RIOTUS

What a world we are living in that we now have a solid version of both Alien and Predator franchises. Dan Trachtenberg started his takeover of Predator with the excellent Prey. A film putting the usual premise of a human versus this alien hunter in the past of North America, with a young Indigenous woman facing the threat as it hunts her tribe, combining it with her desire to prove herself within her community as an adult and warrior. One of the best films of 2022, along with a perfect reigniting of the Predator brand after the weak 2018 The Predator. Trachtenberg’s first film was caged by being only on Hulu with no theatrical release. After the animated streaming film Predator: Killer of Killers, his next entry is Predator: Badlands.

Predator: Badlands is the story of what was news to me – a young Yautja (the predator race’s name) named Dex (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is going through training with his older brother Kwei (Mike Homik). Dek is the runt of his clan and wants to prove himself to the clan by going on his right of passage hunt in a planet called the Death Planet Genna to hunt a beast that even the strongest Yautja fears. Dex and Kwei’s father believes Dex is weak and shames the clan and commands Kwei to kill Dek, but he instead faces their father as he sends Dex on his quest to Genna. Once on the deadly planet, he meets a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic (yeah, THAT same Weyland-Yutani) named Thia (Elle Fanning) who offers to help Dek find his prey.

The film moves fast and gets you into the action right away, and doesn’t really let up much, with only a few moments to breathe. The film can surprise you with just how fast it makes you empathize with a character we’ve been shown for almost forty years to see as a monster and bad guy, at least in cinema. Dek’s journey through this rite of passage and hero’s journey is pitch-perfect throughout. The action scenes are very well choreographed and shot so excitingly. A twist in this film is that what is essentially the ominous evil corporate presence of the Weylan-Yutani corporation, be that actual threat in this film, is inspired. It puts Dek in the role we’ve seen the humans in Predator movies in, as well as making him a cool John McClane-like hero as he faces these antagonistic androids.

Elle Fanning’s Thia is a great counter to Dek’s matter-of-fact, kinda knucklehead approach to life. Her being a synth with feelings lets her try to show Dek a new way of thinking and doing things, as he isn’t what others expect a predator, or I should now say Yautja, to be. Fanning also gets to stretch here by playing Thia’s “sister” Tessa, who has a particular task given to her by Mu/th/er, the Computer Intelligence that’s in command of this mission. With the film being PG-13, you’d think the kills were weak, but with everything being an alien life made in CG or a robot, none of the kills count the same way as, say, seeing Jessie Ventura killed on screen back in the 1980s.

Much like the other two films Trachtenberg has done in the Predator franchise, he’s able to continue his themes of family, connection, community, and growing up all together in such a dope package. I can’t wait to watch this again, but to buy it (in 4K UHD Steelbook, of course). When this film was done, I turned to fellow Rioter William Goodman and stated that this is one of the few times where a genre film franchise has worked like a superhero comic title. With comics, there are times when, after years of stagnation, a writer or artist can come along and totally reinvent a character or title for a generation. Frank Miller with Daredevil and Batman, Geoff Johns with Green Lantern, and Jonathan Hickman with essentially Marvel Comics. Here, Dan Trachtenberg with Predator: Badlands has cemented himself as THE new Predator guy, and it’s in a great place.