Movies PREDATOR: BADLANDS (Dragonlord's Review, post #1)

[Osculater]

This movie was like "Prey" but the Predator was a Soyboy Predator

 

[JadeOwl]

OK, I just came back from seeing it, and I have to agree with @Dragonlordxxxxx that it is very, very good!

Further comments under spoilers:

• Elle Fanning did an amazing job in the dual role of Thia and Tessa. They really didn't need to go through the extra trouble of giving them such starkly different outfits and hairstyles, or give Tessa that weird eye. Fanning's acting and body language alone were enough to clearly distinguish the two characters. They should've trusted her (and the audience) more in that regard.
• Speaking of Elle Fanning, @Dragonlordxxxxx you must've been laughing your ass off at my expense seeing me complain that her ass wasn't in the movie, knowing full well there was an entire damn sequence of her lower half marching into the Weyland-Yutani base under its own power to help Dek and Bud rescue her torso!
• One detail that I noticed and loved is that a close reading of the movie shows that the only reason the Yautja kept failing when going up against the Kalisk was their dogmatic following of the Codex. Tessa proved that the Kalisk could be defeated using Yautja tech (which she stole from the wreckage of Dek's ship), so long as the Kalisk was fully engaged fighting another Yautja at the time, meaning that two or more Yautja working together could have taken down a Kalisk at any time in the past. So the only reason they kept dying in the attempt, was because they kept trying to do it solo, as dictated by the Yautja Codex, as quoted in the opening epigraph of the movie. Which I think was the whole point of the film: to paraphrase the Starks, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
• I'll give them props for actually making "the deadliest planet in the galaxy" an actual fucking death trap and not getting repetitive with it. It could've been so easy to fill the planet with large predators (no pun intended) trying to eat the protagonists. Adding flora that was dangerous in other ways (the razor grass was so simple, yet effective) was a great touch.
• One thing I would've liked, that we didn't get, is some concrete indication of where in the timeline this story is supposed to fall at. I really didn't spot anything on the Weyland-Yutani end that would tie to a specific time period.

So odd question, how scary or intense is it? My kid wants to watch an alien or predator movie but he’s still young (10) wondering if he could watch this.

It is very intense and very graphic, but... all that violence is directed at CGI alien monsters and humanoid androids.

So, if for example, you wouldn't have a problem with a human-looking dude having his head stomped on and completely crushed, but only sparks, white fluid and circuits coming out... then you're golden. Yautjas get limbs and heads chopped clean off onscreen and tons of neon green blood flows freely.

Basically, as a lot of other people have said, I believe here and in review sites, if the aliens and androids in this movie had been humans, and you changed nothing else, the rating would've been a hard R.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

I'm not a fan of Predator 2 myself I thought it was a s**ty sequel,

[About to press Like button]

the same with T2.

[nevermind]

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

OK, I just came back from seeing it, and I have to agree with @Dragonlordxxxxx that it is very, very good!

Further comments under spoilers:

• Speaking of Elle Fanning, @Dragonlordxxxxx you must've been laughing your ass off at my expense seeing me complain that her ass wasn't in the movie, knowing full well there was an entire damn sequence of her lower half marching into the Weyland-Yutani base under its own power to help Dek and Bud rescue her torso!

• 
  
  
  
  
  Not sure if what I saw was real but can you confirm if at the end Dek's wrist blade was made out of that razor grass?

 

[Prefect]

10/10. Straight up baller shit. Wow. Kept the pace the whole movie. Robo chick was good. Honestly, felt like the right mix of plot and action. I might even say better than the first in a lot of ways. Felt like a sequel that opened up the world and added depth. Maybe the new mask was the only detail I thought could have been improved on. That was minor. Added so much to the predator backstory and feel that makes you wonder why the other movies didn't.

 

[JadeOwl]

Not sure if what I saw was real but can you confirm if at the end Dek's wrist blade was made out of that razor grass?

Yes, most definitively.

Which reminds me of another thing I really liked about the movie that I forgot to mention in my previous comments: every last gods' damned Chekhov's gun in the movie was indeed fired. Every single thing that they made a point of bringing our attention to, or that Dek had to deal with... played a role in the climax.

 

[Prefect]

Yes, most definitively.

Which reminds me of another thing I really liked about the movie that I forgot to mention in my previous comments: every last gods' damned Chekhov's gun in the movie was indeed fired. Every single thing that they made a point of bringing our attention to, or that Dek had to deal with... played a role in the climax.

I didn't have a problem with that because it is a B movie. An A Grade B-movie. I want to see cool shit, chuckle a few times, and something has to get the shit kicked out of it. It is like Avatar in some ways if you removed all the retarded shit and kept the pedal to the floor the whole movie.

