On November 7, Predator: Badlands released in theaters. It is the seventh movie in the Predator franchise and came out following the success of Prey, a prequel and the sixth installment, in 2021. Both Badlands and Prey were directed by Dan Trachtenberg, also known for his hit film 10 Cloverfield Lane released in 2016.
Badlands follows Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a member of the Yautja species and is the runt of his clan. The movie begins with a confrontation with his father (Reuben de Jong). This culminates in Dek being sent on an adventure to reclaim his honor by slaying the Kalisk, a monster famous for its immortality.
One of the movie’s biggest strengths is in the alien species shown on Genna, the planet Dek is sent to in order to kill the Kalisk. When first crash landing on the planet, Dek encounters a group of tree monsters that attack him with branch like tendrils. These creatures are very intimidating and build a lot of tension.
Later, Dek encounters a field of exploding plants and a flying creature that uses the plants to hunt. After that, he finds a field of frozen razor-sharp grass and an armored bovine creature, two of the many fantastical species in the film. These plants and animals make the world believable by showing evolutionary relationships while having exciting, interesting, and captivating designs and interactions with Dek and the world around them.
Trachtenberg has a history of making high quality movies, including 10 Cloverfield Lane, which took place in bunker America during a world-ending alien invasion. The movie constantly has a strong air of unease and tension throughout the plot that is brought on by the constant withholding of knowledge, and the character of the bunker owner is well-written and unpredictable. This movie has tension and constantly keeps you on your toes, which Badlands fails to do.
In that same vein, Prey shines compared to Badlands because it keeps that same suspense that Badlands clearly lacks. The cinematography shines against Badlands, seemingly much more focused on the actual characters and their experiences. Badlands fails to have any noticeable symbolism or deeper meaning.
Dek is very humanized throughout the movie. However, humanization doesn’t pair well with the intimidating aura of the character, making the humanization attempts all fall flat, especially when used as comic relief.
Throughout the history of the franchise, the Yautja have always been very competent hunters and intimidating antagonists. They have had advanced technology, and have always been antagonists. Dek, however, does not fit this mold as he loses his technology fighting a living tree and struggles to defeat the fauna of Genna.
These failures seem to be in order to make him more relatable, which is a bit convoluting because he is so single minded. Attempting to give an alien who thinks “Sharing is weakness,” and only cares about slaughtering a mythical monster a human character arc is a bit counterintuitive. The constant attempts at marvel-style humor also does not help with immersion on a quest to avenge Dek’s murdered brother and prove himself to his clan.
In the end, Badlands gives the same vibe as a Predator themed coming of age story. It’s all about a Yautja that grows up and makes his own path and his own family. While this would be fine if it wasn’t Predator based, it takes away all the meaning because you’re staring at an alien assassin and it takes away the presence of a Predator because he is depicted as a childish character.
The movie, overall, is not worth watching. As a whole it worked as a basic action movie but never progressed beyond that. It’s great to watch while doing nothing but won’t ever demand any thought or warrant any interest on its own.