You would think all director Dan Trachtenberg wanted out of life was a chance to get his hands on the Predator film franchise, because since getting the opportunity back in 2022, he has vice gripped the thing and has not let go. It all started with Prey, a film that revitalized that franchise for me with its unique setup and fun characters. And even as recent as this past summer, Trachtenberg hit us with an animated anthology film, Predator: Killer of Killers. This took the concept of Prey and expanded upon it, throwing the brutal species against various cultures across different generations. It’s clear Trachtenberg loves this series and absolutely has the stuff to give us great and exciting stories with the IP. Which brings us to Predator: Badlands.

It isn’t exactly always doable to take a horror movie villain and put it in the driver seat as a film’s main character, but the Predators, or more accurately, the Yaujta, are a bit of a different breed. They have a culture, a hierarchy, and most importantly, an intelligence to them that leaves room for films to expand upon their rather narrow-minded setup. That’s exactly what Badlands does, but just how well it worked is still kind of up in the air for me.

Trachtenberg takes the franchise into uncharted territory with a plot centered around a disenfranchised hunter and his legless, talking backpack. This pivots the horror-action franchise into straight up action adventure territory, which can have varying effects. On one hand, it allows the Yaujta to evolve and become more dissectable and personable than ever before. And on the other hand, I wonder if the species ever needed that. The admittedly fun but highly predictable Predator: Badlands has me right down the middle here, entertaining me with its world building and set pieces, but numbing me with its overt attempts to make this the next, big blockbuster franchise. Some of that grime and grit that was found in the past films, including Prey, is somewhat lost as it attempts to humanize the intergalactic killer that felt a little unnatural to me. Still, it’s far from unwatchable, as there’s plenty of good to be found in the land of bad.

Case in point; our main characters. For the first time ever, the titular Predator feels like a fully realized character. Given life and emotion I didn’t think was possible by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloanmatangi. As Dek, Dimitrius brings an aura of youthful stubbornness to the species, as he portrays an outcast who is marked for death after being labeled a weakling. And don’t worry, he doesn’t learn that non-violence is the answer or anything like that. It’s not one of those movies. But we get to see the necessity of survival thrust upon him, something usually reserved for a Predator’s prey. Because of his inexperience, he not only has to rely on resourcefulness to survive a planet designed to kill, but the help of others, as we come to learn. While the species’ nature of violence isn’t called into question, their methods are. Hunting alone, culling the weak from their tribes; things like that are called into question, and it honestly makes sense. You have a species that has perfected space travel but hasn’t been able to establish a functioning, thriving society because of its narrow minded brutalness. Dek is the first to realize there’s more to his life than just blind tradition, and while his journey through these realizations often feel quick and hollow for the sake of the story, they at least feel fresh for the franchise.

Paired alongside Dek is Elle Fanning’s Thea, a talkative, partially severed synthetic looking to make it back to her employers and her identical “sister” Tessa. The combination of Dek and Thea is what really makes this film shine, sparking a slow-building camaraderie between the two that originally blossoms out of necessity, but is later refined through respect. It’s a real Shrek and Donkey dynamic here, if those two were willing to stab multiple creatures to death. Fanning’s bubbly personality serves as a great foil to the quiet and stoic Dek, even bringing out a bit of comedy from the Yaujta that doesn’t feel like total character assassination. There’s also a funny little monkey creature endearingly named Bud by Thea, who I have mixed feelings on. I don’t think it’s completely accurate to label Bud as a Baby Yoda type of character, one whose cuteness contradicts the savage world it lives in. But at the same time, it’s very clear what the intention of having a character like this in the film is, and sometimes I felt as if it wasn’t ultimately needed.

What I can admire, however, is all the thought and detail that was put into designing the planet most of the film takes place on. While it sometimes just looks like a drably shot New Zealand, there are some details that manage to give the world a lot more identity. A living forest with predatory, serpentine vines, a field of grass where the blades are literal blades, and slithering land eels that spit acid are just some of the wonders you’ll find in the badlands of Genna. For $100 million, it can look pretty impressive, though there are moments where you can see the budget being stretched to its limits. And for a PG-13 film, there is no skimping on brutal action sequences. It turns out the trick to making your PG-13 movie violent lies in reserving the brutality for giant CG monstrosities or cyborgs that bleed white paste. There’s plenty of hacking and slashing to be found here, though some set pieces are more engaging than others. Still, there’re some inventive uses of the world that get hinted to early on that have terrific payoff in the climax, which is always a treat to see. 

So while I don’t have an issue with humanizing the monster and having him go against type, I do think it could have been done in a less…cutesy way? The aim was definitely to make this more crowd pleasing, but not entirely in the way an underdog story allows. From the first few minutes, you know Dek is going to become disillusioned with his culture, and that’s fine. But the found family angle just feels like playing it safe to me. This really only becomes an issue near the end, where I never really felt like Dek’s progression from self-preservation to fighting to save the mother of a baby felt all that rewarding. It keeps in line with the outcasts rising above their clan’s idea of them that his past Predator films have leaned into, and while it’s certainly subversive for this character, it is not for his body of work. It just kind of makes me think that not every franchise needs to be Star Wars or Marvel. There is a beauty in not giving audiences the tried and true formula they’ve grown accustomed to over the years. And that kind of feels like where this franchise is heading, which just doesn’t interest me as much as what I thought Prey was setting up. I think a Predator team up movie can still work, and make no mistake, it technically does here, but it’s done so with a safety that I don’t think the franchise ever really needed.

So if you’re looking for something that maybe does sci-fi adventure better than recent Star Wars offerings but maybe not as inspired as the Avatar films, then maybe Predator: Badlands will be your cup of tea. There’s plenty to admire here, but not really enough to make me do backflips, eagerly awaiting the next ragtag adventure our characters get into. I trust Trachtenberg to keep making entertaining popcorn flicks, but I do hope there ends up being more to his work down the line that manages to reel me back in. What’s Rawhead Rex up to? Maybe he can take a crack at that next.

RATING

PLASMA CUTTER

Predators have always had a lot of tools at their disposal; nets, shurikens, Snapchat. No, wait, different kind of predator. But the one that gets the most play in Badlands is this sword with a glowing red edge that can cut through anything. Thus, this piece of tech is the inspiration for today’s cocktail, as it’s going to be bright red and pack a little bit of heat. But the heat we’ll be working with here are those earthy spices; your cinnamon, your allspice and your ginger. It’s going to give the cocktail a nice tingle that’s also gonna fit perfectly with the dropping temperatures as we make our way into the holiday season. And, if you’re looking for another Predator cocktail, I made a Predator Blood drink a few years back that has this sweet and vegetal taste to it that I really loved.

INGREDIENTS

• 2oz spiced rum
• 1/2oz Benedictine
• 3/4oz pomegranate juice
• 1/2oz spiced simple syrup (recipe below)
• 1/2oz lime juice
• 2 dashes angostura bitters
• splash of grenadine
• Top: Ginger beer

FOR SPICED SIMPLE SYRUP

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1tsp allspice berries
• 1tsp dried ginger root
• 2 cinnamon sticks

INSTRUCTIONS

FOR SPICED SIMPLE SYRUP

1. Combine ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
2. Let cool, then strain into sealed container.

FOR COCKTAIL

1. Add ingredients to a shaker and shake to chill.
2. Strain into tall cocktail glass (over ice if desired).
3. Top with ginger beer.