TL;DR – an absolute blast of a film from start to finish. Taking 1980s action sensibilities and bringing them into a modern sci-fi film. Bright, fun, but also thoroughly grounded in the universe they are working in.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-title card scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Predator: Badlands Review Introduction –

When you hear that a new entry in a famously American R-rated franchise has been handed the dreaded American PG-13 rating, you cringe a little. You get flashbacks to Die Hard 4 and others who were forced, kicking and screaming, into the lower rating to make it more marketable. However, today we look at a film that bucks that trend by being a fun, family-friendly film that remains grounded in its universe.

So, to set the scene, we open on the Predator homeland of Yautja Prime, where Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is sparring off with his brother Kwei (Mike Homik). While Dek is a runt in Yautja society, his brother sees his strength and worth. Dek should have the chance to go on a hunt and prove himself in Yautja society. Unfortunately, their father Njohrr (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) feels differently. Dek manages to escape and lands on Genna, a planet where every part of the biosystem is out to kill you. However, it is the home of the Kalisk, a creature so powerful that no Yautja has succeeded in killing it, and it even scares Dek’s father. But before you can get to the Kalisk, you need to survive Genna, and maybe the synth Thia (Elle Fanning) might be your only hope to pull that off.     

Characters and Chemistry

I have seen a lot of films set in this universe. Many of them are rubbish, but what sets the good ones apart, like Predator: Badlands, Prey, and even Alien: Romulus [I’ll get to that later], is their ability to create characters you care about and who have great chemistry with each other. Alien: Covenant is a stunning film, filled with mostly disposable characters, and can you even remember one person from The Predator? I can’t. But Predator: Badlands attacks this issue in a number of ways. First, it reduces the number of characters in this film down to five or six, depending on your classification. This gives you so much time to get to know everyone in the film and what drives them, which is especially important for Dek, who spends most of the movie without the traditional armour silhouette.

The next aspect comes from chemistry. The bond between Dek and Thia is almost instant because they both complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It is both fascinating and fun to watch them grow together in a world where everything is out to kill you, even the trees, especially the trees. Both of the actors fall entirely into their roles, and it was a blast to watch them perform. Part of what helps their journey is that both characters are presented with early setbacks, which makes you, as an audience, want to see them succeed. I can’t clearly articulate just how much fun the two characters are, and I hope the two actors had as much fun filming this film as it felt like watching it. “I’ve never been thrown before” now lives rent-free in my head, and in this economy, I wish it could chip in a bit more.

The World

The next strength of this film is its worldbuilding, because it handles lore effortlessly. We get a lot of heavy lifting about Yautja society, but it never bogs things down. There is such a conservation of information in the script, dropping big moments, but without skipping a beat, it is honestly fascinating to watch. Even if you don’t know who or what Weyland-Yutani is, you get their deal from the second Tessa (Elle Fanning) talks to Mu/th/ur. But also, if you do understand, well then, it just creates another layer for you to experience the film.

However, while the script does a lot of the worldbuilding, much of it also comes from, well, the world. Even before the credits rolled, you knew they were filming in New Zealand, and what a beautiful world they created, combining the in-camera locations with the digital extensions added by the artists from Wētā and more. There is an early scene with a moon in the background that is stunning to watch. However, what sells you on this world is how [nearly] everything feels like it could fit in that sort of biosystem. Genna and Yautja Prime also provide a perfect juxtaposition for each other, which was fascinating to watch. I also like how they brought Dek to life digitally. It feels a little odd at the start, but soon you are completely with it.  

Themes and Tone

The themes in this film are not that deep, but they take on a more complex façade than the usual surface-level nuance you get in many similar films. There is found family, industry v nature, corporatisation of nature, and, of course, un-finding your family. But within that space, you have a world to find, and also get to watch the characters discover their own worlds as well. There is no real surprise as to who the bad guys are or not, and I am not sure this is a film that needed that. It also helps that, for the first time in this franchise, that I know of, our central protagonist is one of the Predators, and this was an interesting way of taking everything you expect from a film like this and shifting it slightly off balance.   

Where Predator: Badlands excelled was in how it managed its tone. It is hard to imagine the first-ever PG-13 Predator film working at all, but they absolutely stuck the landing here. Part of that comes from clever planning, such as setting your movie on a planet filled with creatures [synths, Predators, animals] that don’t bleed red blood. This gives you the ability to show quite a lot of carnage in the film without bumping up that rating. Also, thematically, it feels like this film is drawing significantly from the 1980s action films in how it sets up its narrative and action. However, there is also a modern framework bolted on, which creates a fascinating hybrid. This was, in many ways, a brutally gruesome film, yet it was also probably the film I have had the most fun with so far this year. Shout out to every Chekhov’s gun, slug, tree, and razorgrass, but to name a few.             

Conclusion

In the end, do we recommend Predator: Badlands? Absolutely. I am reasonably sure that this will be one of my films of the year. I had a blast watching it. It changes up the franchise without abandoning what makes it strong. We get solid character and action moments, and it made me laugh all the way through. Have you watched Predator: Badlands? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Predator: Badlands, we would recommend Prey to you because it is also a kickass Predator film.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Predator: Badlands
Directed by – Dan Trachtenberg
Story by – Dan Trachtenberg & Patrick Aison
Screenplay by – Patrick Aison & Brian Duffield
Based on – Predator by Jim and John Thomas
Music by – Sarah Schachner & Benjamin Wallfisch
Cinematography by – Jeff Cutter
Edited by – Stefan Grube & David Trachtenberg
Production/Distribution Companies – Lawrence Gordon Productions, Davis Entertainment, Toberoff Entertainment & 20th Century Studios
Starring – Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning, Rohinal Nayaran, Mike Homik & Reuben De Jong
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13