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Update: November 5, 2025
Dragonlord’s Review of PREDATOR: BADLANDS (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Not only is Predator: Badlands a fun, sci-fi action adventure pic, it’s also the best live-action Predator movie in my opinion since the 1987 film and the best Predator-Alien universe crossover movie yet.
Dan Trachtenberg revived the languishing Predator franchise by directing and co-writing the entertaining Prey movie and followed it up with the fun, action-packed animated film Predator: Killer of Killers. With Prey, Trachtenberg went to the past for a grounded, back-to-basics hunting story. In Killer of Killers, the filmmaker tripled down on the historical aspect but introduced a game-changing plotline that gives the franchise exciting possibilities on bringing together past leading characters from different Predator movies.
But instead of going in the same route with his third film, Trachtenberg goes off in totally different bold direction with Predator: Badlands by featuring a Yautja the protagonist of the story. In the film, Dek is a young and undersized male Yautja who is an outcast of his clan. To earn his father’s approval in the clan, Dek goes to the dangerous planet Genna to hunt an unkillable apex beast, the Kasilisk. While in the planet Genna, Dek meets Tria (played by Elle Fanning), a damaged synthetic from Weyland-Yutani, who assists him hunt the Kasilik.
The best part is the survival elements in the film as the young Yautja, without much of his weapons and gear, has to survive an extremely hostile planet where almost every lifeform is designed to kill you. Seeing the formidable hunter on the opposite end and trying to survive all these crazy, weird organisms is very entertaining. Dek is pretty good protagonist as the film does a good job of making you empathize with him. Elle Fanning’s bubbly synth makes for a good counter to Dek’s gruff, no-nonsense lone wolf persona. There are several cool moments as well as some minor criticisms near the end but it’s all spoilery, so I’ll just save them for the future.
Trachtenberg and co-writer Patrick Aison greatly expanded the Predator universe with Badlands by focusing on the Yautja culture and finally making the Yautja extensively speak in their own language. So instead of just nonsensical clicks or sign languages, letting the Yautja speak breaks off the franchise’s self-imposed limitations and opens up all kinds of possibility in terms of future storytelling.
I love these types of sci-fi survival films, so Predator: Badlands appealed so much to me. And unlike other sci-fi films like this, this one is done sooo well. Predator traditionalists and purists might object to this film’s approach but I hope everybody gives this a chance because it is so good. Even if you’re not a Predator fan, if you like sci-fi survival adventure, you will like this.
RATING: 8/10
(Leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews and want to see more movie reviews in the future.)
Dragonlord’s Review of PREDATOR: BADLANDS (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Not only is Predator: Badlands a fun, sci-fi action adventure pic, it’s also the best live-action Predator movie in my opinion since the 1987 film and the best Predator-Alien universe crossover movie yet.
Dan Trachtenberg revived the languishing Predator franchise by directing and co-writing the entertaining Prey movie and followed it up with the fun, action-packed animated film Predator: Killer of Killers. With Prey, Trachtenberg went to the past for a grounded, back-to-basics hunting story. In Killer of Killers, the filmmaker tripled down on the historical aspect but introduced a game-changing plotline that gives the franchise exciting possibilities on bringing together past leading characters from different Predator movies.
But instead of going in the same route with his third film, Trachtenberg goes off in totally different bold direction with Predator: Badlands by featuring a Yautja the protagonist of the story. In the film, Dek is a young and undersized male Yautja who is an outcast of his clan. To earn his father’s approval in the clan, Dek goes to the dangerous planet Genna to hunt an unkillable apex beast, the Kasilisk. While in the planet Genna, Dek meets Tria (played by Elle Fanning), a damaged synthetic from Weyland-Yutani, who assists him hunt the Kasilik.
The best part is the survival elements in the film as the young Yautja, without much of his weapons and gear, has to survive an extremely hostile planet where almost every lifeform is designed to kill you. Seeing the formidable hunter on the opposite end and trying to survive all these crazy, weird organisms is very entertaining. Dek is pretty good protagonist as the film does a good job of making you empathize with him. Elle Fanning’s bubbly synth makes for a good counter to Dek’s gruff, no-nonsense lone wolf persona. There are several cool moments as well as some minor criticisms near the end but it’s all spoilery, so I’ll just save them for the future.
Trachtenberg and co-writer Patrick Aison greatly expanded the Predator universe with Badlands by focusing on the Yautja culture and finally making the Yautja extensively speak in their own language. So instead of just nonsensical clicks or sign languages, letting the Yautja speak breaks off the franchise’s self-imposed limitations and opens up all kinds of possibility in terms of future storytelling.
I love these types of sci-fi survival films, so Predator: Badlands appealed so much to me. And unlike other sci-fi films like this, this one is done sooo well. Predator traditionalists and purists might object to this film’s approach but I hope everybody gives this a chance because it is so good. Even if you’re not a Predator fan, if you like sci-fi survival adventure, you will like this.
RATING: 8/10
(Leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews and want to see more movie reviews in the future.)
Eat more fish LOL
