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Predator: Badlands (2025)

 I really enjoyed Prey but because it came out when confidence in visiting cinemas was low then it meant that it got put on Disney+. I also enjoyed the animated film Killer of Killers so I was concerned that this film might not match up. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg who directed the enjoyable Prey and also 10 Cloverfield Lane. So the set up of the film is that our Predator is having daddy issues and goes to a planet to kill the ultimate monster but then he comes across Thia (Elle Fanning) who is secretly after the same thing along with her ‘sister’ Tessa.


There are plenty of things that I liked about this. This attempts to do something different and this film is a more family friendly film than we ever got. Some might take issue with that but I think it allows them to do something different. I still get shivers thinking about the 2018 version which was just terrible in every way imaginable. The fight scenes were pretty good and I did get the feeling that the film was turning into Home Alone towards the end but that final portion of the film worked quite well for me.


The introduction of Bud was a worrying moment because it felt like they had gone too far in trying to make it family friendly but they managed to push it just the right amount and Bud didn’t really have as much of an impact on the plot until the end when he needed to.


Elle Fanning isn’t someone that I am particularly familiar with although she was in A Complete Unknown but in this she plays both Thia and Tessa and I liked Thia because even though she was a robot, she had a personality and was a more interesting character than Tessa. The misconception about the role of the Predator is that anyone could play it but the truth is that you need someone who can bring a personality to the role. A bit like Kane Hodder did for Joson in the Friday the 13th films. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi brought some personality to the role of Dek and he felt like a Predator for the duration of the film. Together both Schuster-Koloamatangi & Fanning work well together and at the end I liked the idea that they could potentially have more adventures which will depend on how well this does at the box office.


The film ends with Dek killing his father and getting his dues but the last shot is of his mother’s ship coming towards and the idea of female Predator’s is an interesting one so the film does come with a sequel bait ending but one that worked and also an interesting one.


There is one big issue with the film or portions of the film and I was reminded of Aliens vs Predator: Requiem which isn’t a compliment and it was to do with the lighting. It was quite dark in some of the fight scenes and if you are going to do shakey cam then I need to see what is going on and whilst the darkness was at Requiem level but it was pretty close. 


Despite some mis-steps, this was a pretty decent Predator film. It’s not quite as good as Prey or even the animated Killer of Killers which came out just a couple of months ago but it feels like it's the beginning of a new era of films and as long as Trachtenberg is involved then I have confidence that the films will get better.


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