Predator: Badlands (2025)

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/predator-badlands-movie-review-dan-trachtenberg-earns-the-franchise-keys-by-flipping-the-hunt/

"Predator: Badlands is an audacious exercise in reinvention that takes a risk and triumphs. The movie excels in every technical department, featuring a spectacle of creature design and sound work, and offering a new thematic vision for the saga's longevity.

Elle Fanning's superb performance and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi's powerful physicality ensure Dek's journey — the creature who forgoes the Yautja code of honor in search of a deeper, collective capability — won't leave anyone indifferent. If there were still doubts that Dan Trachtenberg deserves the keys to the franchise, they've been dissipated once again.

It leaves us with the important message that even in the most lethal and solitary of cultures, cooperation and compassion can be the most powerful forms of survival."

Rating: B+

Predator: Badlands is the first Predator film since 2022’s Prey. It is also the second Predator-related media released this year. Hulu’s animated anthology film, Predator: Killer of Killers, is now streaming. All three titles were directed and/or written by Dan Trachtenberg.

Badlands follows Dek, a young Predator who yearns for his father's approval but struggles to escape the shadow of his bigger and older brother Kwei. Their father, viewing proud Yautja lineage as something reserved for only the strongest, sees Dek as weak and useless—wanting him dead to preserve the family’s honor. Dek’s perceived weakness, being the runt, drives both his father’s harsh stance and Dek’s desperate need to prove himself.

However, Kwei believes Dek deserves a chance to prove himself, hoping Dek can live up to his family's legacy. Predators choose their prey. Dek, eager to earn his father's respect and prove he’s not only a worthy warrior but also superior, selects Genna—a planet with a low survival rate. Dek chooses the Kalisk as his target, a predator believed to be unkillable, in an attempt to demonstrate his own fearlessness. When Dek’s father kills Kwei, Dek’s drive turns to vengeance, and, after surviving and escaping to Genna, he must now capture the Kalisk both to prove himself and to avenge his brother.

The Yautja are a proud and stubborn race that hunts alone. Dek tries to prove himself by surviving the perils of Genna. He reluctantly saves Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged synthetic, hoping she can guide him. Thia says she's searching for her sister, Tessa, and knows where the Kalisk is, motivated by the desire for reunion. Dek brings her, unaware that he and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation pursue the same prey for their own ends.
Badlands is a lot of firsts for the Predator franchise. It’s the first time a Predator was named in any film. It is also the first time a Predator is a protagonist. The Yautja language was created by Britton Watkins, who was recommended by Paul Frommer, the creator of the Na’vi language for Avatar.

Dan Trachtenberg is eager to build a new Alien vs. Predator film or franchise, but wants to do it right. Predator: Badlands includes Easter eggs connecting those two cinematic universes and one more.
Badlands features pulse rifles from Aliens. The Weyland-Yutani logo on the back of Thia’s eyes resembles Andy’s eyes in Alien: Romulus. Dek’s armor and weapon preparation before the final battle is an homage to Amber Midthunder’s in Prey, which was already a nod to Dutch’s prep before the last battle in the original Predator. Tessa uses a power loader similar to the one Ripley uses to fight the Alien Queen in Aliens. A Harvester skull from Independence Day is visible on Kwei’s trophy wall.

Badlands runs a tight 107 minutes and is nearly nonstop action. Influences include Frank Frazetta, Terrence Malick, films like Shane (1953), The Road Warrior, Conan the Barbarian, The Book of Eli, Clint Eastwood westerns, Jaws, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Star Wars; video games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Half-Life 2, Uncharted, God of War; and the comic book character Drax the Destroyer.
Genna is so deadly that Dek is surrounded by wildlife and otherworldly creatures out to kill him.

Predator: Badlands channels Mad Max: Fury Road, letting non-stop action lead until the credits. Emphasis on the Yautja language (a universal translator allows characters to hear their native tongue), brutal action, and animals in the storyline give Badlands an ambiance similar to Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated epic, Primal.

Badlands has more visual effects shots than any other Predator film. The film credits several VFX studios, including Weta Workshop and ILM, for bringing this visual powerhouse to life. The film looks incredible, thanks in part to its breathtaking cinematography and nearly flawless visual effects. Each action sequence blends creativity, intense violence, and masterful CGI. Every battle is unforgettable, like when Dek cuts a bone bison in half in slow-motion with his plasma sword. The film skirts its PG-13 rating through violence, avoiding an R-rating since almost all onscreen blood is green from predators or white from synthetics.

