Dan Trachtenberg really did something cool with Prey back in 2022, I mean that movie brought the Predator franchise back from the dead and made people online actually care about Predators again, and then he went and did that animated thing Killer of Killers which was solid too, so going into Badlands I had some expectations, maybe too high honestly because this thing look fkn awesome from the trailer. The movie completely flips the script by making the Predator the good guy, like not just an antihero but the actual protagonist you are supposed to root for and that right there is where I start having conflicted reactions because sure its cool to try something different with a franchise but at the same time you are messing with what made these creatures scary and interesting in the first place, they were hunters, killers, now we supposed to feel bad for one because daddy issues, if they have kept the Daddy issues out and be more a thing of the entire clan rejecting Deck would probably be different, because for the most part it was his father, just until the end he fight other predators from the clan. Deck is this young Predator who got kicked out of his clan for being too weak and small, so he goes to this deadly planet called Genna to hunt some legendary beast that nobody else has been able to kill, classic redemption story and along the way he teams up with Elle Fannings character Thia who is a synthetic from Weyland Yutani which throws in that Alien franchise connection that people online have been speculating about for years. The problem is the movie feels less like a Predator movie and more like a standard Hollywood adventure buddy movie, you got the sidekick character who talks way too much, you got some attempts at humor that land weird, you even got a cute little alien creature that follows them around acting like a pet, its almost like they took a Predator and just dropped him into a completely different type of story that did not need to exist.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31227572/
- Platform: PRIME VIDEO
Rottentomatoes Rating
The action scenes are cool when they happen specially in the third act when Deck gets to really show off what he can do against this massive creature called the Callisk, the special effects look great and the alien planet Genna actually looks alien which is awesome, they shot this thing in New Zealand and you can tell they had a real budget to work with. But the whole buddy dynamic between Deck and Thia just felt off to me, like I get what they were trying to do but it takes away from that intimidating presence that Predators have always had in every other movie. Elle Fanning does fine work here playing multiple versions of the same synthetic character, Thia is the lab one who goes out into the field for the first time and Tessa is her sister who been out there doing the real work and theres this whole twist about how Tessa has been working for Weyland Yutani trying to capture the Callisk as a bioweapon which connects to the Alien franchise timeline but its set so far in the future that it does not really matter. The villain of the movie is not even the Callisk really, its Tessa who gets eaten by the thing and then comes back out half digested and frozen looking like some kind of Terminator reject and she wants to complete her mission even though shes falling apart which I guess is supposed to be creepy but it just looks goofy. The Callisk itself is this giant monster that the Predators consider the ultimate trophy, even Decks father who is a legendary hunter fears it, so when Deck decides to go hunt it you know its gonna be bad, the thing looks like a mix between a dragon and some kind of insect creature and its massive, easily one of the coolest creature designs in the movie even though we dont see it enough.
The opening of the movie is actually pretty solid, we get this whole sequence on the Predator home planet Yautja Prime where Deck is training with his brother Kwei, and you can see right away that Deck is smaller and weaker than everyone else which makes him an outcast. His father Nuru is this absolute bastard who wants Deck dead because he sees him as weak and a disgrace to the clan, so when Kwei refuses to kill his brother and helps him escape, Nuru kills Kwei right in front of Deck which sets up the whole revenge angle for later. This part works because it gives you a reason to root for Deck, hes the underdog, the small Preadator who everyone thinks is worthless and now hes gotta prove himself by doing the impossible, its basic stuff but it works. The brother relationship between Deck and Kwei feels strong too, Deck saved Kwei life when they were kids and lost part of his tusk doing it, so now hes trying to help his brother become a real hunter even though their father wants him gone, when Kwei dies its actually sad because you only just met these characters but the movie does enough to make you care about them. Then Deck crashes on Genna and loses almost all his gear right away, so hes stuck on this death planet with barely any weapons trying to survive long enough to find the Callisk, and thats where he meets Thia who is literally cut in half and stuck in a tree after her own encounter with the beast, she needs her legs back and Deck needs information about the planet, so they make a deal and start traveling together.
The whole middle section of the movie is where things start dragging for me, its just Deck and Thia walking through the jungle encountering random alien creatures while Thia asks him a million questions about Predator culture that honestly I did not need answered. Like do we really need to know if his mandibles chew food or if his inner mouth does it, I get they probably include it to annoy Deck and make it funny because thats how Thia is but not everything needs an explanation. They did create a full Predator language for this movie which is cool I guess but can be annoying to keep reading subtitles for some people, I really dont mind since I love watching movies in other languages, it was a full blown spoken and written language that fits with all the clicking sounds Predators make in the other movies, and the actor playing Deck had to learn it and perform with motion capture which sounds like a ton of work. The CGI on Deck is really good over all, you can see actual emotions on his face which is wild because Predators usually just look angry or curious, here you see him scared, sad, determined, all kinds of stuff and it works better than I expected, but the problem is once you make a Predator the hero and give him feelings and motivations, he stops being scary and thats a big loss for the franchise in my opinion, if in the future Predator meets Wendy and her adopted Xenomorph who is the bad guy? I guess we flipping the story and going after the humans, these things are supposed to be apex predators who hunt for sport and trophies, not sad boys with daddy issues who need therapy. The movie tries to have it both ways by showing Deck be ruthless when he needs to be, but then also showing him care about Thia and this little alien pet thing called Bud who is basically just there to be cute, my point of view is what Predator has been so far until Prey 2022, as an action movie does it work? yes it does and probably why a lot of people like it, dont get me wrong I did like it too because its impossible not to root for Deck and Thia was funny most of the time.
The ending is where the movie finally delivers some proper Predator action, Deck and Thia find Tessa who has been using a giant mech suit to try and capture the Callisk and everything goes to hell when the creature shows up and starts wrecking everything. The fight between the mech and the Callisk is fun, lots of destruction and chaos, and then Deck jumps in with his weapons and this is where he finally feels like a real Predator, he is using his environment, setting traps, I would probably say the most creative Predator we have seen in any other movie and this felt good because I think there is some coorelation to Prey 2022 where the Predator also had to do something similar. They manage to freeze the Callisk from the inside and it shatters into pieces which is a cool kill, very Terminator 2 vibes and then Deck rips off Tessas head with her spine still attached which is the classic Predator trophy pose, finally we get that moment. He then goes back to Yautja Prime to confront his father, they have this big duel in front of the whole clan, Deck even kill some other Predator of the Clan so easy that honestly felt rush because he havent gain that much expirience in my opinion, Deck uses all the tricks he learned on Genna to beat his dad, he even brings Bud along who bites Nurus head off at the end which is both awesome and ridiculous at the same time. Deck earns his place as a true hunter, takes his fathers cloak, and the movie ends with a tease that his mother is coming which sets up a sequel that I am not sure how is going to play out, female Predator are suppose to be bigger and bad ass, I guess she is going to claim treason and go against Deck some how. Overall Predator Badlands is fine, it looks great and has some solid moments but as a Predator movie it just does not hit the same way Prey did or even the original movies, I would give it like a 7 out of 10 because everything technical is on point but the story choices took me out of it a bit, it was very clear from the trailer what was coming so it was not like a surprise but the fact that no humans were in danger makes things a bit different, I wanted to love this but I just liked it instead which is disappointing after how good Prey was.
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