Predator: Badlands (2025)

2 Stars (out of 4)

Dek Dreck

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Though it has a few fun moments here and there, Dan Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands, the ninth entry in an inconsistent sci-fi/action franchise, feels like a grab bag of older ideas from older movies, with little to distinguish itself.

A yautja (Predator) called Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is considered the "runt" of the family and unworthy of his warrior father (performed by Reuben de Jong and voiced by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and bigger, stronger brother Kwei (Michael Homick and Stefan Grube). When Kwei defends Dek, raising their father's ire, Dek vows to prove himself a true hunter. He will travel to the planet Genna to hunt and kill the "un-killable" beast called the Kalisk.

After a rough landing, Dek immediately finds himself on a planet full of hostile flora and fauna, attacked from every angle. He comes across unexpected help from Thia (Elle Fanning), the upper half of a damaged "synth" (synthetic) belonging to the Weyland-Yutani corporation. If they work together, Thia can use her knowledge of Genna to help Dek, and Dek can help Thia her find her legs, as well as her mising "sister," Tessa (Fanning).

A far battle cry from filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg's excellent series refresher Prey, Predator: Badlands starts promisingly, for the first time telling its story from the point of view of the monster, rather than the humans trying to stop the monster. (In Alien vs. Predator, the Predators were the heroes of the story, but only because they were the lesser of two evils.) This idea quickly falls apart, as — it turns out — Predator logic is incredibly narrow and allows for little emotional growth. Anything other than aggression is seen as weakness and therefore punishable by violence.

And so Dek goes on his quest to a planet where everything is deadly (Lightyear). The grumpy loner meets an annoyingly yappy sidekick (Shrek), avoids a field of flying, poisonous spikes (Raiders of the Lost Ark), and uses a glowing sword (Star Wars) to fight an army of clones (The Matrix). There's a cute, computer-animated comic relief alien with big eyes, which is ultimately helpful in the final battle (the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi). And an evil corporation (literally borrowed from Alien and Aliens) wants to monetize the monster.

Over the course of the story, Dek learns to accept others and becomes a better Predator, but it feels more like checkmarks on a spreadsheet than anything organic. Even the title Predator: Badlands seems to have been chosen at random, perhaps by ChatGPT. Hopefully next time these hunters can hunt for a better story.