Director Dan Trachtenberg will continue evolving the Predator franchise until morale improves. And it will improve, because Predator: Badlands, the latest in the action-horror franchise, has the goods as a nonstop parade of tense, violent monster fights, with a surprisingly complex Predator at its heart.
The Predator franchise always refused to remain stagnant, but we may be in its best era in some time. The original Predator introduced the titular alien hunters chasing down commandos in the thick of the Central American jungle. The sequel unveiled another of the species in the thick of an urban Los Angeles gang war, while Predators stranded a host of Earth's most dangerous on an extraterrestrial hunting planet.
Ignoring the two Alien vs. Predator films (due to uncertain canonicity) and 2018's critically maligned The Predator, the franchise wasted no time getting back on its feet with Trachtenberg's surprising 2022 effort, Prey. Prey ignored the steady chronological march of the franchise's four continuous films, following a historical Native American tribe's efforts to thwart a predator attack. Trachtenberg's next effort, Predator: Killer of Killers, was an animated anthology that featured different Predators taking on Earth's finest from various times and places.
Predator: Badlands continues franchise adaptation, jumping into the undefined future to follow the first true Yautja protagonist, undertaking the hunt of an unkillable beast with a Weyland-Yutani synth in tow. It's a thrilling showcase of Trachtenberg's ability to mine the franchise for new potential.
Predator: Badlands Introduces a Great Pair of Characters
At its core, the Predator franchise is about an intergalactic civilization of hunters that travel the stars in search of the deadliest prey: murderous beasts and civilized killers alike. That's a blank check for viciousness, with the first four slowly adding to viewers' understanding of them, their methods of hunting, and different clans among them.
Trachtenberg's iterations expanded the series' potential: what if the long-lived species bounced around humanity's history? What if it expanded from the present into world historical warriors? Predator: Badlands expands the franchise's possibilities further with its clever choice to follow a young Yautja who has to prove himself on a planet full of deadly dangers.
Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi is excellent as the young Predator Dek, the runt of his clan who's forced into a dangerous hunt when his father, Njohrr, kills Dek's brother so that he can 'cull' Dek from his clan. He showcases considerable emotional range despite the species' characteristic stoicism. As a protagonist, Dek evolves, adapts, and finds new approaches to being a Yautja that open up interesting possibilities for future projects.
On the deadly planet, Dek finds the company of Thia (Elle Fanning), the top half of a Weyland-Yutani synth injured in the pursuit of the planet's deadliest beast (to paraphrase the Stone Temple Pilots, she's "half the ma'am she used to be"). Fanning is a delight as Thia; she's charming, upbeat, informative, and continually encouraging Dek in his pursuit of Yautja excellence. It is well established that Dek and Thia share some level of commonality that cements a strong bond, and the pair skillfully plays off each other despite their very different personalities.
The Future Is Bright for the Predator Franchise
There was a bit of fan trepidation when it was announced that Badlands would be a PG-13 outing, and that makes little sense given how R-rated the franchise has always been. The Predators skin victims and collect spines! At the same time, Badlands is packed full of high-octane action, danger, and violence, often pitting an alien warrior against a variety of deadly extraterrestrial beasts... no humans were harmed in the making of this film.
None of that makes the action of Predator: Badlands work less well. The deadly prey are well designed to both feel fatal and to challenge Dek and Thia. Each one attacks differently, making sure Dek stays on his clawed toes. Between this and Alien: Earth, the Alien and Predator franchises' creature count expanded wildly in as little as a year, with Weyland-Yutani's penchant for collecting intergalactic bioweapons leaving a host of great possibilities for other protagonists like Dek to contend with. As the film builds toward its satisfying conclusion, the lessons he learned along the way are well utilized.
The film's biggest issue, perhaps, is its traditional Disney storytelling, now a Star Wars staple. En route to his final prey, Dek runs into a cute but formidable creature that desires to join his de facto posse. It's tied well into the finale, but that doesn't make 'unlikely pair of travelers are met by a powerful space baby' hit any better. It works in the narrative, but it can feel like leftover Disney plotting, elevated slightly by its ultimately conclusion.
Predator: Badlands is a stellar expansion for the franchise that introduces one of its most interesting Yautja yet, a clan of one who has reinterpreted what it means to be a Predator. It boasts fine performances from Fanning and Schuster-Koloamatangi, unique creature designs, well-developed action sequences throughout, and an expansion of the universe. With Trachtenberg's well-established penchant for tying in these disparate stories, who knows what type of project is coming next? The franchise is in good hands. Can we get a copy of that Yautja Codex already?
Final Rating: 8/10
Predator: Badlands premieres in theaters on November 7, 2025.
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