Directed by Dan Trachtenberg | Written by Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison | 107 min | ▲▲ | In Cinemas
A few years ago Dan Trachtenberg surprised many with his excellent stealth Predator sequel, Prey, one of those cases where a streaming release (on Disney+, go watch it if you haven’t) should’ve also opened in cinemas — Prey so deserved the silver screen. Following an animated movie on Disney+ (Predator: Killer of Killers), Trachtenberg’s been granted the big screen release for another Predator feature. This version has been watered down to PG-13 from an R rating, but it’s still Trachtenberg at the helm.
And while you can feel his confidence with the material — this movie has a shining, slick carapace, like a cybernetic scarab — it no longer seems like the creative output of a single filmmaker, more the product of a committee looking to please a much broader audience. It may as well be a Michael Bay movie, a flashy but predictable story that feels like it’s inspired by a video game.
This is a complaint I’ve rolled out from time to time, the influence of first-person-shooters on action fantasies. This is probably this year’s most egregious example — the first act is pure action cartoon with no weight. Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a Yautja, the predator species that Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) called “ugly motherfuckers” back in 1987. This species is all about the hunt, the individual, and have no patience for any kind of weakness — the ultimate paternal toxicity.
Dek is a runt, looking to prove his worth by killing something big. His Daddy wants to see Dek executed because he sees him as weak, and when Dek’s brother Kwei tries to protect him, Daddy kills Kwei. This is all done on Yautja Prime, which for some reason is terribly lit and stupidly dark, and I didn’t even see this movie in 3D. Dek takes off in Kwei’s ship to the planet Genna, home of a Kalisk, a huge beastie that even Dek’s Daddy fears — killing it is a perfect way to prove himself. Dek finds the whole planet, not just the Kalisk, wants him dead, both the flora and the fauna.
These are the yawningly boring bits, a noisy, repetitive slurry of CGI monsters and confusing, hyper-edited action sequences — so disappointing after the astonishing, vertiginous action in Prey. Dek has to manage all manner of environmental trouble before the movie introduces Thia (Elle Fanning), a synthetic person from Weyland-Yutani. Yes, the corporation from Alien plays a big part in this, further canonizing the two terrible Alien vs Predator movies. This, at least, is better than those were.
Thia is missing her legs, so convinces Dek that she’ll be a useful tool, and he should carry her to find the Kalisk. This helps the movie because at least Thia has a personality — Dek is so one note, he’s no fun to spend any time with, and Fanning is easily the best reason to sit through this nonsense. Of course, because this is a PG-13 movie, we also need Bud, a cute, slightly simian alien creature to join them for no good reason except the plot decides Bud is important later on.
This was the first time in this entire franchise, with all its many missteps, I recognized what I’m watching is meant to sell toys, and that sucks. If this was the 1990s you’d assume Predator: Badlands was a straight-to-video quickie, it has all the tropes.
When it actually feels more like an Alien movie than a Predator movie in the second and third act, with the corporation becoming the central antagonist, that improves matters somewhat — longtime watchers of both of these franchises will note some familiar nods to past elements, though not as egregious as the “get away from her, you bitch,” idiocy in Alien: Romulus, an otherwise better movie than this is.
The finale of Predator: Badlands is badly botched. There’s a tender moment between characters, followed immediately by the surprise demise of a key character and nobody, even a direct relative, seems to care. Dek’s arc, going from independent-minded warrior to embracing the concept of a pack, is mishandled. One moment he’s all about his Yautja values and the next he’s all about his found family. It doesn’t work, and Dek’s too expressionless, too uninteresting, and too motherfucking ugly to really care about.
