Film director Dan Trachtenberg, who revived the previously moribund Predator franchise with the surprise Hulu hit Prey, and then continued the Predator revival with the superb animated film Predator: Killer of Killers, continues to redefine the alien hunter/killers with his latest, Predator: Badlands. Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a young Predator—whose race have been identified in this film for the first time as the Yautja—who has been considered the useless runt of his clan and is about to be killed because of it by his own father, until his brother saves him at the cost of his own life. Dek escapes in his brother’s spaceship to an alien world, where he must regain his status within his clan by bringing them the head of the Kalisk, a supreme apex predator who has never been defeated by any of the Yautja that were sent to hunt it.
When he arrives (more like crash-lands) on the planet, Dek finds an unlikely ally in the form of Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged android in the employ of the infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation, from the Alien film series. Still operational, despite losing her legs, Thia makes an agreement with Dek, she’ll show him the location of the Kalisk’s lair if he helps her to find her legs. Despite the first ten minutes, which makes the Predators look like third-rate Klingons (“You have dishonored our clan!”), Predator: Badlands just keeps getting better the further along it goes, with the arrival of the perky Thia brightening things up considerably.
Elle Fanning’s very presence turns the movie into a fun buddy flick. And despite Schuster-Koloamatangi being buried under Predator makeup, as well as the language difference between them, Dek and Thia still have some surprisingly good chemistry (they can still understand each other’s language, and Dek’s words are translated for us via large, easily readable subtitles). While some may consider Badlands to be the first crossover of elements from the Predator and Alien films, they would be forgetting the 2004 film AvP: Aliens vs Predators (which had the actual monsters battling each other). But there’s even an earlier mention back in 1990’s Predator 2, with the alien skull in the trophy case aboard the Predator ship.
The action in Predator: Badlands is very well executed, and it takes place on a richly imagined alien world with lush wildlife. The animals and plant-life may seem familiar to that of Earth’s, until they show their deadly sides. A field of razor grass is literally made up of little razors swinging around, making it a hard path for even a Predator. From insects to overwhelming mammoth-sized animals, everything on this planet is given an intriguing, extraterrestrial twist, and this level of thoughtfulness in the production design of any movie always makes the viewing experience much better for the viewer, and Predator: Badlands is no exception. I thought this was just going to be another cheap money-grab, but Predator: Badlands turned out to be a pleasant surprise. --SF
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