The only flaw in Predator: Badlands is its straightforwardness and lack of depth. However, this film doesn't need complexity. It's easily one of the year's best action movies. Trachtenberg references past franchise films without simply repeating stories. You're invested in Dek, Thia, and Bud (a native creature bonded to Dek), and you notice almost every Easter egg. Yet, the story still feels fresh. Wherever Predator goes next, it promises a new journey for fans.

Savage, badass, and brutal, Predator: Badlands is the most action-packed Predator film yet. See this one in theaters for the best picture and sound—it’s worth every penny.

“Dek” is the runt of the “Yautja” clan so his militaristic father has asked his elder brother “Kwei” to get rid of him. Luckily, his brother isn’t so brutal and so with an impossible task on his hands to prove his worth, “Dek” manages to escape to a planet where he seeks to make a trophy from the menacing “Kalisk”. Thing is, this place is riddled with all sorts of flesh-eating monsters and plants so his own survival chances aren’t especially high until he encounters the top half of synthetic “Thia” (Elle Fanning) who is quite hot on keeping him alive and who agrees to work with him to achieve his task. It turns out, though, that she and her mission doppelgänger “Tessa” are on this world for a similar reason and him getting back home is not in their plans, let alone home with a creature that has impressive regenerative powers. What chance the young “Dek” can achieve his task, or perhaps even better - do something his tribe never do and learn to cooperate and maybe even make friends? Now it is fractionally better, but for the most part this really just reminded me of Adam Driver’s “65” (2023) as the whole premise of the “Predator” - the menacing and all-conquering alpha hunter - is abandoned in favour of this great looking but derivative story of survival with fangs against critters and plants that could have caused a stir in “Star Trek” in the 1960s. By flipping the established plot on it’s head like this, Dan Trachtenberg is almost asking us to sympathise for “Dek” rather than hide behind the sofa, and this manages to disappointingly humanise him - albeit monosyllabically - and reduce any sense of menace to a bare minimum. Sorry, but I was underwhelmed by the whole thing.

> Director of his 3rd Predator project, I think…3 times a charm…Dan Trachtenburg , obviously understands Alien. I think he brought the “aliens” in Cameron style to this pg13 Disney + friendly film. So maybe for a newer audience that wants to understand and identify with the originals. Movies now get “universe” in comic book format is how we lay film work. New normal. So get with the program, ya hard-to-please Treky Boomers. If you watch Badlands with all things considered, you find it delivers well. The originators of Alien and sci-fi alike also started woke back then. The real kind . It was green peace hippie and comic book loving pc building movie magic “woke” nowadays, so it’s not hard to see how the concepts and themes in the Badlands plot and story and character developments blended and balanced together with high energy ramping up music score. Cyberpunk space synth composed like an opera complemented the vibe in place far, far away ; ). Excellent delivery execution with precision made woke but like like a fine woke wine.

"Predator Soy Boy" shows us all that no matter how wimpy you are, the power of diversity, equality and inclusion, is on your side. Biology be damned.

Suffice to say, this is a rather ridiculous take on the Predator universe. Weird looking Dik oops I mean Dek, is the wussiest of the predators. Dad who dresses like a demonic deer, wants to croak Dek, for this very reason. Of course, he could have done so in infancy, as the Spartans did, if this is the kind of society they inhabit. Anyway for no obvious reason he lets Dek hang around embarrassing him and because its such a hassle to do him in, gets his brother do the dirty, for him. Big brother refuses, dad goes full psycho and kills him, whilst Dek escapes, if that's the right word, to a hellish planet, to take on a creature all the tough, macho predators, are scared of.

You can see where this is going and it doesn't get better but then how could it? Its premise is downright silly, akin to Pee-Wee Herman, taking a starring role in a Rocky remake. Just to make it extra cringy, they have a female humanoid cyborg, who helps Dek get in touch with this feelings.Plus an almost Muppety thing, that vaguely feels like a substitute for a dog (or maybe a pet monkey?).

Updsides such as they are include admittedly decent action, creative and well rendered special effects and yes a few scary monsters.

In summary, a rather anemic take on the Predator universe, that drags the franchise even further from its tough guy, action roots, to a more drippy, touchy feely propostion that reminds me of a rough hewen take, on Beauty and the Beast(s). A marginal watch.