Predator: Badlands
Predator: Badlands
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
The PREDATOR character, this hunter cyberpunk alien monster, is one of the most iconic creature designs in pop culture. Rubbery dreadlocks, high tech deadly weapons of all sorts and a huge snarling mouth that opens up like someone at the end of a long Folsom weekend. The PREDATOR movies? Not so much. The Arnold Schwarzenegger original is an 80s macho testosterone-fueled dudes rock masterpiece, the sequels have some good stuff but are middling.
Enter relatively new filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg. In 2022, seemingly out of nowhere, his film PREY dropped on streaming and instantly reinvigorated the franchise. Extremely violent with a stripped down basic story of a young Native American woman and her dog as she hunts a Predator. It's so fun while still taking the subject matter seriously, showing restraint in tropes and story beats.
In PREDATOR: BADLANDS, director Trachtenberg uses that same subversive energy, and in a stroke of genius makes the Predator the protagonist this time. We open on young Predator Dek and are dropped immediately into some family drama. Exiled on a dangerous planet, Dek tasks himself with hunting THE apex predator on the planet as a trophy to bring back to his clan. Along the way he meets a legless android played by the absolutely incredible Elle Fanning (the star that you are!).
It's here that the film will surely lose some viewers, as PREDATOR: BADLANDS unexpectedly turns into the years best buddy action comedy. Elle Fanning in particular is so funny and charming as Thia, and then incredibly menacing as her "sister" android. Together Thia and Dek hike through the planet filled with gorgeous scifi vistas that looked stunning especially in DolbyVision.
Our heroes also befriend a cute Baby Yoda style little creature, something more and more movies feel the need to add. Oftentimes it is shoehorned and painfully unfunny, but somehow they nailed the tone just right. It helps that that creature design is pretty cute and fits well with the fantastic special effects. A good mix of CGI and practical, our lead Predator makeup looked fantastic (along with the CGI enhancements).
In summation, this is a PG-13 action comedy PREDATOR where he is the star/protagonist and it's one of the best movies of the year. As my bestie said, "I don’t know about you but I needed an alien movie about the power of teamwork".
☆☆☆1/2 out of 4
