PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025)

Studio:   20th Century Studios
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Writer:   Patrick Aison, Dan Trachtenberg
Producer: John Davis, Brent O’Connor, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt
Stars:    Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi

Review Score:

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Summary:

An outcast predator reluctantly teams up with a synthetic human to hunt a massive monster on a deadly planet.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

After Dek, a Yautja runt whose smaller size makes him an outcast in their clan, fails to defeat his brother Kwei in combat on their home planet of Yautja Prime, Kwei suggests Dek’s best chance of proving himself would be to travel to the “death planet” Genna and bring back a trophy from a supposedly unkillable creature called the Kalisk. Dek and Kwei’s father interrupts their planning to demand that Kwei kill Dek so they can cull weakness from their clan. Defying the order, Kwei instead fights their father after locking Dek inside a transport ship programmed with Genna as its destination. Dek watches helplessly as his father kills Kwei. With his dying words, Kwei tells his brother, “Bring it home.” Thinking his son will die on Genna, Dek’s father launches the ship.

Dek’s ship crashes on Genna. Dek fights his way through deadly flora and fauna until he comes to a vulture’s nest where Thia, a Weyland-Yutani synth missing her legs, is trapped. Dek initially ignores Thia’s request for rescue, but he is forced to throw her a bladed weapon when he becomes paralyzed by deadly plants while a flying creature prepares to attack. Thia frees herself in time to save Dek by killing the creature.

After administering an antidote that revives Dek, Thia, who knows Dek came to Genna to hunt the Kalisk like other Yautja did before him only to die, offers to guide Dek to the Kalisk’s den so she can retrieve the legs she lost when it attacked her. Although Dek resists because it is dishonorable to accept help on a hunt, Thia convinces him she can be a useful tool.

Thia teaches Dek how to survive Genna’s various plants and lifeforms as she travels on Dek’s back. During a respite, Thia explains she was part of a synth team that built a base on the planet two years earlier, although she keeps it secret that their mission was to capture the Kalisk for Weyland-Yutani’s Bio-Weapons Division. Thia adds that when the Kalisk attacked, she became separated from Tessa, an identical synth who worked in the field while Thia remained in the lab, whom she considers to be her “sister.”

Elsewhere, Tessa’s damaged body is repaired and rebooted by Weyland-Yutani’s MU/TH/UR computer system. MU/TH/UR reiterates Tessa’s mission to recover the Kalisk, adding that Thia is now with a Yautja. Tessa leads a squad of combat-ready drone synths back into the field and eventually retrieves Yautja weaponry from Dek’s ship.

After battling through bone bison, razor grass, and a lunabug that briefly captures them, Dek and Thia befriend a small creature that comes to their aid. Thia names the creature Bud, who forms a bond with Dek despite Dek’s aversion. Bud marks this bond by spitting on Dek. The next day, Thia becomes upset with Dek for returning to his hunt without waiting for Bud.

Identifying himself as an outcast from his clan, Dek tells Thia how his brother died protecting him from their father. Recognizing Dek’s determination to show strength, Thia explains the concept of an “alpha” in a wolfpack.

Thia recovers her legs in the wrecked Weyland-Yutani base. While repairing herself, Thia warns Dek that she called Tessa, and he needs to leave before Tessa arrives with the drone synths or else he will be captured. Thia also regretfully admits her mission was to capture the Kalisk, and she used Dek to return to the base. Despite Thia claiming the Kalisk cannot be killed because of its incredible regenerative properties, Dek becomes more insistent on completing his task.

Dek battles the Kalisk. Dek decapitates the creature, but its head reattaches. The Kalisk nearly kills Dek but stops when it senses Bud’s saliva on him.

Tessa arrives at the scene leading the drone synths. Using an ice bomb she took from Dek’s ship, Tessa freezes and captures the Kalisk as well as Dek.

Reunited with Tessa aboard a transport vessel, Thia objects to holding Dek for scientific study, going as far as terminating a painful procedure Tessa begins performing on him. Tessa contends that a synth’s purpose is to do whatever Weyland-Yutani asks of them. Thia counters that they can be more than that by treating each other as sisters. Likening her to Dek, Tessa tells Thia she is weak and orders her deactivation.

With Dek’s help, Thia tricks the synth guarding her and Dek into blowing himself up. Thia opens the transport craft’s door so Dek can escape outside.

Dek returns to his ship to retrieve weaponry and treat his wounds. He also uses what Thia taught him about Genna to craft new weapons out of deadly plants they encountered. Upon reuniting with Bud, Dek realizes the creature is actually the Kalisk’s child. Finally, Dek recovers Thia’s legs before he and Bud descend on a Weyland-Yutani outpost to rescue Thia.

Dek fights through drone synths to get to Thia. Dek tells Thia that Bud is the Kalisk’s child, and he wants to save its mother.

While Thia and Bud free the Kalisk, Dek battles Tessa, who operates a massive power-loader mech for combatting Dek. Dek and Tessa fight until the Kalisk joins the fray and swallows Tessa whole. The Kalisk reunites with Bud. Dek expresses a bond with Bud’s mother.

