By Noah Coss

After making Prey (2022), a much needed back-to-basics movie that is a prequel to the franchise, and the refreshing animated anthology film, Predator: Killer of Killers (2025), director Dan Trachtenberg brought another installment on November 7th that redefines what this franchise can be. Predator: Badlands (2025) is an action adventure film about a Yautja, also called the Predators, named Dek. He is the runt of his clan on Yautja Prime, home planet of the Predators, and after being exiled by his father, Njohrr, he has to prove his place by hunting and killing the deadliest creature on the most dangerous planet. This premise is very different from the rest of the franchise where the Yautja have been portrayed as unstoppable forces of nature, whereas in Badlands, this Predator is a real character playing to a strength and a weakness that he film has.

IA student Andrew French, watched Badlands without seeing a single Predator movie and stated “I like almost everything about it, the world building, the music, the story progression, the building of the characters, you know, it’s really like you’re in the point of view of the characters, you know, I can get behind that. ” The film does in fact do a good job at having a story with progression and protagonist that you can root for because of his relatable character arc about proving yourself and themes of found family.

“I thought it had pretty good action, you know, I liked the kind of the development of the planet that they were on, that was sort of like everything was deadly.” – Scott Hetherington

It is always a nice to watch a major blockbuster with a protagonist who has growth and world with good world building. But those Hollywood block buster elements still exist and sometimes over shadow the story and other qualities. Andrew stated, “You know, I feel like there could have been more character building with the whole alien clan. There wasn’t really much of a character building on that.” The protagonist is apart of an unspecified Yautja clan that lives on Yautja Prime but the film doesn’t show us much of Dek’s family and clan other than the brief glimpses we get. This is slightly do the films pacing being so quick.

“I think it kind of jumped into it too fast you know, and also I feel like some characters should have been stronger than they were, like the father, I felt like he should have been way stronger.

The fast pacing isn’t necessarily an issue because the movie is meant to be an action packed monster/alien adventure. The pacing of the film really complements that premise by always having something happening on screen which keeps the viewers attention a little more firmly. This could quickly become an issue where the audience is overwhelmed and the film gets cluttered because of non stop action. However, Badlands has enough “slow parts” where it takes its the right about of time to progress its story, characters, and plot while also letting the audience breath.

One thing that does pose an issue for some is the comedy, which mainly comes from the android character, Thia who is played by Elle Fanning, and the infant Kalisk, Bud. “I thought it leaned too much into some silliness with the tone of the android that he had and then the baby CGI character.” Explained Mr. Hetherington, “I thought at certain points it was a little too silly and it didn’t fit the rest of the tone.” Every big block buster has some form of comedic relief keeping the film from being too serious. In the case of Predator: Badlands, the tone does shift from time to time, and for many it can be a fault.

However, the comedy in the film is sourced from the characters and their personalities and how they contrast with the personalities of other characters. This is a very good way to write comedy because it keeps the jokes grounded in interactions between characters, feeling like natural conversations instead of forced “hilarious moments”. For example, Thia is talkative, enthusiastic, and witty. A combination of trait that can easily throw a film’s tone off. But she isn’t actively trying to be funny, she’s just being herself. The jokes end up being funny because Dek’s personality and tone is a stark contrast to Thia in terms of both belief and character traits.

Predator has always been one of those niche franchises defined by some of the worst reboots and rehashes. What went from an iconic cult classic with Arnold himself turned to an IP that has fallen to the same fate as Alien and Terminator; a cool SIFI villain that has been seen in the same exact way for about 30 years. Until Dan Trachtenberg took a turn in the directors chair. By bringing it back to its roots in a solid action/horror/thriller and switching things up with an Arcane inspired anthology film about some of the coolest aliens seen on screen, Predator has never been in a better place. With Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg has been taken the Yautja in a new brand new direction proving once again that the famous hunters are creatures worth fearing and rooting for on the big screen.