predator badlands review
Starring: Dimitris Schuster-Kolomatangi, Elle Fanning, Mike Hommick and Rohinal Nayaran
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Rating: ★★
One question that kept coming to my mind while watching Predator: Badlands was how could this film be made by the same director who gave us the brilliant Prey and the brilliant Killer of Killers, set in the same universe. Dan Trachtenberg is credited with revitalizing the Predator franchise and giving it a new voice with these acclaimed films. With Badlands, it seems like the director is hell-bent on ruining all his good work and making sure the franchise can’t move forward. Not only is this spinoff dull, but it destroys one of Hollywood’s most iconic characters so needlessly that it feels more tragic than anything else.
Base
Predator Badlands follows a hunter named Deck, who escapes his home world in search of both salvation and revenge. He befriends a synthetic cyborg (Elle Fanning) on ​​the Death Planet to hunt down the invincible Calisk, and stakes a claim as an honored warrior of her tribe. Parallelly, we see soldiers of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation (hello, Alien franchise crossover) seeking out the Beast for their own benefit. How both forces collide is the story of Badlands.
How does the film fall short?
Predator: Badlands is the first film in the franchise in which a Predator (who are actually called Yautja) is the protagonist rather than the antagonist. It’s a bold choice and one that could have paid off had the director not decided to kill off the character and all the secrets and mysteries that exist within him. Predators worked because they were unstoppable killing machines, always ahead of the competition, always resourceful. Focusing on the amount of trash is an interesting choice, but giving him a dull backstory with copious dialogue largely takes away the character’s aura, making him look more pathetic than anything else. Deck is presented not as an underdog, but as a tearful teenager. And no one cares about that hero!
Predator Badlands has a lot going for it, primarily the world-building and stunning visuals. Dan Trachtenberg beautifully creates a world with a wild ecosystem and some fascinating creatures that challenge our heroes. However, despite the visual appeal and novelty of the creations, they fall short in the absence of a solid story to support them. There are only so many times when you can gaze in awe at a detailed CGI shot of an alien planet.
movie review
Predator Badlands
A young hunter travels to a deadly planet and teams up with a cyborg to hunt down an unstoppable creature.
director
Dan Trachtenberg
mold
Dimitris Schuster-Kolomatangi, Elle Fanning, Mike Hommick and Rohinal Nairn
decision
Predator Badlands turns the mighty Predator into a crying teenager, completely taking away his mystique and aura. Even the stunning views can’t compensate for that.
The action is also good, but the comedy, primarily led by Elle Fanning, is more on point. It feels natural and never too much, never too much of a distraction from the deeper narrative. The punches are thrown, and it never feels superficial. As Thea, Elle Fanning is the heartbeat of the film, and she tries in vain to lift the film above mediocrity.
Predator Badlands goes terribly wrong. It kills off (at least partially) a beloved movie character. It’s predictable, and it turns out to be another movie that uses the evil, emotionless robot trope. On top of all that, the emotional high points of the film feel so sweet and dramatic that I felt like I was watching a soap opera rather than a Predator movie.
Perhaps this is why one wonders how Dan Trachtenberg got it so wrong this time. With Prey, he revived the Predator franchise, featuring a spectacular standoff between a Native American fighter and a Yautja. In Killer of Killers, aided by mind-numbing animation, he gave us the best Predator movie in decades. And yet, in Badlands, he comes across as a guy who doesn’t get a character at all. It is indeed a strange decline.