“Predator: Badlands” (2025) focuses on Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatang), a young Predator who is deemed ineligible for the hunt, but worthy of culling because of his size. By setting his intention to leave his home planet, Yautia, for the death planet, Gemma, to hunt the Kalisk, a beast that even his father, Njohrr (also Schuster-Koloamatang)), fears, Dek decides to prove his worthiness so he can return home. Gemma proves to be filled with creatures who can kill him. Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani synthetic only sporting a torso, offers to help him navigate Gemma’s dangers if he helps her return to the base to reunite with her legs. Will they stick to their mission or find a higher calling? Director Dan Trachtenberg reunites with “Prey” (2022) writer Patrick Aison for the ninth movie in the “Predator” franchise. If you do not mind an extremely derivative and predictable installment that feels like “Prey” meets “Tron: Ares” (2025) meets “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), then “Predator: Badlands” is worth the price of a matinee.
“Predator: Badlands” has good bones. It is a great idea to make a Predator into the protagonist. Dek is basically an underdog like the protagonist in “Prey” except with a worse family life and fewer skills. He just wants to hunt, y’all. Schuster-Koloamatang has a heavy lift considering the amount of practical and special effects that he must act through without his performance being smothered. The film offers a glimpse into Predator family dynamics, but it feels haphazard. One minute, Dek is fighting his brother, Kwei (Michael Homick), before they change locations for another fight then a heart to heart before dear old dad ruins their love sesh. If Dek is unique, it is because he and his brother have different values from the rest of the community. Dad wants Dek culled but basically lets him get away. All the fuss seems perfunctory so there is as much action as possible without the story earning the right to the three times when Dek is in danger before the title card appears. It is long on action, short on logic and story, which is meh. It is a PG-13 film, but the action pushes the limits of its ratings.
Once on Gemma, it feels very familiar to “Prey” with the food chain depiction of the planet’s perils except predator is also on the menu. There is a “Wizard of Oz” feel to Thia teaming up with Dek. Fanning may play the nicest, consistently competent synth in Weyland-Yutani history to date. David from “Alien: Romulus” (2024) could be nice or competent, not both. Synths lie to fulfill their mission. Fanning gets a lot of dialogue that she delivers with pep, but one detail is that she has been stuck for two years; however, when you find out about the rest of her backstory, it does not make sense that she would be separated from herself for so long. Also given her stealth mission, the denouement makes less sense in the way that Dek’s hunt intention gets finished off. “Predator: Badlands” is the kind of film that suffers if you devote any thought to the narrative.
The strongest concept in “Predator: Badlands” is finding out the catch in their deal, and when it comes, it is a provocative concept that only gets explored to its furthest corners for one scene before blinking and pushing away the idea because it is too bleak. If the entire movie was as merciless, it would have been great. Dek rationalizes working with Thia because she is a “tool.” Thia knows that her corporation only views Dek as a sample or a threat to the mission, with the latter not given enough foundation when the concept is introduced but eventually becomes clear. It is chilling because Weyland-Yutani has mainly been dangerous for endangering human beings in its effort to capture a xenomorph, which do not appear so do not get excited. Weyland-Yutani’s work seems crueler since they do not see Dek as a sentient, autonomous being, but as a slave. The idea of making a Predator into a slave is a provocative concept that hammers home the concept of the dangers of corporations as rulers without government checks and balances, which is rich considering that the idea is coming from a corporate vehicle, but it is the most genuinely risky and thrilling idea before it gets abandoned for safer fare like chosen family.
These characters come from cultures that dehumanize others, but to be fair, none of these characters are human. The goal of the movie is for all these characters with different programming to abandon their upbringing and form a new clan, which is wonderful, but there is missing connective tissue. Thia is a machine and given her history, it seems like a lot to overcome in exchange for her connection with Dek. If you can accept that having emotions is sufficient, then you are good to go. A lot of characters or species end up working together and saving each other without enough groundwork to explain their motivation. “Predator: Badlands” is a feel good “Predator” movie.
If “Predator: Badlands” feels like a Disney movie, it is because of all the cuteness or the tech. It alternates between having a “Star Wars” aesthetic and embracing the cuteness of creatures like Falkor in “The NeverEnding Story” (1984). If there is a dangerous creature, expect for it to reveal the depths of its camaraderie and helpfulness based on the circumstances. Again, your powers of suspending disbelief must be strong. The fight scenes are decent, but the best concept is the idea of a synth fighting like a machine, not a person. It is reminiscent of horror movies where disembodied hands get up to mischief and defy their physiology as they wreak havoc on the world.
Trachtenberg and Aison are a great team, but when they conceive stories together, it would be nice if they did a little research. Just like their inaccurate depiction of Comanche tribe gender politics in “Prey,” their concept of the alpha wolf was debunked and publicized in a Scientific American article dated February 28, 2023 titled “Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth.” A breeding pair, like parents with children, not one leader, lead a family unit. Yes, they introduce the concept of alpha to subvert and redefine it in a way that erases the toxic masculinity inherent in the Yuxia clan and promotes more collaborative values, which is laudable and is faithful to the spirit of scientific accuracy, but also is the kind of casual aside that proliferates erroneous concepts in an era when science is already ignored. It is a little, negligible quibble for well-intentioned people who would hopefully do better if they put in a little more effort.
“Predator: Badlands” is fine. There have been worse crossover films related to the “Predator” and “Alien” franchises. Hell, there have been worse “Predator” films. Looking at you, Shane Black.
