Directed by Dan Trachtenberg — Screenplay by Patrick Aison.
Predator: Badlands is the ninth (seventh if you don’t include the Alien vs. Predator crossovers) film about the alien creatures that we call ‘predators,’ one of which once went toe to toe with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch in the jungle in John McTiernan’s 1987 sci-fi action classic Predator. In the past few years, 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg has tried his best to take the franchise in a new direction with the fantastic live-action prequel titled Prey, where a Comanche woman encountered a Predator, and, more recently, with the animated triptych-esque Predator: Killer of Killers. Both of those Trachtenberg films were released straight to streaming, but now, with his third outing as a director of a Predator film, Predator: Badlands, time will tell if the higher budget and Trachtenberg’s ambitious storytelling will get the audience they deserve. Because, frankly, I think it is a very cool step in the right direction for the long-running franchise.
Presumably set in the distant future, Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands follows a young Yautja (i.e., the Predator species) named Dek (played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) who is perceived by his brother and, especially, his father as small and weak. To prove his worth as a Yautja, he, in a roundabout way (and for reasons better left unsaid in a review), heads for the planet Genna, which houses a great deal of dangers in its wildlife, including the formidable Kalisk apex predator that his father supposedly fears and that Dek has vowed to slay and take as trophy so that he may be accepted as a true Yautja in his father’s clan. However, Dek is woefully underprepared for the wildlife on Genna, and to survive, he reluctantly teams up with a Weyland-Yutani synthetic known as Thia (played by Elle Fanning), who was damaged (and lost her legs) following a confrontation with the dreaded Kalisk. As Dek uses Thia to get to the apex predator, Thia gets to inquire about his species’ quirks and teach him that there are more types of alphas and values than solely the kind his father’s clan is built on. However, the Kalisk isn’t the only formidable foe on Genna, as the Weyland-Yutani corporation still has a fully armed search team on the planet, and they soon start to take an interest in the fact that a Yautja is present.
Let’s start by talking about how Trachtenberg is taking a relatively ambitious and innovative approach to the film series. For one, this is a film that, not entirely unlike Terminator 2: Judgment Day, takes an iconic antagonist and makes him the good guy. But building a narrative around a Yautja in a somewhat live-action film (despite the heavy use of visual effects) also means that it has to be built around a made-up alien language. Trachtenberg’s film doesn’t shy away from that. It takes quite some time before our protagonist runs into someone speaking a language anyone in the audience can understand, which is a risk in major blockbuster filmmaking, but Trachtenberg makes it work because the film has a rock-solid script that bases the narrative on tried and true plot elements and beats that make it easy to follow. There are bits and pieces here that resemble a coming-of-age story or a ‘lone wolf and cub’ structure, and there is even a video game-like feel to the film (I can’t stop thinking about how the Dek-Thina dynamic resembles that of God of War’s Kratos and Mimir, the disembodied talking head companion). None of it would work if the performances didn’t, if the creature effects weren’t well-done, or if the journey that the main character was going on didn’t feel genuine. Thankfully, it all works. Here is a relatively straightforward coming-of-age story about revenge, making a name for yourself, carving your own path, and proving yourself to your father that is kickstarted with an effectively emotionally gripping act of violence against Dek’s family member that, along with the way Dek’s emotions burst out and cannot be misunderstood, help to make you immediately buy into the journey the film is taking you on.
So, the film works tremendously thanks to creature design effects, a smartly designed narrative, and good performances in service of an ambitious step in a new direction. It also helps that the film flows really well and never outstays its welcome. It’s one of the better-paced blockbusters this year, and, despite being rated PG-13 (and not R-rated, as is usually the case with Predator films that tend to be quite bloody), the film doesn’t ever feel like it is holding back. There are decapitations and wild action sequences, as well as inventive weapons, wildlife, and fauna. But the masterstroke here is that the film remains pretty bloody despite the rating, which it accomplishes, I’ll guess, by not ever having any human characters. Yautja bleed green and synthetics bleed white, and so they manage to get around that issue fairly well. It doesn’t need the red-blooded color.
However, since the Predator franchise is now, ever since their acquisition of 20th Century Fox, under the control of Disney, I wouldn’t be surprised if some fans still thought this film was the result of a Disney-ification of the franchise. While I think that is taking it a tad too far, there are things here that are decidedly more Disney than in some previous versions. For one, I think it is fair to say that this feels a little bit like The Mandalorian, both insofar as the team at the heart of the film feels like that and because there is literally a friendly creature with a magical ability and big friendly eyes that the protagonist befriends eventually. It also has a fair bit of lighthearted humor, most of which comes from Elle Fanning, who is quite good in dual roles. But even though these comedic elements may feel tonally inconsistent with other elements in the film series, I still thought it helped to make Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands the effective and highly entertaining sci-fi action flick that it is.
7.9 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 