Review - A deviation from the past, Trachtenberg creates rich, new ground to explore
- Chase Gifford
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
"A man can't make a place for himself in the sun if he keeps taking refuge under the family tree." - Helen Keller
Few franchises get the kind of leeway like the Alien and Predator franchises. Most potentially burgeoning franchises are lucky to get one shot, maybe two if the first is well-received. However in Hollywood, although it may be unfair to put profit before art, it is a business and the studio execs expect a return on their investments. Even if a movie gets stellar reviews, if the audience isn’t there, then any potential continuation in the form of sequels and prequels won’t be there either. But for some reason, Hollywood seems to believe in Alien and Predator more than most. If you said that every entry in the Alien franchise is good, I would tell you I have a bridge to sell.
Alien 3 for example, almost ruined David Fincher’s career before it ever really started. Can you imagine a world without Se7en, Fight Club, or Zodiac? I shudder to think. Then again it gave Paul W.S. Anderson a chance to ruin another decent premise and almost kill the franchise back in 2004. But like Ripley in Alien: Resurrection, the franchise returned from the dead only to wind up in a coma from 2007’s AVP: Requiem which was somehow worse than the first. Still, the IP survived to fight another day.
For Predator, it was the immediate sequel that almost destroyed it all. But much like the predators themselves, more movies were still to come… twenty years later. In 2010, we saw Nimród Antal’s Predators, the only film in the franchise alluding to multiple predators. I maintain it’s a solid third entry and doesn’t get the credit it deserves. I think it’s very much its own story while still paying homage to the original. And then I would say the biggest mystery of the bunch, Shane Black’s giant misfire, 2018’s The Predator. As a main character in the original, and a talented writer and director, how he fumbled his entry so badly is anyone’s guess.
Luckily, in 2022, the Predator savior arrived to revive a limping franchise to full strength with Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey, the only entry in the franchise to not feature “Predator” in the title. Of course the first good entry in twelve years and the geniuses at Hulu relegated it straight to streaming because of course they did. More concerned with getting people to their streaming service than treating the franchise with any kind of respect, there it fell. And the single most consistent complaint about Prey? No theatrical release. These studios zig every time they should zag and it always screws over the art of cinema and whatever potential the future holds for it. Luckily, to their credit, the studios learned from this colossal mistake and made sure the next entry saw its day at the theater. And now we finally arrive, after all of my bloviating, to the point at hand, Trachtenberg’s follow-up to Prey, 2025’s Predator: Badlands, the first in the franchise since 2004 to not earn the normal R rating.
In this chapter of the Predator lore, we learn of the Yautja predator species which premiered in the original 1987 film but was never addressed as Yautja. The first on-screen mention came earlier this year in the animated canon, Predator: Killer of Killers. We learn in Killer of Killers that the Yautja are honor and sport killers. They vary in size from agile to berserker type. They tend to choose their prey based on similar fighting styles. The “killer” clan specifically uses trained Xenomorphs as attack animals and have developed advanced jamming tech that disables high-tech equipment.
All of this is relevant in Badlands as the perspective of the Predator is changed from past entries. From the almost mindless killing machines of the original films, the Predator is now a complex, nuanced collection of characters that operate with wants, needs, and desires. They have familial ties and severances dictating who is a part of the clan and who is outcast.
In Badlands, the story is about a lone Predator named Dek, a “runt” who has been deemed by his clan, including his own father, as expendable and must be sacrificed for the good of the clan. In an act of defiance, the older brother protects Dek, sending him away to survive their father’s wrath. Unfortunately for Dek, his father is smart and changes the destination of the ship carrying Dek to safety instead stranding him alone on a planet where seemingly everything is trying to kill everything else. The very grass itself is made of flesh shredding shards that will annihilate anyone that tries to run through it. The roots of the trees are tentacle-like coming from every angle with precision and violence. In summation, Dek is outnumbered in ways he can’t begin to anticipate.
Despite Dek’s expulsion from his clan and planet, he aims to prove his worth by collecting a trophy from one of the deadliest and nearly impossible to kill creatures known as the Kalisk. In the beginning of his search he discovers a heavily damaged android named Thia, a personable and still highly capable product of the Weyland-Yutani Corp. Her mission was to collect the Kalisk to study its extremely sought after biological abilities. There are contrasting forces hoping to intervene and try to destroy Dek and steal his chosen trophy. Seeking to find the same creature, Dek, although reluctant, agrees to utilize Thia’s skills like he would any other tool. Dek’s new clan has begun. Little does he realize. He’s going to need all the help he can get.
While still highly stylized and brimming with action and violence, the themes of the Predator have changed. The titular creatures have been humanized, giving them characteristics beyond that of being formidable hunters. The concept of hunters and trophies is still very much a driving force for these characters but it’s the reasoning behind their choices that gives the mythos of the predator a richer, more elaborate backstory. Their motivations are rooted in pride, honor, strength, and survival. These clans find their worth in their perceived strength as well as the abilities as hunters and killers. If one is not up to the standards of the clan, they are expelled, often by execution. This is Dek’s story.
At times, the PG-13 rating is glaringly obvious. Despite being able to get away with intense violence due to zero humans present throughout the film, an R rating I think would have still been beneficial. Especially when looking at the most recent entry, Prey, where the brutality is extensive and prevalent the entire runtime. I stress this as a small observation rather than any kind of real complaint. Whatever shortcomings it might have as a result of the MPAA rating, it more than makes up for it in other ways.
Badlands is a sci-fi adventure that drives forward hard and fast, never relenting until the end credits. It is a bulldozer of a story barreling through one death defying act into another. Even though it’s fast paced it still takes time to build character relationships, develop strengths, exploit weaknesses for dramatic effect and pave the way for an entirely new generation of possibilities in the Predator franchise. It’s all featuring a fantastic orchestral score that is, at times, reminiscent of Dune. It’s a massive wall of sound that embodies the visual splendor of a science fiction thriller. If the ending of this chapter is any indication, there is much more to come. And it promises high stakes, exciting thrills and kills, morally complex characters, rich backstories, and endless intensity. Badlands is the beginning of something still in its infancy and should ultimately grow into something pretty damn cool. It left me feeling the same as Prey left me, excited for what’s to come.
Rated PG-13 For: sequences of strong sci-fi violence
Runtime: 107 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Starring: Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Michael Homik
Directed By: Dan Trachtenberg
Out of 10
Story: 8.5/ Acting: 8/ Directing: 9/ Visuals: 9
OVERALL: 8/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below: