Anyone who’s even lightly brushed shoulders with any of my past reviews will likely know that I’m a huge, life-long fan of both the Alien and Predator franchises.
Hell, I’ve literally got the ink adorning my bicep to prove it, where Alien (or, Aliens, specifically) is concerned.
It’s mostly top-tier science fiction / horror for me…mostly…and it’s played an over-sized part in my own interpretation of, and appreciation for, all manner of related art media.
Mostly.
That being said, I’ll readily admit that the contemporary output has most decidedly been ‘hit or miss’ over the last decade or so, starting around Ridley Scott’s questionable return to the franchise he arguably created, with 2012’s grossly sub-par Prometheus (Is it weird that I find Alien: Covenant the more entertaining of the two?). For me, it really wasn’t until Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe) jumped into the Xenomorph game and gifted us (my opinion) with 2024’s better-than-expected Alien: Romulus, that things started looking up.
Fair warning – I’ll slap the fucking taste out of the mouth of anyone with the balls to mention the hilariously misguided bullshit that is / was the moronic TV series Alien: Earth, in not just this context…but ANY context. Just don’t do it…or we can’t be friends. Those are the rules. Just putting it out there.
*nerd rage subsides
The Predator franchise also hit some snags after 2010’s mildly underwhelming-but-still cool Predators (a sound argument can be made for 2007’s gawd-awful Aliens vs Predator: Requiem…but don’t. Just…don’t. *shudders in disgust, anger returns), paving the way for the 2018 travesty that was Shane Black’s deservedly-maligned The Predator (how can SO much potential go SO fucking wrong?!) – a serious, undeniable blight on the franchise, one so bad as to the suggest (at the time) the potential for the Predator character to retire from public life for an extended period following that disastrous release, amid the accompanying carpet-bombing it additionally received from critics and fans alike on the Interwebz.
Damn it, Shane, not only were you brought aboard the production of the classic 1987 original as the pussy joke-loving, tough guy-nerd team member ‘Hawkins’, but you were also there to act as ghost-writer, due to your meteoric rise as the Next Big Thing in 1980’s Action Thriller movies, with your scripts for both Lethal Weapon and The Monster Squad, both seeing the insides of movie theatres in ’87. You were literally on both sides of the camera, helping John McTiernan (Die Hard) and Co. craft that amazingly entertaining Schwarzenegger flick. Decades later, you hop in the driver’s seat and get us fan-boys practically salivating with the possibility of what you may bring to the Big Screen after all this time, based on your amazingly entertaining filmography over many years.
So…what the fuck happened, man?! Even without all the reshoots and re-edits, the story STILL sucked.
I’m sorry, bud…but every director has his dud...
Steven Spielberg – 1941 (1979)
Brian De Palma – The Bonfire of the Vanities (1988)
James Cameron – Piranha 2: The Spawning (1982)
Ridley Scott – 1492: The Conquest of Paradise (1992)
and
Shane Black – The Predator (2018)
So, Twentieth Century Studios, aka Disney, yanked the keys away from Black, and handed them off to 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg, who laboured to eventually bring us the cleverly-titled Prey, in 2022, which I genuinely thought was a cool and inspired direction to go with the series, giving us a properly brutal ‘period piece’ take on the now-classic alien trophy-hunter and his violent ilk, that also happens to directly tie back into the core, fan-favourite originals, named Predator 2 (1990).
The only real problem with that one was that Disney didn’t have the faith needed to grant Prey a respectful theatrical release, which I firmly believe it deserved and they should’ve gone with, as the resulting critical reception and fan approval when it finally hit streaming, on Hulu / Disney, was undeniable; all but guaranteeing that they’d have cleaned up at the Box Office, especially taking the modest budget into account, had they shown the testicular fortitude to try.
But alas, t’wasn’t to be.
Trachtenberg’s successful mark on the franchise did not go unnoticed and, in rather short order, he was essentially made ‘gate-keeper’ for the Yautja species and their various, hyper-violent adventures, whatever those may turn out to be moving forward.
He dove right back into work on not one, but two separate Predator entries for the Mouse House – the first being the seemingly well-regarded animated anthology collection Predator: Killer of Killers (2025), which I’ve yet to catch up with as of the time of this writing, and this one – Predator: Badlands.
Luckily, a nicely-priced Blu-ray copy presented itself online, as I opted to search it out for one of my uncharacteristic ‘blind buys’ after a delivery driver I routinely bullshit with asked if I’d seen it yet, as he was curious about my apparently lofty opinion of all that is modern cinema, especially with me being a fan of the overall franchise, and him knowing it.
A week later, I had my claws on it…and I tossed it in.
Predator: Badlands opens on the Predator home-world of Yautja Prime, during the trials and tribulations of a young, overly-diminutive member of the Yautja, or ‘Predator’, species named ‘Dek’ as he runs afoul of his own father’s / clan’s slavish devotion to the harsh doctrines regarding strength and honour; a devotion that leaves no room for failure or weakness, even for offspring, as is bluntly, and tragically, demonstrated.
The resulting confrontation ends in violent death and forced exile. ‘Dek’ finds himself barely surviving a harsh crash onto a new hostile planet, that just so happens to be the home of the one creature whose death in combat the desperate Yautja youth feels can restore his standing with his people and especially, his father, whom he can’t decide whether to please…or kill.
Into this journey across the hazardous alien wastes he embarks and, in shorter order, he encounters a badly damaged synthetic humanoid named ‘Thia’ in desperate need of his help. ‘Thia’ is a ‘surviving’ member of a large contingent of specialized androids dispatched by the nefarious human corporation Weyland-Yutani, in another bold bid to further their everlasting quest for valuable subjects for their shadowy Bio-Weapons Division.
Seeing worth in each other, the exiled Yautja and the bisected animal-specialist android reluctantly team up (him more so than ‘her’) and continue on, eventually running afoul of ‘Thia’s dangerously dedicated twin ‘sister’ – ’Tessa’, who commands the remaining garrison of synthetic troops at their sprawling base-camp with a fearsome dedication to her programmed cause, while ‘Dek’, ‘Thia’ and a young-but-tough-and-dangerous alien creature they name ‘Bud’ joins them as they navigate along, around, and sometimes literally through the various deadly forms of flora and fauna that populate the planet.
It was another dreary Sunday morning on the West Coast, the coffee was hot, and the pad and pen were ready.
PLAY
Scribbles soon appeared…
-Yautja. FINALLY defined onscreen and in-universe. Opening title card. For years, the ‘Predators’, as we’ve erroneously come to know them (they’re not predators, per say, more trophy-hunters. The original title for the first Predator flick was Hunter…but that didn’t sound cool enough, definition be damned!), have also had another name – Yautja, which I believe goes back to the various Dark Horse Comics extended Alien and Predator lore of the early nineties, including the original concept for the AvP off-shoot. Having said that, I do not recall that term EVER being dropped into the cinematic versions (I AM open to being wrong). Here, the name is literally the first thing we get onscreen.
-And the Predator home-world! Amusing, on-the-nose demonstration of the world’s predator vs prey dynamic given immediately. We’ve seen this motif numerous times before – we are introduced to small creature in close-up, who moves along before being attacked by a larger creature…who then is also attacked by yet ANOTHER, larger creature blah blah blah. It works…but it’s tired. And while I grudgingly acknowledge that we also got a teeny peek at the alleged Predator home world (here, called Yautja Prime) in that atrocious, hateful crime-against-humanity Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007), which I readily admit to loathing with every fibre of my being. Thank Crom neither of those are canon (though I will admit to enjoying the Unrated cut of the first AvP as a mere guilty pleasure.) But Requiem? Fuck you, Brothers Strause…you incompetent lil bastards! Sincerely. Anyway…what we get here looks cool, and feels appropriate.
-Cool first fight scene. ‘Dek’ and bro. The writing’s on the wall from the first action scene, right away playing into the cool use of the various sci-fi environments as battlegrounds, while also establishing the plight of our lead – young runty Yautja warrior-wannabe ‘Dek’ (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) as he attempts to best his larger and more skilled older brother ‘Kwei’ (Stefan Grube) in a violent round of hand-to-hand combat.
-Pred language interesting. Finally. As I texted a good buddy as I watched, we finally get an actual Yautja language…that sounds like a language, as opposed to the myriad of unsettling clicks, snarls and samples that are usually employed to show ‘Predator’ communication.
-As usual, Pred tech is cool. Always with the new toys!
-Dad’s a dick! Yautja parental discipline is something to behold and absolutely begs for a visit from Child Protective Services. ‘Dek’ and ‘Kwei’s dear old dad shows up…and glowing green blood flies! It’s clear that their angry asshole of a father would’ve rooted for the Spartans, if given the chance, given their recorded historical love of physical deficiencies in children. I’ll just leave it at that.
-Great opening scene. The set-up works well, while looking great.
-Solid emotional expressions coming through on the unmasked Yautja. This is an absolute necessity, for a story like this that opts to focus on a fully non-human main character, and I thought that they largely pulled off. Emotions show through the toothy mandibles and whip-like dreads, pulling my attention a bit further into the trials and tribulations on display.
