Predator: Badlands ~ Review

In 1987’s Predator, Dillon (the late great Carl Weathers) tells Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) that he and his team are “expendable assets.” Dillon has led Dutch’s crew into an unnamed South American country under false pretenses, and they are now stuck in a quagmire. Dutch claps back with “my men are not expendable.” Later in the film, Dillon comes around to Dutch’s point of view and nobly sacrifices himself to save the team from the Yautja* (an extraterrestrial big game hunter) who is picking them off one by one. This arc, wherein a human asserts their humanity through a selfless act, is the thematic key at the heart of the Predator series. This includes Predator: Badlands, the first film in the franchise’s nearly forty-year history to put a Yautja front and center as the protagonist. 

After successfully reviving the franchise with 2022’s incredible Prey, writer/director Dan Trachtenberg, along with co-writer Patrick Aison, has created a phantasmagorical sci-fi pulp adventure that feels like it was ripped straight from the yellowed pages of Robert E. Howard's Conan. But it’s that empathic throughline that gives the film a surprising amount of heart and humor without losing the brutal savagery of a Predator story. Light spoilers ahead.

The young Yautja, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), is having a bad day. The runt of his clan, Dek, is desperate to prove his worth and become a full-fledged Yautja warrior. To do this, he intends to travel to Gemma (AKA the death planet) and hunt down an unkillable creature called the Kalisk. However, his father (Reuben de Jong) has other plans. See, the dad wants weakness culled from his clan and intends to kill Dek. However, Dek’s brother, Kwei (Mike Homik), intervenes, sacrificing himself and sending Dek to Gemma in the process. 

Now, Dek is all alone on a planet where every living thing from acid-spitting worms to the trees trying to kill him. However, Dek’s not totally alone; Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland Yutani (the evil corporation from the Alien films) synth, is also stranded on the planet, but without her legs (which were forcefully removed by the Kalisk). Thia can lead Dek to the Kalisk, but can the young Yautja get past the idea that trust is weakness and let her help him? Is she trustworthy in the first place? And what about Thia’s “sister” Tessa (also Fanning) and the army of Weyland Yutani synths (all played by Cameron Brown) at her command?

From that simple premise, writer/director Trachtenberg and co-writer Aison craft a dizzying adventure movie about found family and discovering your place in the world. Badlands is earnest and heartfelt, and yet also brutal and savage. It’s everything I ever wanted from a Predator story after reading the novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey at nine years old. 

Based on Prey, we all knew that Trachtenberg’s direction is exceptionally crisp. Favoring visual storytelling over complicated exposition, but his skills as a director have levelled up since then. His work here reminded me of how James Cameron staged action in Terminator 2. In particular, a third-act set piece where Dek cuts his way through an army of enemies like John Wick had me hooting and hollering.

Frankly, Badlands would not work at all without the work of Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. He has the hardest job in the film, as not only is he wearing a rubber suit, but his face is covered with CGI. Furthermore, he has to speak the newly created Yautja language. Schuster-Koloamatangi and the animators at WETA imbue Dek with a true heart and soul. His face is incredibly expressive, and you truly feel Dek’s pain, anger, sadness, and even joy. The work that went into Dek is incredible all around, because the previous Predator’s faces were not designed to have any emotions other than “I will kill you.”

The other half of this strange duo is Elle Fanning. She spends the majority of the film without legs and attached to Dek’s back like a backpack. Fanning has to carry the humor of the film, something she does with aplomb, giving Thia an overly positive, sassy energy that complements Dek’s gloomy single-minded stoicism. Fanning also has to play the cunning Tessa, who will stop at nothing to complete her mission. She cleverly distinguishes Thia and Tessa through impressive physical work. You can add Fanning right next to the likes of Ian Holm, Lance Henrickson, Winona Ryder, Michael Fassbender, and David Jonsson as intriguing Synth characters from the Alien franchise.

I keep coming back to those words from the original Predator, “my men are not expendable,” and here we are in 2025, where a Predator comes to learn that one’s survival might actually be tied more to empathy than he originally thought. 

With its emotional characters, pulpy atmosphere, and badass action, Dan Trachtenberg and co. have crafted a film that feels like it was genetically engineered in a lab specifically for me. There’s a mech, several giant monsters, a sword-wielding protagonist, laser guns, lots of explosions, two Elle Fannings, it’s funny and heartfelt…it’s basically everything I want in a giant blockbuster. There are, and will be, better movies this year, but none of them have brought me as much joy as Predator: Badlands. 

Three and a half out of Four Stars

*The term Yautja comes from the 1994 novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey by father and daughter duo Stephen and Stefani Perry, an adaptation of the first Aliens vs.Predator comic book from Dark Horse Comics by Randy Stradley with art by Chris Warner and Phil Norwood. It is spoken aloud for the first time on screen in Badlands, nearly thirty years after entering the fan lexicon.