Predator: Badlands certainly has its moments, but it’s such a departure from the rest of the Predator movies that it largely becomes one of the franchise’s weaker entries.
Predator: Badlands is a different kind of Predator movie. Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers director Dan Trachtenberg presents us with a young Yautja, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who is weaker than the rest of his clan and needs to prove himself by going to an ultra-dangerous planet to slay a feared beast. In doing so, we get our first-ever Yautja protagonist (though, to a lesser degree, that first Alien vs. Predator taps into something similar), and we see a completely different side of these fierce creatures.
It’s not a bad pitch on paper. It’s the execution that doesn’t really work.
Why doesn’t Predator: Badlands work as a Predator movie?
Predator: Badlands is a pretty fun adventure movie. There are lots of big ideas and fun additions; in addition to Dek, we’re also following a Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Thia, played by Elle Fanning, who has an interesting character arc.
The problem is that, with Badlands being a very different kind of Predator movie, there’s also a big tonal shift when comparing it to Prey or Killer of Killers. As soon as Dek and Thia meet, the jokes quickly start flying. Jokes that feel like they belong in an MCU movie — meaning, a bunch of quippy one-liners that feel out of place in this franchise.
The farther you get into the story, the more Disney-like elements (yes, Predator is owned by Disney now, but that didn’t stop Alien: Romulus from going nuts) start to emerge, too. They befriend a cute little monkey creature that largely just feels like it’s there to appeal to younger audiences and sell toys. The PG-13 rating isn’t a problem itself; there’s still plenty of violence to enjoy, but Badlands also feels like it’s playing into a PG-13 vibe that feels really watered down from what this could have been.
By the time we reach the end of Badlands, Dek, Thia, and the monkey creature (now starting to mature into a more deadly, but still kind of cute, beast) have become a found family who manage to overpower their enemies, largely through the power of friendship (and Yautja weapons and whatnot, but mostly friendship). That idea works in something like Killer of Killers, when it’s a team of very different characters bonding in order to survive. In Badlands, it feels a lot more forced and like we’re ending with them together in order to set up a sequel rather than because it’s a natural conclusion.
Trachtenberg recently told Variety that The Avengers did serve as an inspiration for Badlands and how the franchise is “setting up that things could come together in a delicious way.” Which, sure, I, too, am curious to see where that goes. But Prey and Killer of Killers were fun because they had a “We can throw a Yautja into any period of time, and cool things are going to happen without everything having to be connected” vibe. Now, it seems like everything does need to be connected, and the focus is on making a shared universe with direct sequels, which come with a lot of required viewing.
Trachtenberg’s Predator movies are still creative, fun watches (I’d love to see that idea about a Yautja killing Nazis during World War II come to life). Badlands just feels like it’s trying to get a four-quadrant audience rather than playing into what works best about this franchise.