–Sentient vine fight = cool. While they are CG, how the snake-like vines are used was actually pretty sweet, adding fun to the initial arrival on the hostile planet.
-Interesting TITLE card. Odd choice –
‘Twentieth Century Studios Presents
Predator: Badlands
Copyright O MMXXV Twentieth Century Studio All Rights Reserved’
…is the literal onscreen-title that we get nearly 20 minutes in. Like I said…odd choice.
-Love the alien flora. I love trying to imagine what life on other planets COULD be and that includes the vegetation. While I fully understand the need to make the environment somewhat accessible to the average movie-goer, simply pulling a Return of the Jedi and passing off a clearly Earth-bound redwood forest with no attempt at ‘alien’ additions to show that it is, in fact, in a galaxy far, far away, isn’t good enough any more. Here, Trachtenberg and Co. seemed to put much the same relish into the creation of their main world as James Cameron does with the Avatar franchise, just with less digital resources, and they dreamed up all kinds of cool, and often deadly, plant-life.
-Nice ‘device’ to explain the language change. Ah, the ole synthetic ‘universal translator’ app, to which we, the audience, are given a rather pointed instruction on how it works, while allowing Elle to speak English for the benefit of us stupid humans. She’s speaking Yautja…we just hear English.
-Now…W-Y is canon. I never have and never will accept either of the existing AvP flicks as canon for either franchise, and maintaining that perspective allows me to enjoy the lack of bleed-over of the vast, sinister, nemesis-of-‘Ellen Ripley’ corporation into the same world as the Yautja. Well, this one kinda throws that out the window, if we’re including Badlands in the established lore, as Elle Fanning’s twin androids and the accompanying army of synthetics are direct products of Weyland-Yutani, on a direct mission for Weyland-Yutani. The W-Y logo is EVERYWHERE!
*says the guy with one prominently plastered on his 2004 TrailBlazer AND the exterior of the 41-foot 5th Wheel he’s proud to call Home.
-Oh, Elle…please don’t be obnoxious. As soon as Elle Fanning’s ‘Thia’ shows up…she starts grating on the nerves with the annoyingly plucky questions and observations.
-The W-Y data on the Yautja is questionable. This was me simply pondering how it was that ‘Thia’, and by extension Weyland-Yutani, would know as much as they seem to, as evidenced in ‘her’ introduction. Don’t know that backstory, but it didn’t seem right, somehow, for this mysterious and deadly species be treated almost like passing wildlife seen on safari, right down to how they communicate.
-W-Y is up to its old tricks again. Bio-weapons. ALWAYS the damn bio-weapons. That…right there.
-So far, ‘Thia’ is the weak link, as written. By this point, she was getting annoying, borderline cringe. And it’s not necessarily on Fanning, more on how ‘Thia’ is written and on how Trachtenberg directed her.
-Cutesy alien side-kick reminds of Lost in Space. For shits n giggles, I recently scooped up a rightfully cast-off DVD copy of 1998’s ill-fated Lost in Space adaptation, as I was curious to see if it REALLY was as bad as I seemed to remember, having not seen it in roughly two decades. Psst…it is. Possibly even worse. One contributing factor to that P.O.S. is the inclusion of a cutesy alien side-kick who is done NO favours by the primitive CG of the late 90’s.
-Please destroy Thia. Comic-relief, try-hard. For an unfortunate chunk of this flick, I felt this way, I admit it.
-“I can survive on my own…but who wants to survive, on their own.” Good line. One of ‘Thia’s few pieces of decent dialogue from Elle Fanning during the stretch where I found myself wanting her destroyed ASAP, due to an over-abundance of grating, in-your-face pluckiness that constantly seemed designed to prompt an unwelcome tone of levity.
-Synthetics with emotion bother me. In-universe consistency? Going back to Ridley Scott’s early dabblings in the high-brow concept of emotional synthetic humanoid beings (replicants?) and the nature of what it takes to be ‘human’, a little piece of me always grapples with it whenever it’s presented in a science fiction narrative. There’s something just a little too narratively convenient in how this idea is often utilized, IMO. Something just doesn’t add up for me…but hey, since when does THAT matter?
-Tessa…is more like it. Cold, clinical and right to the fucking point. The way a nefarious android SHOULD be.
-Human tech fits in. *James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Fede Alvarez all nod in approval.
