An intergalactic hunter teams up with half a synth to hunt down the most dangerous game in the cosmos in Predator: Badlands, opening in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. While franchise fans may be taken aback at the Disney-fied nature of this latest Predator film, which resembles The Mandalorian more than any previous entry in the series, this is an undeniably fun sci-fi B-movie writ large, made with great care by director and co-writer Dan Trachtenberg (Prey), who tells a scaled-back story with a heavy dose of lore.
Like most (all?) previous Predator movies, Predator: Badlands has little connection to specific characters from previous entries, and for the first time tells the story from the perspective of the titular alien species. An opening scrawl tells us that the Yautja—the name of the Predator species in the comics and novelizations, but hitherto unmentioned in previous movies—are a race of elite lone wolf hunters and the galaxy’s apex predators.
But they aren’t born into it. Our hero is Dek (impressively played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi inside a rubber suit and beneath mounds of visual effects) is a young and perhaps weak Yautja who challenges his brother Kwei (Michael Homick) in a friendly cave duel on a desert planet. He’s seeking to prove himself to his clan and earn his cloak, the camouflage technology employed by the hunters in previous movies.
“Use the cave!” Kwei shouts while dominating his brother in hand-to-hand combat. This piece of Sun Tzu advice nicely encapsulates the strengths and weaknesses of the film: while the story features a nice arc detailing how Dek learns to use his environment to become the ultimate hunter, the visuals are so murky that we can barely see the cave, let alone understand how Dek might take advantage of it.
To prove himself to their father, Dek insists he go on the most dangerous hunt of all: to the lethal Genna planet, in search of the deadly Kalisk, a hunt from which no Yautja has returned. But before he can set out, dad Njohur (also played by Schuster-Koloamatangi) shows up and insists Kwei kill his weak brother to protect the species—an order that results in Kwei’s death upon refusal. Dek now finds himself en route to the deadly hunt not only to prove himself, but also to avenge his brother.
Predator: Badlands is at its very best as Dek explores the lethal environs of Genna, which include hulking alien beasts as well as smaller threats: plants that shoot poison darts, eels that spit acid, and insects that explode when threatened. He also comes across Thia (Elle Fanning), the top half of an abandoned Weyland-Yutani android imprisoned in the nest of a giant vulture-like monster.
Yautja hunt alone, Dek tells Thia, who needs his assistance to find her lower half and help “sister” Tessa (also Fanning) complete their mission on Genna. Deemed too dangerous for humans, Weyland-Yutani has sent synths to survey the planet’s creatures, and given them emotion to help understand their natural world. Thia convinces Dek that she isn’t a hunting companion but a tool—and she knows the location of the Kalisk he seeks.
There’s an impressively dialed-in nature to the narrative in Predator: Badlands, and kudos to director Trachtenberg for taking the chance on telling this story without humans—and giving an alien monster and a robot better character arcs than most sci-fi franchise protagonists. Dek isn’t especially likable in the traditional sense, but we take some real satisfaction in watching him learn and grow over the course of the movie, culminating in a climactic sequence in which he makes use of the alien threats to set traps and go full Home Alone. Fanning, too, is impressive as two distinct android characters—even if it’s her lower half that steals the show in later scenes.
Extensive visual effects used over the course of the film are also first-rate, and the creation of the living, breathing alien world on Genna is exceptional. Unfortunately—projected in a Dolby Atmos hall in Prague’s CineStar Anděl, at least—there’s a murky, hazy sheen to everything here that renders the entire film visually unappealing. Trachtenberg and cinematographer Jeff Cutter used a similar color palette in Prey—earthy greens, browns, and grays—and even hid some action behind a thick fog, but that straight-to-streaming film never looked as dull and flat as this one; perhaps Predator: Badlands will present better on Disney+.
While previous franchise entries have largely avoided expanding on the IP, they’ve all told the same story of human characters being hunted by an apex predator. This one is a step down from Prey overall, but it finally tells a new story with the characters, and succeeds in its own terms. The scaled-back story of Predator: Badlands recalls another under-appreciated sci-fi franchise entry: Riddick, which largely followed Vin Diesel‘s titular character as he attempts to survive a hostile alien environment.
Disney has struggled to please fans of Marvel and Star Wars after taking control of those franchises, but they’ve found a dark horse in the shared Alien–Predator universe following solid outings on the big screen (Alien: Romulus) and small screen (Alien: Earth). Trachtenberg deserves a lot of credit for that, and Predator: Badlands is his third straight hit for the series following Prey and the animated Predator: Killer of Killers; while this series remains populated by standalone entries, we’re still looking forward to what comes next.
