by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
Growing up, I wasn’t a horror fan. If I am being honest, I’m still not. However, I have gone from actively avoiding horror movies to checking out the ones that the film community as a whole says are worth seeing. I have really been enjoying the trend of the villain being a metaphor of some kind. But I also have been getting behind the “horror plus a second genre” films like Shaun of the Dead, Aliens, Scream, and most notably (and relevant for this review), Predator.
I had, for decades, stayed away from Predator, because all I knew of the franchise was big, scary monster murdering people. I saw the creature design and was like, “Kindly, no, thank you.” Additionally, their inclusion in the Alien franchise didn’t help, because for years I was freaked out by those movies too. There was no need to put myself through movies that would give me nightmares.
But as I moved further into adulthood, and the stresses of being an adult were far scarier than a dude in rubber suit could ever be, I realized it was time to give the genre a try. It is safe to say the only disappointment I experienced, after checking out Predator, was in myself for not doing so sooner. My only saving grace for being so late to the Predator party (the ones not hosted by Chris Hansen) is that I didn’t have to wait a decade after every entry. In fact, after having seen every theatrical entry in the past few years, it is safely my favorite action/horror franchise of all time.
What really solidified it for me was its world building and willingness to change up the dynamic of its entries. Predator could be seen as a slasher movie where the final girls are army dudes. It can also be a war movie with a twist. Predator 2 was probably the most similar to the original, swapping out a tree-filled jungle for the concrete jungle of drug ridden “futuristic” Los Angeles. But then to throw a curveball into the franchise by making the third entry a movie where the Yautja kidnap all types of humans, who are good at killing, to hunt them on a planetary preserve, is inspired. Even The Predator, which I know is the least liked in the mainline franchise, I find to be delightfully stupid, albeit entertaining. But I think the Predator franchise finally hit its stride with Prey. I was blown away by the return to basics, and afterwards was very pleased to learn that directed Dan Trachtenberg had somehow wrestled the keys to the Predator car away from whoever kept loaning it out haphazardly over the years. His second entry, Predator: Killer of Killers, was also a slam dunk for me. So I was very excited for Predator: Badlands, because no matter how much this franchise changes from movie to movie, it has yet to turn me away from having a good time (except AVPR: Aliens vs Predator – Requiem… that movie can kick rocks!)
Predator: Badlands is the story of Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a Yautja considered to be the runt of the litter in his clan. We learn that in the Yautja clan system, in order to be accepted by the clan officially, you must go on a hunt which would prove your worthiness. Once you have done so, you are accepted and gifted the cloaking shield used in all the previous Predator movies. Dek is not so lucky, though, because his dad is a real piece of work who doesn’t want to give Dek a chance to prove himself, so he orders Dek killed. Through the help of his older brother, Dek is able to escape his father to the planet Genna, or as I have taken to calling it: Nightmare World! And this planet SUUUUUUCKS! Everything there is essentially designed to kill you, as hard as it can, as fast as it can. Dek isn’t there five minutes when, much like a video game sequel, he is nerfed by having all of his fun Yautja hunting toys taken away. Left with nothing but a sword and his wits, he is forced to survive long enough to find a creature called a Kalisk to take home as his trophy.
Right away, Dek runs into trouble with some of the local flora and fauna, but he is helped by the most unlikely of sources, a Waylan-Yutani synthetic android (or synth for short) named Thia (Elle Fanning). Well… half of one anyway. Thia was sent to this planet with a team of synths to collect specimens for study. She explains that during the mission, they were attacked, and she lost her legs, but if Dek helps her find her legs and her team, she will show him where the Kalisk lives. Once Dek is finished throwing up at the very through of getting help on his personal epic hunt, Thia talks him into accepting a loophole — technically, since she’s a synth, she’s not a person but a tool. So naturally, Dek agrees to accept her help and wears her like a backpack, C-3PO style. As they travel, Dek starts to learn much about this nightmare world through trial and error, and the help of Thia.
What I love about Predator: Badlands is how the journey that Dek goes on is your classic hero’s journey, which we have never seen in this franchise before. As he makes his way, he learns, gets smarter, and becomes a fiercer hunter. All while in the background, the themes point to generational trauma and finding your own clan. Dek must learn that it is okay to shake off the traditions of the past in a very “apes together strong” kind of way. Thia tells him about Earth wolves and how the leader of the pack isn’t the strongest or the best killer — it’s the one who best takes care of the pack. Unless Dek can accept this and shed the desire to be accepted into a clan that wanted him dead, he can never truly be free.
Another thing I loved is that despite its PG-13 rating (and that it doesn’t star Adrien Brody), it may be The Brutalist of all the Predator movies (I cannot stress how giddy that multi-layered pun made me). In terms of gruesome kills, Badlands slices animals in half, has more decapitations than it knows what to do with, and comes up with some pretty gross ways to kill a synthetic human. Because all the fights take place between alien creatures and synths, there is never a drop of red blood to be found, so no R rating is required. I can only imagine Mr. Trachtenberg sitting in the director’s chair yelling “LOOOOOPHOLE!” And this smart approach works, because I’m pretty sure the impressive $40 million opening weekend was the result of being more accessible to a wider audience. I am even more excited to learn that the reported budget of the movie was a reasonable $105 million. So after one weekend of great audience and critical response, coupled with a strong opening box office and a reasonable budget, Disney would be insane to not green light another theatrical Predator movie sooner rather than later!
However, if we do get another movie soon, there is one thing that I am going to need them to address. As much as I enjoyed Badlands there is a glaring issue that is keeping me from fully loving it, and that is its editing and fight scene cinematography. Every action scene in this movie, save for one, is too dark, and in all of them the camera is too zoomed in on the principles of the shots. It is so bad that it is very difficult to figure out what is happening in a given scene. There is a moment at the end where Dek is fighting someone in a giant version of Ripley’s mech suit from Aliens, and I couldn’t understand where he was in relation to the mech, what he was doing to it, or how his and the suit’s actions mattered in relation to the scene. I was reminded of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, it was so bad, and you never want to remind people of that terrible movie. I am even more confused, because the action scenes in Prey are the antithesis of Badlands, and both movies are made by the same team. I don’t think there was even a cool action oner, which has been a staple of Trachtenberg’s Predator entries until now.
However, poorly edited and lit action scenes aside, those gripes aren’t enough to bring me down on Predator: Badlands! I had a blast, because the story is solid, and the characters and creatures are fun, endearing, and in some cases, downright adorable. The violence is brutal and the world building delivers. I am not one of those people who sees this movie as too much a departure from what the Predator franchise is, because this franchise has never been too consistent with itself. Unless that consistency is being awesome, which this movie is also. So train up an acid-spitting lizard to be your shoulder-mounted pet-blaster (which they better start selling at Disney World), and head to the theaters before Predator: Badlands loses all its premium screens to Wicked For Good!
Rating: High Side of Liked It
Predator: Badlands is currently playing in theaters
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