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Review by E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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PREDATOR: BADLANDS- 2025USA Release: Nov. 7, 2025 20th Century Studios Rating: USA: R |
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Whew! Such poor marketing!
Now that I've seen the movie, there is such a tonal shift between the trailers and movie, its like Disney spent a fortune on marketing in an attempt to murder their inherited franchise.
So let me tell you upfront: PREDATOR BADLANDS KICKS ASS!
This is the best Predator since PREY, and that was the best Predator since the original!
Director Dan Trachtenberg is on top of this and while it didn't initially live up to expectations, word is slowly getting around that this Predator is far better than Disney wanted us to believe. So much so that fans are responding by making PREDATOR: BADLANDS the biggest box office take of the franchise.
Unfortunately its also the most expensive.
Unlike the futuristic PREDATOR world we saw in ALIEN VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM, and what was strongly hinted at in the technology of ALIEN VS PREDATOR and PREDATORS, this Predator world (I say that because with colonization, the one we see may be one of many) is pathetically primitive. If this was Tatooine in Star Wars, this would be the afterbirth moon of that planet - inhabited by inbreds.
In PREDATOR: BADLANDS, the way Predator Aliens live, the way they look compared to other Predators we've seen so far, and the dystopian, patched up, MAD MAX appearance of their spaceships, suggests a backward dying world.
War or a Death Cult religion (strong references to both), has decimated this world, reducing its apex creatures to little more than "Cavemen". These brutal, feudal creatures don't value, and so could never have, the ability to create the advance tech of the planetary hunting theme parks in PREDATORS or the highly advanced spaceship interiors we saw in AvP.
So what we see a few centuries into the future where this takes place, is that earthlings have nearly eclipsed the Predators in all their technology. In fact, we're better at using ours than Predators are in using what still works of theirs. The backward primitives the Predators devolved into rely more on their ancient technology to win rather than their cunning, training, speed and strength: They aren't the galactic bad-asses their Big Game hunting ancestors were.
The movie opens with two Predators (they call themselves, Yautja) having what appears to be a no holds barred, death match in a canyon on the planet Yaujita Prime (again suggesting a homeworld where the Yautja began and not the highly advanced space-faring people they eventually became).
As it turns out, what looks like a death match between two enemies is merely a workout exercise between two brothers, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and Kwei (Michael Homik: THE HOBBIT [all], ASH VS EVIL DEAD [TV], MORTAL ENGINES, GAME OF THRONES [TV], AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER). Dek, while being the older brother, is also the runt of their parent's litter and of their clan. So to prove himself worthy, he's going to the planet Genna aka Death Planet (or for CNN viewers, "Mostly peaceful"). The most dangerous varmint on Genna, the one even their father, Njohrr (also played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), fears, is the Kalisk. So that's the one that Dek thinks he's going to defeat.
Pop shows up, dismisses such notions, and tells Kwei to kill Dek. When Kwei refuses, his Pop kills him while Dek watches from his spaceship, already committed to lift off. Helplessly watching as his borther is murdered, for the rest of the movie Dek will have more on his mind than simply impressing Njohrr. Yes, he's still going to bring back the head of the Kalisk, but there will be hell to pay when he does.
So now we have a (Hero?) Yautja, driven by more than just proving himself to his Pop, he's also driven by grief, revenge, and rage.
He soon crash lands on Genna, discovers that the entire planet has more than earned its name, and is unable to deal with merely the average fauna of the place.
Fortunately he meets a severly damaged robot named Thia (Ellie Fanning: DEJA VU, THE LOST ROOM [TV], THE NINES, SUPER 8, TWIXT, MALEFICENT, THE NEON DEMON, MARY SHELLEY). Thia is only half the Wyeland-Yutani robot she used to be because the planet Genna is just that harsh. Luckily for Dek, he meets the top half that can communicate with him and give him advice on how to survive the deadly freaking place.
Dek and Thia befriend one of the locals and now we have a bloodier, gorier, splattier version of 1993's HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. Or a PREDATOR version of 28 DAYS LATER, if you prefer. Thia, being an obvious Robot or Synthetic does most of the translation as nearly every other word Dek says is "Tish!".
Tish despite the subtitles.
Director Dan Trachtenberg, who also pitched and wrote the story, along with screenwriter Patrick Aison (PREY), understand the brothers, Jim Thomas and John Thomas (MISSION TO MARS, PREDATOR), PREDATOR mythos and ethos inside and out.
Unfortunately, Disney doesn't understand any of the franchises they bought into (Marvel, Star Wars, ALIEN, PREDATOR) and fans agree that it shows - Badly.
Fortunately, at least with their PREDATOR IP, it shows only in Disney/20th Century Studios amatuer hour marketing, not in the production itself.
I hope the franchise keeps going under Dan and Patrick. I also hope we'll also get to see more of the technologically advanced Predators and not just the Taliban Warlord versions.
PREDATOR: BADLANDS gets all 5 Shriek Girls!
This review copyright 2025 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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