By Bob Grimm
I wasn’t all that excited about a Predator movie that supposedly switched the point of view to that of the Predator, focusing on the hunter rather than the hunted. I also wasn’t excited for a Predator movie that was PG-13 and made the Predator somewhat of a sympathetic character. I like my Predators vicious, uncaring vehicles of terror.
Well, I was misguided: This one pulls off the old Terminator 2 switcheroo, where the villain successfully becomes a good guy. (Well, sort of a good guy.)
Predator: Badlands is not only the best film in the franchise; it is easily one of the year’s best action films. It’s basically like an Avatar movie gone batshit, where an alien planet’s supposed beauty is spiked with too many things that can kill you, and the Predator itself somehow becomes heroic.
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who helmed the franchise-resurrecting Prey in 2022, the film is much more than a visual marvel. It features a franchise-best performance from Elle Fanning as two synthetic androids who cross paths with Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a “runt” predator on a terrifying alien planet trying to hunt a mystical, unbeatable beast.
Fanning, as a synthetic created by Weyland-Yutani (the fictitious evil corporation with threads in both the Alien and Predator franchises), gets a chance to show great range as both a sweeter, kinder and funnier version of a synth, and a cold, calculated and humorless one. Both performances are terrific, giving the action a surprisingly human element, even though the characters are artificial.
Dek is a nice addition to Predator lore, a likable character who conveys emotion through all of those prosthetics. The film still contains a ruthless Predator in the form of Dek’s father, so there will be room for the completely vicious Predators in future films. Still, it’s surprising how much you wind up caring for Dek, considering the franchise’s one-note nasty history with the Predators.
The end result is better than Prey, which was very good, and even better than Alien: Earth, the Hulu TV series that stumbled after a shining start. Like Michael Fassbender before her, Fanning has set a new standard for synthetics in Alien/Predator lore. Trachtenberg has put the Predator franchise on solid, consistent ground for the first time since the first film in 1987. After a series of sequel misfires, the last two movies show the premise has big, sturdy legs and a promising future.
Be the first to comment