 

[liner]

I'm going to watch this tonight, looking forward to it! One of the best parts is the theater is the kind that has a butter station for the popcorn. I ask the kid to put a little popcorn then I load it with butter. Do that 3 times or so.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Apart from his fucking eyes making him look like a sand boa, another disconcerting thing about this movie from this review is the whole 'family dynamic' / Predator social life stuff. I don't need, nor want, to see that side of a Predator - I want to believe this is just a brutal killing machine with no language nor lineage. This sounds like a coming of age movie of sorts, and I can't help but feel it's another one of those movies where they take a villain and portray them as somewhat misunderstood instead.

 

[Roids]

Apart from his fucking eyes making him look like a sand boa, another disconcerting thing about this movie from this review is the whole 'family dynamic' / Predator social life stuff. I don't need, nor want, to see that side of a Predator - I want to believe this is just a brutal killing machine with no language nor lineage. This sounds like a coming of age movie of sorts, and I can't help but feel it's another one of those movies where they take a villain and portray them as somewhat misunderstood instead.

Exactly. Same with trying to give Alien a back story. I don't give a fuck because they don't need a back story. Who the fuck ever cared about how a Predator grew up seriously? Its just pathetic milking a franchise to death.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Exactly. Same with trying to give Alien a back story. I don't give a fuck because they don't need a back story. Who the fuck ever cared about how a Predator grew up seriously? Its just pathetic milking a franchise to death.

My thoughts exactly. I loved Prey but this just has so little appeal to me.

 

[HHJ]

Who the fuck ever cared about how a Predator grew up seriously?

A small minority, these pussies trying to ruin everything

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Yes, most definitively.

Which reminds me of another thing I really liked about the movie that I forgot to mention in my previous comments: every last gods' damned Chekhov's gun in the movie was indeed fired. Every single thing that they made a point of bringing our attention to, or that Dek had to deal with... played a role in the climax.

Yup, loved that fact also. I removed that part in my review because it was too spoilery and would have just ruined the surprises.

Spoiler

Loved that they paid homage to the original Predator movie where Dek used his environment as resources in prepping for his big battle.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

I didn't have a problem with that because it is a B movie. An A Grade B-movie. I want to see cool shit, chuckle a few times, and something has to get the shit kicked out of it. It is like Avatar in some ways if you removed all the retarded shit and kept the pedal to the floor the whole movie.

There were some aspects of it that I found cool but thought they overdid it a little. It didn't deter my enjoyment of the film but others would probably use it against the film.

Spoiler

The spitting eel shoulder launcher was cool but at the same time I will acknowledged that it was too convenient how the eel could shoot its targets on mental command and how accurate it was. Those damn eels couldn't even hit Dek and Thia while they were slogging through the river. But as I said it was cool but a bit much also.
@JadeOwl

So true with the Avatar description but without the softer aspects of it.

 

[TYR-I]

Apart from his fucking eyes making him look like a sand boa, another disconcerting thing about this movie from this review is the whole 'family dynamic' / Predator social life stuff. I don't need, nor want, to see that side of a Predator - I want to believe this is just a brutal killing machine with no language nor lineage. This sounds like a coming of age movie of sorts, and I can't help but feel it's another one of those movies where they take a villain and portray them as somewhat misunderstood instead.

Next the Xenomorhps will have internal family struggles

 

[Bob Gray]

Who the fuck ever cared about how a Predator grew up seriously? Its just pathetic milking a franchise to death.

I cant speak for you, obviously, but when I was younger basically everybody? I mean, when I was 12 if they had made a sequel of a young predator going around alien worlds killing the fuck out of shit i would have gone absolutely insane. Its like everyone forgot what it was like to be a kid and all the the stuff we'd talk about. We'd literally talk about the skulls in Predator 2 and how awesome it would be to have a movie about how they got all the skulls. Thats this goddamn movie. Stories like this are why the comic books even existed.

Even Predator 2 would have gotten torn to shit by people who loved it as a kid if they were jaded adults. It changed the "lore" of rhe silent hunter killer that could feasibley be killed during its hunt to a super Predator that was basically bullet proof and aparently loved being struck by lighning? Game and lay.

 

[Protectandserve]

OK, I just came back from seeing it, and I have to agree with @Dragonlordxxxxx that it is very, very good!

