Written by Sam Clark
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 104 minutes
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Franchise fatigue has always existed and in the past has proven to be such a draining experience. There is nothing worse than returning to a film series you know has run it's course and is looking to milk as much money as possible. 2018's The Predator proved that if they were to keep going ahead with any more films, drastic change would need to happen. The franchise was starting to loose sight of what made the original so good back in '87. Then, in 2022, Dan Trachtenberg (who made the suspenseful and claustrophobic 10 Cloverfield Lane) gave us Prey which did just that. Prey returned Predator to the basics, which is what the fans wanted and what works best, a stripped down survival thriller. To make matters even easier for you, it was also released on streaming for you to watch from the comfort of your home. Job done.
Due to the success of Prey, Trachtenberg is now back with Predator: Badlands and so is Prey's scriptwriter Patrick Aison. This marks the 6th installment. We follow a predator named Dek, a young warrior who is outcast from and by his own clan led by his father. They are known as the ''Yautja''. He is smaller than the rest of them and therefore deemed to weak to hunt beside them. In order to prove his worth, he is sent to far away planet to collect a trophy to bring back to the clan which will earn him their respect. He chooses a planet that just so happens to contain on it a legendary and unkillable monster than even his father fears, but he of course sees this as an opportunity.
Image credit: IMDb/20th Century Studios
Dek crash lands there and everything wants to kill him, and it is impossible to survive. It is here in which he meets and encounters a damaged android named Thia (Elle Fanning), who is on a mission of her own as well. Dek reluctantly forms a pact with Thia, in exchange for her assistance on how he can survive here but, more importantly, where he can find and slay the monster. At first, I was rather unsure of how to perceive Predator: Badlands, as there were a reason why I was skeptical. This is the first in the line to receive a 12A certificate as oppose to the first's 18 and the rest being 15's. Whilst I was intrigued to see how this would work, you go into a Predator flick wanting and expecting guts and gore. The reason for this however is that Predator: Badlands does not feature any human characters, so therefore any blood or injuries you see on screen tends to be blue or green. As long as nothing is red, this allows you to get away with it. Not only was this the case, but none of the trailers seemed to jump out at me the way I wanted either, which was strange given how much I liked Prey. So, needless to say, I went into this fairly on edge.
Image credit: IMDb/20th Century Studios
Well, it's a pleasure to report that I don't think I have ever been this wrong about a film in my life. I had a blast here. Despite pleasantly enjoying the braindead spectacle on display, it's one of those cases in which as soon as you begin to pick away at the surface, there are issues. Narratively, the film is boilerplate as best. It's a very, very simple videogame like quest of going from A to B, but hey, it's a nuts and bolts Predator film and going back to basics always works well and gives you what you need. Since it has a more restrained certificate, the film has taken advantage of this and can tailored itself towards a younger crowd. But more specifically, the Transformers and Star Wars crowd. I do not, however, advise you take young children into this as they are still some boundaries to be had here.
Predator: Badlands is one gigantic action set piece of a film, with plenty of popcorn sequences to sink your teeth into. In truth, there is hardly any time to breath. In slight contradiction as the aforementioned titles are PG-13, this shares more resemblance to the R-rated likes of The Revenant, Terminator 2 (to which this shares the most in common with) and Apocalypto, as this essentially the Predator version of those films. Granted, this was a case in which my viewing experience did contribute to my overall verdict, and was admittedly half the reason I enjoyed myself as much as I did. I saw this in Dolby and everything ranging from the sound design to the score was epic and chest thumping, and does give you plenty of bang for your buck and your price of admission. Had I seen this in a normal format, I may not have taken to the film quite as much.. Usually I'm an obsessed advocate for IMAX, but in any case in which that's not possible, Dolby is always my back up. But neither are mandatory as it's still a tasty enough slice of science-fiction action regardless. Trachtenberg has said he wanted Prey and Predator: Badlands to be a trilogy, which of course means an inevitable cliffhanger at the end. But if one things for sure, this proves that there's still some gas left in the tank.
Predator: Badlands is in cinemas now
