PREDATOR: BADLANDS
(director/writer: Dan Trachtenberg; screenwriters: Patrick Alson, Brian Duffield, story by Aison and Trachtenberg; cinematographer: Jeff Cutter; editor: Stefan Grube, Dan Trachtenberg; music: Benjamin Wallfisch, Sarah Schachner; cast: Elle Fanning (Thia/Tessa), voiced by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and played by Reuben de Jong (Dek), played by Mike Homik & voiced by Stefan Grube (Kwei, older brother of Dek), Reuben De Jong, voiced by Schuster-Koloamatangi (Dek’s father Njohrr), Rohinal Nayaran (Bud); Runtime: 107; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: John Davis, Brent O’Connor, Ben Rosenblatt, Marc Toberoff; 20th Century; 2025)
“To my surprise, it turns out to be a better film than I expected.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane”/”Prey”) directs another Predator film after doing Prey in 2022 and an animated one in 2025 called “Predator: Killer of Killers.” The new film “Predator: Badlands” is a big-budget silly but enjoyable action-packed sci-fi film. It’s co-written by Trachtenberg, Patrick Aison and Brian Duffield, who base it on a story by Patrick Aison & Trachtenberg.
The Predator franchise started in 1987 that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is their ninth film (counting spinoffs) and it is set in the future in outer space, with creatures and not humans as heroes for the first time.
The evil clan leader father Njohrr (voiced by Schuster-Koloamatangi) of Dek (voiced by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, New Zealand actor) believes his runt son is the weakest member of the Yautja, a villainous Predator tribe that live on the planet Yautja Prime.
Dek decides to prove to his family he’s a warrior and goes on a rite of passage journey to the planet Genna, known as the “Death Planet,” to slay a giant Kalisk beast that even his father fears. This comes about after his father inadvertently causes the death of Dek’s stronger older brother (played by Mike Homik), who was ordered by dad to kill his brother in a fight but couldn’t go through with it in an act of creature humanity.
To prove his manhood to his family, Dek goes after the giant beast that supposedly can’t be killed and has slaughtered the Yautja trophy hunters of his family whenever they hunted him.
Dek lands his spaceship on the inhospitable jungle of the planet Genna, where he meets a talkative and goofy synthetic woman named Thia (voiced by Elle Fanning), who is sent here by the evil Weyland Yutani corporation to study the planet’s deadly plants. Dek finds her stuck in a tree. She says she will lead him to a Kalisk cave where the elusive beast lives if he will promise to help her restore her missing body parts resulting from an attack by the Kalisk and the crash landing. Thereby Dek has to rely on accepting help from someone else in his mission rather than doing everything by himself, which goes against the Predator beliefs.
To get to their destination Dek straps Thia onto his back and carries her. They also take with them a non-talking small cutesy alien CGI creature named Bud (Rohinal Nayaran).
Thia has an evil twin sister Tessa (also played by Fanning, in a poorly written part), who best represents the corporation that sponsored her trip. Her mission is to capture the beast so the corporation can experiment on it for its powers of regeneration.
On the Planet Genna, Dek must fight off not only the beast creatures but such dangerous things as the planet’s deadly attacking “razor grass,” tree limbs that try to squeeze you to death by reaching out for you, and a poisonous flying creature.
There’s some broad humor when the story becomes playful. But it’s mostly filled with impressively shot violent action sequences, beautiful visuals and winning performances by Fanning and Schuster-Koloamatangi as a bickering odd couple.
To my surprise, it turns out to be a better film than I expected, even as it moves away from its franchise’s formulaic view of Predators by making things lighter and fresher in the way of telling the Predator story. It has the hero Predator character confront his programmed nature that claims using your strength is the highest form of existence by challenging him to see other ways to successfully exist and co-exist.
REVIEWED ON 11/9/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com