In 1987 John McTiernan introduced us to the Predator, an alien killing machine that made Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a little boy. In the decades since we've had several entries to the franchise, some putting the creature in the city (Predator 2, The Predator), others throwing humans into its realm (Predators), and more recently sending it into our past (Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers). Oh and of course how can we forget the two mashups with the Alien franchise. Now we have Predator: Badlands, the first film to make the aliens (formally known as Yautja) the protagonists.
The film follows Dek, a Yautja who is seen as small and weak by his clan. His father wants to cull him to eliminate weakness, forcing Dek to go on the hunt for an beast even his father is scared of in order to prove himself. On a world full of dangers, Dek meets an abandoned android named Thia (Elle Fanning) who joins him in his hunt. When the rest of Thia's team is recommission though, the new duo are forced to fight both otherworldly creatures and a small army of synthetic beings.
This is just an all around fun sci-fi action movie. If you're going in to watch an alien rip someone's spine out you won't find that here, but the fight scenes are still awesome. There's a bunch of blood, it just happens to often be green, and the kills are vicious they just happen to be robots instead of actual people. I don't know if having the Yautja as protagonists is something that will work long term for the franchise, but it's a lot of fun getting that shift in perspective here. The whole time you're cheering for this creature that has previously always been the villain, and despite his commitment to killing it's hard not to feel for him as a kind of terrifying underdog.
I was incredibly impressed by the visual effects on display here. Effects are something you come to expect from a sci-fi movie but films with CGI heavy protagonists are still rare. The designers did an amazing job not just bringing all the film's creatures to life but in making each one feel distinct. Despite being the same species, Dek and his father or any other Yautja are clearly distinguished between one another. The expansion of the Yautja look is awesome, as we get to see what an older predator looks like as well as some of their culture through their costumes. Even Elle Fanning's performance is a feat of digital effects, as for much of the film's runtime her character is missing her legs. The integration of her as an actual actor into this CGI heavy world is seamless, especially considering the challenge of removing her legs for so much of the film. It's worth noting that Fanning is also excellent as always in the film.
If there's one thing holding this one back it's how familiar a lot of it feels despite the shift in protagonist. I loved the music throughout, but that's almost entirely because of how much it sounds like Dune. Narratively it's easy to figure out where things are going, and Dek's journey owes a lot to luck getting him out of tough situations. In spite of that though I think the fun of it all outweighs that. In the grand scheme of things it's very familiar but in the context of the franchise this is something knew, and I think taking a shot at something completely different is pretty commendable here. Between this and the previous two films, I think it's pretty clear that director Dan Trachtenberg has found the winning formula for the franchise, and despite some flaws here and there this may just be my favourite Predator movie thus far. 4/5
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