In 2019, Disney bought 20th Century Fox. It was a multi-billion dollar deal that would bring Fox’s properties and franchises to Disney’s new streaming channel and fully integrate the X-Men into the once-thriving MCU.
My biggest worry about the merger is how it would affect the quality of the Planet of the Apes, Alien, and Predator franchises. None of these franchises ever had a perfect track record, but I was worried about the homogenized affect that the studio would leave on them. My fears have come true as we now essentially have Marvel’s Predator.
In Predator: Badlands, the runt of the litter – Dek is a predator in training. He must assume his role in the Yautja culture by becoming an unstoppable hunter with no fear. To prove himself, he chooses an unkillable beast on an aptly titled place called Death Planet. Apparently subtlety and creativity are not the Yautja’s main priorities.
While hunting for his trophy, everything goes wrong, as everything on the planet wants to eat him. Also, a group of corporate synthetics want to get in the way of his hunt. But, he’s gonna be okay because he picks up a few friends along the way in Thia (Elle Fanning) and an adorably ugly chaotic alien called Grogu Bud.
This trio somehow end up on a comedic road trip as Dek is focused on his hunt. He’s a decently strong silent type, but to make up for his silence, Thia will fill any quiet moments with a quip. Her synthetic model must have been programmed with a humor scale of 100%, because she never stops with her brand of observational comedy. I’m not kidding. She never stops joking. And it’s the type of humor that goes along with, “Did you see the teeth on that thing?”
This is a major departure for the Predator series in many ways. It’s PG-13, which doesn’t stop it from being very violent. In fact, there’s almost constant action and dismemberment. They cleverly get away with all of the bloodshed because none of it is red. I was worried about the series losing some of the violent bite. It’s now just a bit of a violent nibble suited for general audiences.
I love the concept of seeing life through the eyes of a Predator instead of telling the same story of humans trying to survive encountering them. However, in what could have been a story of an underdog’s survival through sheer determination and instinct, becomes a team up movie that doesn’t know how to shut up.
I do appreciate director Dan Trachtenberg’s love for the franchise and how many risks he’s willing to take. In the past few years he’s overseen Prey, the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, and now the predator-POV Badlands. (Predator POV sounds wrong) While I didn’t love this saturday morning adventure take, it does add plenty of creativity into this mythology.
Predator: Badlands is destined to be sitting at the top of a Walmart $7 DVD bin. It’s a crowd pleasing movie with plenty of laughs and action that helps the movie breeze along. It’s truly baby’s first Predator movie. Though, it feels like the script is pulled from the scrap heap of an unmade Mandalorian episode. C+
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