Movie Review: Predator: Badlands
Predator: Badlands is not your daddy’s Predator movie. Since John McTiernan’s 1987 masterpiece, we’ve come to know the Predator character as an intergalactic human-hunting extraterrestrial (or a xenomorph-hunting extraterrestrial on a couple of occasions). There has never been much of a backstory to the Predator and, until now, that’s been just fine.
Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands shows us the Predator in a new light. The movie is entirely focused on the Predator. It is given a name, a personality, a purpose, and emotions. It’s very different from what we have seen from the Predator in the past, even Trachtenberg’s last film, Prey, which revitalized the Predator franchise back in 2022.
There are three action sequences before the title card drops at the 20-minute mark, setting the tempo for the rest of the film. The fights set up the film’s stakes and the characters’ personalities. We are introduced to Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a Yautja, as he arrives on his home planet of Yautja Prime. He immediately enters a cave and starts fighting with his brother Kwei (Stefan Grube). Following their battle, we learn that Dek is the runt of the Yautja pride, and to be part of his father’s army, he must go on a hunt and bring back a trophy. Dek chooses to hunt a Kalisk, a creature no Yautja has ever captured. We then meet Dek’s father, who orders Kwei to kill Dek, but refuses and gets into a fatal fight with his father. Dek then sets his journey to catch Kalisk, and as soon as he crash-lands on the planet of Genna, he is attacked by elements of the planet’s forest. It’s a thrilling beginning to the movie, with Trachtenberg establishing the story and tone right away.
While on his journey to defeat the Kalisk, Dek encounters Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged synthetic from the Wayland-Yutani Corporation who is missing her legs. Dek throws Thia on his back and uses her to help guide him to the home of the Kalisk. Dek soon realizes that his search for the Kalisk may be part of something bigger.
The story and plot of Predator: Badlands are familiar but well-done. We’ve seen stories of characters who set out on a journey to prove their worth many times before, and Badlands hits all the right beats. It’s an epic journey that takes Dek and Thia through vast mountains and plains. I was most taken by how much emotion the film had. Badlands has a surprising amount of heart and even some nice humor. Schuster-Koloamatangi and Fanning have wonderful chemistry together. Dek is overly serious and knows nothing about this planet, and Thia is bubbly, energetic, and knowledgeable. It’s a classic mismatched partnership done to perfection. They also get some assistance from a so-ugly-it-is-cute baby Kalisk. While Badlands is loaded with action, its tactile story and focus on character emotion elevate it beyond a basic action film.
The action in Predator: Badlands is spectacular. Along with the three opening action sequences, Badlands features several other exhilarating and expertly crafted action scenes. Whether Dek is fighting a monster on Genna or his father, each fight is filled with jumps, flips, an arsenal of weapons, and brutality. Trachtenberg uses slow motion effectively, and the CGI never looks bad. These are some of the best fight sequences I have seen in a movie in 2025.
Predator: Badlands is a Predator movie from a different perspective. Trachtenberg gives us a Predator movie with more depth and heart than we’ve seen before while also crafting eye-popping action scenes. This is a new Predator for a new era, and I am here for it.
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