3 out of 5

Directed by: Dan Trachtenberg

I have to assume that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” odd-coupling of the much maligned Aliens vs. Predator movie’s human/Yauta teamup did not originate with that film: it’s such an obvious wish fulfilment pitch (and standard for any type of franchise where the baddie is just too cool to not also be a hero) that I’ll assume it was in one of the Dark Horse comics being published in the years between Predator 2 and AVP. So I don’t want to take any piss out of Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands for kinda sorta following that template, and arguably in a much cuter fashion than Paul W.S. Anderson’s flick – its featured Yautja is very much the main character, requiring some brilliant design work to soften up its features without dimming his threat factor so we Predator fans can go aww and cheer for him but not feel betrayed out of the lore. However, even though Dan, co-writer Patrick Aison, and the aforementioned designers and the various other creatives on this project helped to admittedly find a good balance of tone, this also feels like a very safe Predator film, cautiously released back into theaters after Dan’s streaming success with Prey, and post the flop of Shane Black’s The Predator. Don’t fear it, because it’ a ton of fun, it’s just the most Marvel-ized of the bunch so far.

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi plays Dek, a young Yautja out to prove himself to older brother Kwei and his militant Daddy Yautja by securing his first hunt. While preparing for this, though, Dek finds out that poppa predator is tired of waiting for his runt son to catch up to the tribe’s standards; a fraught family squabble escapes Dek to the planet Genna, whereupon he pledges to hunt down a famously terrifying creature called the Kalisk. Alas, Genna’s reputation as “the death planet” is quite warranted: all of the flora and fauna proves predatory in some way or another, and Dek’s crash-landing has stripped him of most of his cool Yautja gear. Thankfully, he stumbles across the broken, but still functioning remains of Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani android, who pledges to help Dek get the Kalisk. Resolutely independent by his social training, Dek only agrees by seeing Thia as a “tool” – another bit of gear in his arsenal. This tool can – and likes to – talk, however, providing us the perennial action movie odd couple of the stoic, badass lead and the chattering sidekick. Combined with some classic fish-out-of-water comedy stylings, Trachtenberg is able to fiddle with this template to deliver some amazing action sequences, and even plausibly question Yautjan motivations via the one-sided conversations between Dek and Thia. As with Prey, and the preceding Killer of Killers, the dialogue is never particularly sharp, but Dan gets great performances, and the themes are sharply affected so as not to feel cheap; our progression throughout is very satisfying.

And there was sincerely no shade meant regarding Dek’s design: with full credit to Schuster-Kolomatangi for bringing a ton of physical personality into the role, whatever combination of animatronics / CG / facial capture gave us the predator’s reactions are extremely well balanced; Fanning is also insanely delightful – though the overly-chatty role is a bit too twee at points, she, also, gets to flex a lot of nuance in what turns out to be a multi-layered role.

On the action front, the design of the planet’s various creatures are very fun, and the overall visualizations of the different scuffles are varied to make each one unique and exciting. But it’s all a bit “soft:” working on a relatively modest budget for a franchise pic, some of the CG doesn’t feel weighty enough, and scenes occasionally feel cropped / shot in a way that undermines the scope. The attitude and momentum sells it, though.

Soft; safe: these terms are the main criticism of the movie. The movie feels moderately avoidant of any truly raw edges, and very readily jumps to humor in a quippy fashion that is a bit too Marvel-familiar. But Dan does clearly get this franchise, and just as he was able to prove some horror / tension chops by backing into another franchise, there’s the sense of a director who’s willing to kind of do the work to earn their keep before maybe breaking out on their own. That undersells his work quite a bit, as, with this film, Dan has now delivered three solid Predator movies, when they’ve been a little questionable ever since the first one. (I mean, Predator 2 is of its time, but that’s a review I’ve yet to write…) So let me change up those adjectives: Predator: Badlands is a cautious foray into tentpole actionry from Dan. It succeeds in all the ways it needs to, and that caution allows Trachtenberg to prove that he can stay true to fandom while trying to – if slowly and methodically – push the needle into new territory.