Predator: Badlands – Review

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 46 minutes, Director – Dan Trachtenberg

A young predator (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) tries to prove himself by travelling to the universe’s deadliest planet to kill the un-killable, with help from a broken Weyland-Yutani android (Elle Fanning).

Much of the threat and draw of the predator as an antagonist are its swift, evolved killing techniques. As Prey and animated anthology take Killer Of Killers showed this can go for whichever historical context you drop the Yautja species in as protagonists adapt and use what’s around them to fend for their lives. Predator: Badlands, once again helmed by Dan Trachtenberg, switches things up to focus on a young predator, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), trying to survive one of the universe’s deadliest planets.

Travelling there to prove himself to his clan leader father (Reuben de Jong) by getting the head of an apparently unkillable creature as a trophy the planets and animals found on Genna are immediately forces to be reckoned with. Instead of showing off skills immediately Dek has to, like most characters in Predator films, learn and adapt before the big final confrontation – a sequence which from his perspective leads to the feeling of an alien John Wick or Robert McCall. However, it’s clear that on Genna Dek is out of his depth, and finds help from the remaining top half of a Weyland-Yutani android, Thia (Elle Fanning).

With Thia strapped to Dek’s back like a backpack the pair encounter the various forces and plants on the planet in a variety of action sequences. There’s something of an unsettled feeling to some of these events as the feeling of individual ideas and sequences comes through. It’s a tone that, alongside the generally CG-filled crashes of it all, created a sense of disconnect with me during these major sequences. There was some interest and amusement here and there, but they certainly create something of a lengthy build-up before properly getting into the meat of things with the involvement of Thia’s fellow android sister Tessa (also Fanning), trying to also track down the fearsome Kalisk, and now a Yautja, too.

When the feeling of things moving forward with more strength comes into play that’s when Badlands picks up and starts to progress with more engagement and a better sense of flow. The third act certainly takes a step up as it properly gets into more familiar Predator-style action, with an unfolding plan adding to the thrills on display, plus a hint or two of neon green blood marks (Badlands only holds a 12 – although likely top-end 12 – rating from the BBFC, a first for the franchise which has often held 15 and 18 ratings up until this point). Yet, it takes some time to get to these particular sequences with the various ideas happening in establishing future points, details and styles of action whilst exploring Genna. Ideas which have an occasional thrill despite being slightly bogged down in set-up and exposition.

Working best when focusing on the developed skills of the central predator, and those around him, through more fluid and structured action, Predator: Badlands takes some time to properly kick in with its, while lightly enjoyable, segmented expository sequences.