Predator: Badlands

 

The only thing weirder than getting a good Predator movie in 2025? Getting two good Predator movies in 2025. Earlier this summer the brutally stylish Hulu exclusive Predator: Killer of Killers was much better than it had any right to be, and now Predator: Badlands has the audacity to surpass my expectations as well. Who'da thunk? 

Director Dan Trachtenberg returns to the franchise after both the aforementioned Killer of Killers and 2022's Prey, and he successfully bats three for three. I expected there to be good action in Badlands, but what I didn’t expect was for it to have an engrossing emotional core as well. A first for the series, the film features one of the titular creatures (who are also known as Yautja) front and center as a protagonist rather than the mysterious antagonists that they usually are, and this shift works surprisingly well considering the fact that these dudes are some ugly motherf***ers (Arnold’s words, not mine). Elle Fanning plays Thia, a synthetic human right from the Alien side of the technically-shared universe, offering some familiarity when things get too, well, alien, and the relationship between her and our main Yautja Dek (played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is the main thrust of Badlands’ narrative.  

The most interesting aspect of the film is how Trachtenberg displays a clear love of the series yet also isn’t afraid to deconstruct its problems. A warrior race who views everything and everyone else as prey to be hunted may sound cool on paper and make for some great action in this and past films, but how screwed up would one be after being raised in such a society? How miserable must such an existence be? Badlands is somehow a great dumb blockbuster but also an interesting (if surface-deep) look at how destructive toxic masculinity is for both the people who interact with it and those who perpetuate it.  

The emotional turn-around for Dek is a bit abrupt, and these themes are not explored as deeply as they could have been. But a Predator movie with something to say? That’s novel. 

The action in Badlands is a bit more predictable, and I mean that in a good way, as it delivers all of the alien violence that fans of the series crave. My only complaint where that is concerned is an odd one considering my general squeamishness—honestly, I wish it would have been bloodier and nastier. There is not a single actual human in Badlands, and the only blood that is spilt is the milky blood of synthetic humans, the green glow stick blood of the Yautja, and the colorful blood of various other alien creatures. I want to see a Predator draw some red, for heaven’s sake, preferably in a very gruesome way. 

Despite the violence and some interesting creature designs, Badlands is fairly bland from a visual standpoint. Perhaps I was just spoiled by the trailer of the new Avatar film that played immediately before, but Badlands didn’t look nearly as interesting as it could have. But I shouldn’t expect the world… Predator is a silly popcorn franchise, after all, and on that Badlands certainly delivers.  

Predator: Badlands is now playing in theaters.