70: PREDATOR: BADLANDS

 

STARRING: Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. Screenplay by Patrick Aison, story by Patrick Aison and Dan Trachtenberg. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. Budget $105 million. Running time 107 minutes. 

Well, that was a surprise. Who would have thought that the 7th entry in a series that wasn't needed should have been so goddam enjoyable. Hell, I'm not embarrassed to say that I bloody enjoyed this quite a bit. Finally, an attempt to do something different with the Predator franchise, very much like the last outing, Predator Prey. This new dollop of Predator mayhem doesn't drop popular lines from the mother-source, like: 'Get to the chopper', or 'Stick around.', or repeat popular visual tropes, instead it just tries to come up with something different and as a result is quite arguably the fourth best Predator film. Although that said, it's not exactly a high bar. And I'm including both AVP films and excluding the animated TV show.

PREDATOR (1987)
PREDATOR 2 (1990)
PREDATOR:PREY (2022)
PREDATOR: BADLANDS 
AVP (2004)
PREDATORS (2010)
THE PREDATOR (2018)
AVP 2: REQUIEM (2007)

The story sees our hero Predator, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) cast out of his clan by his father cos he's the runt of the litter. To earn honour and respect he sets out to the planet Genna  aka 'Death Planet' there to kill the legendary Kalisk, a seemingly unstoppable apex predator who's been known to eat Predators, or Yautja as they're known in this film, for breakfast. Crash landing on Genna, Dek is quickly robbed of all his high tech weaponery and very nearly eaten by every single thing on the planet. As luck would have it, Dek stumbles across the top half of a torn-in-two Weylan-Yutani Corporation android called Thia (Elle Fanning). Dek and Thia form a partnership and set out to kill the Kalisk. Along the way the unlikely duo become a trio when they befriend a bug-eyed alien critter Thia nicknames Bud, and together they set off on a quest to kill the beastie. So far so Jabberwocky. Meanwhile Thia's old bestie, Tessa (also Fanning) who's also a Weyland-Yutani cyborg has been ordered to capture the Kalisk and she too sets out on a quest, which will bring her in direct conflict with her synthetic sister. And that's sort of the plot. 

What follows is a thoroughly enjoyable and action packed little sci-fi pic. With great effects both practical and CG and some lovely makeup. The film has a heart and the relationship between Dek and Thia gives the film it's heart and soul. There's something quite endearing about their banter and slowly the Predator begins to see the benefit of, if not a friendship, then a union of sorts. This rips along at a fair pace and features some excellent action beats. The weird thing is this didn't have to be a Predator film, cos it's only Predator in name, Dek looks so different from the usual and has been softened to make him look more human. The relationship between not just him and her is strengthened by the arrival of Bud. And it won't take a rocket scientist to work out it's relationship to the big bad beastie. 

This builds to two great showdowns, one on Genna the other back on Yautja Prime and ends with the mother of all sequel bates, if you'll pardon the expression.

Went in hoping to hate this but was won over and found myself entirely satisfied by it. One of the few films from this year I intend to buy and own, which will bring my grand total of 2025 films to three.

8/10