Further comments under spoilers:

• Elle Fanning did an amazing job in the dual role of Thia and Tessa. They really didn't need to go through the extra trouble of giving them such starkly different outfits and hairstyles, or give Tessa that weird eye. Fanning's acting and body language alone were enough to clearly distinguish the two characters. They should've trusted her (and the audience) more in that regard.
• Speaking of Elle Fanning, @Dragonlordxxxxx you must've been laughing your ass off at my expense seeing me complain that her ass wasn't in the movie, knowing full well there was an entire damn sequence of her lower half marching into the Weyland-Yutani base under its own power to help Dek and Bud rescue her torso!
• One detail that I noticed and loved is that a close reading of the movie shows that the only reason the Yautja kept failing when going up against the Kalisk was their dogmatic following of the Codex. Tessa proved that the Kalisk could be defeated using Yautja tech (which she stole from the wreckage of Dek's ship), so long as the Kalisk was fully engaged fighting another Yautja at the time, meaning that two or more Yautja working together could have taken down a Kalisk at any time in the past. So the only reason they kept dying in the attempt, was because they kept trying to do it solo, as dictated by the Yautja Codex, as quoted in the opening epigraph of the movie. Which I think was the whole point of the film: to paraphrase the Starks, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
• I'll give them props for actually making "the deadliest planet in the galaxy" an actual fucking death trap and not getting repetitive with it. It could've been so easy to fill the planet with large predators (no pun intended) trying to eat the protagonists. Adding flora that was dangerous in other ways (the razor grass was so simple, yet effective) was a great touch.
• One thing I would've liked, that we didn't get, is some concrete indication of where in the timeline this story is supposed to fall at. I really didn't spot anything on the Weyland-Yutani end that would tie to a specific time period.

It is very intense and very graphic, but... all that violence is directed at CGI alien monsters and humanoid androids.

So, if for example, you wouldn't have a problem with a human-looking dude having his head stomped on and completely crushed, but only sparks, white fluid and circuits coming out... then you're golden. Yautjas get limbs and heads chopped clean off onscreen and tons of neon green blood flows freely.

Basically, as a lot of other people have said, I believe here and in review sites, if the aliens and androids in this movie had been humans, and you changed nothing else, the rating would've been a hard R.

Appreciate that breakdown. Poor guy is gonna have to wait on Predator. Hahaha.

 

[Prefect]

Appreciate that breakdown. Poor guy is gonna have to wait on Predator. Hahaha.

I saw it in 3D and it was pretty good. I don't know what but that is two movies in a row that weren't shitty with 3D. Tron, and Predator. I don' t know if they got the bugs worked out or what but they did it right in both.

 

[HHJ]

I cant speak for you, obviously, but when I was younger basically everybody? I mean, when I was 12 if they had made a sequel of a young predator going around alien worlds killing the fuck out of shit i would have gone absolutely insane. Its like everyone forgot what it was like to be a kid and all the the stuff we'd talk about. We'd literally talk about the skulls in Predator 2 and how awesome it would be to have a movie about how they got all the skulls. Thats this goddamn movie. Stories like this are why the comic books even existed.

Even Predator 2 would have gotten torn to shit by people who loved it as a kid if they were jaded adults. It changed the "lore" of rhe silent hunter killer that could feasibley be killed during its hunt to a super Predator that was basically bullet proof and aparently loved being struck by lighning? Game and lay.

Well.

When I was a kid I was a HUGE Predator fan. I read the comics too.

Some of the comics were good. Some of em were bad. Even as a 12 yr old I could tell the difference.

So even back then I can say that if you give us a MEH/Shitty Predator movie, I would say, ok that is... ehhhhhhh. Even back then ! The mystery about the Predator in the first one, obviously that mystery doesnt exist in the second one, in the sense that we know what the Predator is now.

But we still dont know THAT much about him. Other that he's part of a tribe, you dont really know all that much. The change was that they put him a new enviornment. A new situation. He's in the city, full of people.

When tasked with hunting down members of Harrigan's squad, to draw him out into open battle, The Predator was willing to not just rely on quick savage stealth attacks, but to actually attack a train full of commuters. This was really cool stuff that there was no way we coulda seen in the first movie. The carnage, the body count was much higher, and while the cast wasnt as memorable this time around, they sure were a hell of alot better than anything we got after.

Sure it's ok to experiment, I dont mind them makin a bunch of movies and get better at makin em, but there is such a thing as going too far from the essence of what made the first two movies good.

In that sense at least Prey has the right idea, that we got one badass Predator, who is definitley not there to make friends with anyone, or do any goofy bullshit.

That animated Predator movie, did some cool experimental stuff, and I mostly liked it until the third story and the final half. I also dont mind the IDEA that some Predators kidnap some people who have defeated them in battle. But..

those gotta be asshole predators who dont play by the rules. Cos what we've been shown so far for the past 30 years is that the Predators honor those who can beat them in battle. (if they can stop them from self detonating first) Even giving them weapons as gifts.

Why the fuck would they bother doin that if they are to just be cryo frozen and thrown to fight other humans for their pleasure? lol


So I dont think the lore of all Predators should be fixed to that aspect.

I havent seen this movie yet, but why cant i cringe at the fuckin previews, this puppy dog eyed "friendly" predator teaming up with another girl?? wow is that all you can come up with after all this time ? The same shit, except now with so much CGI, they might as well have made another animated movie?

 

[HHJ]

But ill come back after i've seen it.