Predator Badlands review
Cast: Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning, Mike Homik, and Rohinal Nayaran
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Rating: ★★
A recurring question in my mind while watching Predator: Badlands was how this film could be made by the same director who gave us the splendid Prey and the brilliant Killer of Killers, set in the same universe. Dan Trachtenberg is credited with reviving the Predator franchise and giving it a new voice with these acclaimed films. With Badlands, it seems the director is hell-bent on undoing all of his good work and making sure the franchise goes nowhere forward. Not only is this spinoff bland, but it also demystifies one of Hollywood’s most iconic characters so wastefully that it feels tragic more than anything else.
The premise
Predator Badlands follows a Predator named Dek, who runs away from his home world in search of both redemption and revenge. He befriends a synthetic cyborg (Elle Fanning) on a death planet in a bid to hunt the unkillable Kallisk, and stake his claim to be a respected warrior of his clan. Parallelly, we see soldiers of the Weyland-Yutani corporation (hello, Alien franchise crossover) looking for the animal for their own gains. How the two forces collide forms the story of Badlands.
How the film falls short
Predator: Badlands is the first film in the franchise where a Predator (who are actually called Yautja) is the protagonist, rather than the antagonist. It’s a bold choice and one that could have paid off had the director not decided to strip the character and the race of all the mystique and enigma it held. The Predators worked because they were unstoppable killing machines, always ahead of the competition, ever-so-resourceful. To focus on the runt of the litter is an interesting choice, but to give him a soppy backstory with copious dialogue pretty much sucks the aura out of the character, making him look pitiable more than anything else. Dek is not presented as an underdog, but as a whiny teenager. And nobody roots for that protagonist!
{{/usCountry}}Predator: Badlands is the first film in the franchise where a Predator (who are actually called Yautja) is the protagonist, rather than the antagonist. It’s a bold choice and one that could have paid off had the director not decided to strip the character and the race of all the mystique and enigma it held. The Predators worked because they were unstoppable killing machines, always ahead of the competition, ever-so-resourceful. To focus on the runt of the litter is an interesting choice, but to give him a soppy backstory with copious dialogue pretty much sucks the aura out of the character, making him look pitiable more than anything else. Dek is not presented as an underdog, but as a whiny teenager. And nobody roots for that protagonist!
{{/usCountry}}There is plenty that works for Predator Badlands, mainly the world-building and stunning visuals. Dan Trachtenberg beautifully creates a world with a wild ecosystem and some catchy creatures that challenge our protagonists. However, despite the visual appeal and innovation of the creations, they fall short in the absence of a solid story to support them. There are only so many times you can look at a wide CGI shot of an alien planet in awe.
The action is also slick, but the comedy, largely led by Elle Fanning, is more on point. It feels natural and never too much, never too distracting from the intense narrative. The punches land, and it never feels superficial. As Thia, Elle Fanning is the film’s beating heart, and she tries in vain to elevate the film beyond mediocrity.
Predator Badlands gets a lot wrong. It butchers a beloved movie character (at least partly). It is predictable, and it becomes yet another film that uses the evil, emotionless robot trope. On top of all that, the emotional high points of the film feel so soppy and melodramatic that I felt I was watching a soap opera instead of a Predator film.
Perhaps all that is why one wonders how Dan Trachtenberg got so much so wrong this time. With Prey, he revitalised the Predator franchise, showing a brilliant standoff between a Native American fighter and a Yautja. In Killer of Killers, aided by mind-numbing animation, he gave us the best Predator film in decades. And yet, in Badlands, he appears as someone who simply does not get the character at all. It is a curious fall, indeed.