-Not sure about Mother having a voice. Or MU/TH/UR, as we’ve come to learn over the last few flicks in the franchise. I found the early portrayals of the Weyland-Yutani AI more sinister when it was just a screen, with no voice to add unnecessary inflection. It DOES make sense that in this 200 or so year-from-now world, the interface would literally have a voice, as credibly extrapolated from the tech we’re sounded by today, but for me…it somehow cheapens the threat.
-The fighting legs are dumb. Too cartoony. A pair of severed android legs go all John Wick / Jason Bourne on a group of fellow android sentries and, while I can understand the cinematic appeal of the concept, the cartoonishness felt JUST a little too Looney Tunes for THIS particular movie universe.
-Magically back together? Deleted scene? ‘Thia’ spends the majority of the flick bisected, with many a joke / action gag revolving around her ‘crippled’ status. When she finally retrieves the limbs that had been torn asunder, a big deal is made about the repair procedure, including having an action scene break out around ‘her’ that sets her near-complete progress back in one fell swoop. However, a bit later, she suddenly seems to magically appear, newly repaired and fully functional. We never see how she accomplishes that in among all the ensuing carnage. And having watched the available Deleted Scenes, it would appear that this little detail was probably glossed over at the Script phase. Felt lazy. Just sayin.
-Do wish a few dastardly humans were on-hand for a little slaughtering. There isn’t enough red in this here Predator movie! There are some gnarly ‘kills’, but they’re all from the army of synthetics, thus allowing this flick to (unfortunately) secure the strangely-coveted PG-13 rating, as white spraying android blood is more palatable than the crimson splash these movie’s have so effectively and traditionally utilized in past entries. I would’ve been A-OK if some dastardly W-Y humans had also shown up to be gorily rend limb-from-limb, spine and skull from torso, sick fuck that I be.
-Where’d the snakey side-kick come from? Now, I may have somehow overlooked this detail when it initially happened, but it seemed like one of the formerly-threatening little amphibious snake critters, supposedly called ‘squirts’, just befriended ‘Dek’ out-of-the-blue somewhere along the way and opted to act as a fleshy facsimile of a Predator shoulder-blaster when the Yautja waded into battle in Act Three.
–Final boss fight feels very Pacific Rim. Right down to the colour and lighting scheme…and that’s NOT a bad thing.
-Wait…wasn’t the ship destroyed?! This didn’t make much sense to me, as in Act One, a BIG deal is made about the destruction of ‘Dek’s ship during its disastrous entry into the planet’s atmosphere and his subsequent (and surprisingly cool) ejection from the allegedly stricken craft. Then…we see the ship back in use, like nothing ever happened, as ‘Dek’ takes care of some unfinished business. Plot hole, anyone?
-Unneeded cliffhanger tacked on. As has almost come to be accepted in this franchise, particularly the Alien side of things, we get what feels like a Cameronesque Fourth Act action scene, which was mostly OK, till the one-step-too-far cliffhanger showed itself. Wonder it it’s ever going to be paid off.
-75% solidly entertaining Predator story. I think that franchise fans will find that roughly ¾’s of what we get is genuinely inventive, cool, and doesn’t embarrass what came before…with the remainder falling squarely into cheese / cringe territory. Good, not Great.
In a nutshell, I had a genuinely fun time watching this latest Predator entry, while also openly acknowledging that it’s NOT perfect (what ever is?!), with a few aspects I wish could’ve been tackled differently.
From a ‘Why the Hell Not’ stand-point, this sequel is mostly a successful experiment that gave me a lot of what I wanted (and a couple things I didn’t know I wanted), and have since come to expect from this long-running, highly-successful combination franchise. I DO wish an R-rating could’ve been presented, but the ‘brutality’ that we do get is fun enough.
As noted above, the biggest Negative for me was the initial portrayal of ‘Thia’ by Elle Fanning, but I’ll admit that she became noticeably more tolerable as the 1 hour and 47 minute narrative played out.
I also wasn’t the hugest admirer of certain overly ‘cute’ details and a few of the cheesy gags meant to add unwanted / unneeded levity. Luckily, there WAS enough cool shit in among all that to pull my scorn away, and just go with the flow.
Beyond that, if you’re an Alien / Predator fan, I think you’ll likely have a good time with this entry. It’s easily digestible, while adding some fun new details to what we already know about this notorious beast and it’s long-hinted culture. The action scenes are fun and inventive, and clear thought has been put into the ‘science fiction’ aspects.
There are FAR worse Predator movies out here…looking at YOU, The Predator (2018), you fucking miserable piece of shit.
Somewhere out there, I hope Shane Black is still hanging his head in shame.
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