Early on in Predator: Badlands, our new Yautja protagonist Dek scoffs at Thia, a legless Weyland-Yutani synthetic played by Elle Fanning, and tells her she needs to be able to survive on her own.
“I can survive on my own,” Thia retorts. “But who would want to survive on their own?”
That provides the beating heart of the latest installment of the Predator franchise from Dan Trachtenberg, who revitalized the series with Prey in 2022 and wowed critics and audiences once again earlier this year with the animated offering Predator: Killer of Killers.
Prey is more squarely in the franchise’s lane as the Predator plays the villain going up against a scrappy human hero. But Badlands shows that Trachtenberg has the juice to keep taking this franchise in fresh and exciting directions.
The film opens with our introduction to Dek, a smaller, weaker Yautja, as he spars with his older brother Kwei. Dek is preparing to take on a Yautja rite of passage to go on a distant hunt and kill a beast to prove his belonging to the clan. Because his father, the chief, views him as the weakest, Dek sets his course for the planet of Genna to kill a creature called the Kalisk that is considered unkillable.
With that in mind, we start our adventure proper as Dek arrives on Genna and is immediately met by many dangers besides the Kalisk. The whole planet, both flora and fauna, seems designed to kill.
Dek is in dire straits when he comes across Thia stuck in a tree and reluctantly accepts her help despite insisting that Yautja hunt alone. Following the encounter, Dek decides Thia is more of a troll than a second hunter and begrudgingly brings her along for her usefulness.
The odd paid of the brutal and stoic Dek with this chatty synthetic is the key to the movie, and on paper it seems like it could have easily bombed. But Elle Fanning is perfect in this and Dimitrius Koloamatangi delivers a solid performance as Dek that makes the buddy road trip comedy aspect of the movie work. It also never veers into full comedy and keeps its hardcore violence and action to offset this new sensibility.
Where the story really shines is in drawing the comparisons between the Yautja and synthetics as Dek and Thia contend with their purpose. As we have seen in films past, synthetics are designed to fulfill the missions of Weyland-Yutani, while Yautja live solely for the hunt. But this adventure challenges those roles and purposes in interesting ways that provide a heart behind the action.
Fanning also becomes the latest dual performance of the year, as she plays a second synthetic—a twin “sister” if you will—named Tessa. Thia tells Dek that the pair were separated in an attack by the Kalisk and Thia hopes to return to her. It’s worth noting that these synthetics are a bit of a new twist, designed with “extra sensibilities” to better understand the planet’s creatures.
The action in this movie is incredible and pays proper homage to both the Predator and Alien franchises, all set against incredibly cool backdrops of the Badlands. It has been said by many reviewers but if Trachtenberg didn’t already have the keys to the franchise, this movie should solidify him as the man.
What’s more, if we can get another great Alien movie out of Fede Alvarez, we are well on our way toward the Alien vs. Predator movie of our dreams, thanks largely to Trachtenberg’s gutsiness to let a Yautja be the actual protagonist. It changes the game moving forward and allows for a much wider breadth of storytelling.
The bottom line is this movie absolutely rips. It’s the best big sci-fi blockbuster of the year, and you need to see it in theaters on the biggest screen possible.
Have you seen Predator: Badlands? Yes? Well, then head over to our spoiler discussion thread to Spoil Away with us!