The Kalisk suddenly explodes from another Yautja freeze bomb Tessa detonates in its stomach. Emerging from the destruction, Tessa accuses Thia of betraying her. Citing the radical differences in their emotion programming, Thia angrily tells Tessa they are not sisters. Before Tessa can fire Yautja lasers at Thia, Dek kills her from behind. Bud tears off Tessa’s head.

After Thia is repaired and Bud grows to a larger size, Dek returns to Yautja Prime. Dek presents Tessa’s metal skull as a trophy and demands that his father reward him with a cloaking device. Insisting Dek is still a disgrace, Dek’s father commands Yautja warriors to attack. Dek kills them and then beats his father in combat.

Admitting defeat, Dek’s father offers Dek an opportunity to take his rightful place in their clan. Referring to Thia and Bud, Dek tells his father he already has a clan. Bud then bites the head off Dek’s father. Dek takes his father’s cloaking device. Thia honors Dek as a true Yautja.

A spaceship approaches from the distance. Dek tells Thia his mother is coming as he prepares a bladed weapon for battle.

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Review:

Criticism should be sincere. In a clout-chasing race where the Oxford English Dictionary chose “rage bait” as its 2025 Word of the Year, however, it’s common for criticism to instead be built on bad faith, often fighting to conform to a predetermined mob mentality or screaming into a performatively angry echo chamber. Unfortunately for “Predator: Badlands,” irrational haters ignore opportunities to level legitimate knocks in favor of baseless review bombing for the crime of attempting to take the property to places it’s never been before.

Prior to its theatrical debut, “Predator: Badlands” took hits from social media posts bemoaning this Yautja’s new look based solely on a single screenshot. Compared to the brutish predators of previous films, some accused this one of being a “downgrade.” Those still stung by women having prominent roles in “Star Wars” went harder, calling it “DEI garbage,” an eyeroll-worthy claim that sounds even dumber than usual when it’s applied to an alien.

In their rashness to condemn “Predator: Badlands” for featuring a predator design that is shorter, skinnier, and not a mountain of muscle, hotheads missed that this is a key part of the plot. Cast out of his clan because his diminutive size makes him seem weak, Dek is determined to prove his strength by doing something other Yautja have died trying: surviving the “death planet” Genna and bringing back a trophy from a supposedly unkillable behemoth called the Kalisk.

Helping Dek during his quest is Thia, a Weyland-Yutani synth whose team was wiped out by the Kalisk, leaving her legless and trapped in a vulture’s nest Dek has to be convinced to free her from. Here’s where someone could submit an honest grumble regarding director Dan Trachtenberg and actor Elle Fanning’s choice of characterization that isn’t just about gender.

Serving as the quippy buddy to Dek’s determined warrior in their “Odd Couple” pairing, Thia provides comic relief to lighten the film’s tone. This can be hard to handle not so much for the humorous touch, but for the grating voice and perky behavior used to emphasize Thia’s pushy personality. Dek’s portrayal is on point for a predator, except his quirky companion creates a dynamic that feels better fit for an “on the road” comedy than a sci-fi spectacle.

While it would be fair to have reservations, even objections, over “Predator: Badlands” being punchier with back-and-forth banter like it’s a “Lethal Weapon” spinoff, claims that the PG-13 rating neuters the movie can’t be quantified. The film’s first four minutes consist of Dek and his Yautja brother battling each other with bladed weapons. Crashing on Genna only ten minutes later, Dek’s journey across the deadly planet puts him in combat with a pterodactyl-like beast, sentient tree tendrils, several massive monsters, and numerous Weyland-Yutani synths. There isn’t any red blood because there aren’t any humans in the movie. But there are multiple decapitations, severed limbs, and creatures that completely explode. If someone insists explicit gore must accompany all this action for fantasized violence to be entertaining, that’s a problem with the person, not the movie.

“Disneyfication” carries as much weight as “woke” since both terms equate to ambiguous nonsense. Yet once again, someone could set aside prejudices over imaginary offenses and genuinely justify wagging a finger at “Predator: Badlands” for giving Dek and Thia a Muppetized sidekick. Does cute critter Bud make the movie kid-friendly? Not even close. Take him or leave him, Bud is merely one more condition Dek must adapt to in order to become an intuitive, intelligent hunter capable of coexisting with others who can offer an advantage instead of immediately wasting them according to a code that hasn’t helped him anyway.

What else do negative naysayers want to whine about? That the Yautja articulately communicate in a developed language instead of their signature clicks? Forcing the film to adhere to limiting concepts from four decades earlier, when no one gave a thought to IP advancement beyond a simple antagonist for a one-and-done flick, is a terrific way to stunt a franchise’s growth, and “Predator: Badlands” wants to do the exact opposite. The movie leans into live-action cartoon territory by design, though that doesn’t warrant a one-star rating for supposedly destroying rose-colored memories of macho men fighting a monster.

“Predator: Badlands” isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, just like none of the other entries in the series were universally adored. But claiming it’s a completely different brand because it adds comic book fun to a flavor that had been turning stale is disingenuous. Instead of pretending to be incensed over misperceived alterations to a familiar formula, it’s a better idea to lighten up on the outrage and enjoy “Predator: Badlands” for its high value as an action-intensive outer space adventure, even if it does get a little goofy.

Review Score: 70

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