If director Dan Trachtenberg took a back-to-basics approach to the franchise with 2022’s Prey, then Predator: Badlands does the opposite of that. Skirting dangerously close to where they lost us with 2010’s Predators, this stand-alone prequel follows a tough yet out-of-their-depth badass struggling to survive on a remote planet – the most dangerous planet in the universe, to be precise. The difference this time? Dek (Dimitrius Koloamatangi) is a young Yautja, out to prove himself by hunting the biggest, baddest creature he can find.
While Trachtenberg could have coasted off the success of Prey, delivering another period Predator film (which the animated anthology Hunter of Killers did plenty of anyway), Badlands once again reinvents the wheel, in the franchise’s first Yautja-centric entry. It almost doesn’t need chirpy android Thia (Elle Fanning), although we’re glad she’s there. Giving the series its first buddy comedy is an inspired move, and Fanning is a delight as Dek’s blabbermouth companion. She and Dek have wonderful chemistry, and the story is a clever riff on Naru’s coming-of-age arc in the previous film. You’d never think a Predator could be particularly emotive, but Koloamatangi gives a tremendous performance as the firebrand Yautja, blending CGI and prosthetics in a way that looks and works far better than the trailers might have you believe.
Some of the more cutesy comic moments might rub the Predator faithful the wrong way (hey, at least its not 2018’s The Predator), but Trachtenberg and co-writer Patrick Aison are successful in blending this with big, bombastic action and surprisingly emotional character beats. Once again, they’re resist the urge to lean too hard into the “get to the choppa” schtick, but there are some intriguing connections to a wider universe which feel more organic to the plot than you might expect from the sixth, eighth or ninth (depending on where you count Alien crossovers and an animated tie-ins) entry in a long-running series.
A bold action film with charm, grace and a strong emotional throughline, Badlands is perhaps the most human Predator yet. Not bad, considering there’s not a single one in the whole film.
PREDATOR: BADLANDS is out in UK cinemas
