The Predator franchise has been on a winning streak. Prey is one of the most widely celebrated Predator films and has opened the door for filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg to take the franchise in a bold new direction. This first started with the exciting animated movie, Predator: Killer of Killers which was a blast from start to finish. The premise of earth’s greatest warriors battling a fearsome Yautja throughout history is a perfect one. Now, Dan Trachtenberg takes the franchise in its most bold direction with a film following a Yautja’s point-of-view and making him a sympathetic character worth rooting for. Does this massive change pay off?
Director Dan Trachtenberg chooses to move away from the franchise’s usual formula of humans battling Yautja’s to one where we head to the home planet of the Yautjas, and follow a Yautja struggling to be accepted into his own family. This underdog premise makes for a more easily accessible plot that also opens the door for a PG-13 rating. This massive change feels like a smart financial one since access to larger audiences should generate more box office returns. However, does it make for a good movie?
Predator: Badlands is a predictable, generic, yet fairly entertaining action movie. The dramatic change draws more attention to this formula which may be new to the franchise but not to current Hollywood blockbusters. From A to Z, the movie follows the standard PG-13 IP action film formula. Complete with an underdog story, found family, and an adorable companion. Themes of belief in oneself and overcoming the odds are paired along periodic comedic relief. It’s a formula that, has undoubtably worked for years, yet feels out of place and jarring in a Predator film. Most notably the addition of a cute companion feels odd and forced. This becomes distracting to the story which already incredibly predictable.
Predator: Badlands certainly goes in a different direction. There should be massive credit given to Dan Trachtenberg for aiming for something new, however, the direction didn’t reach the same levels of quality of the films Badlands was imitating. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi did deliver a great and memorable performance as our lead Yautja but it simply wasn’t enough to stand out in a sea of very similar action films.
