Predator: Badlands

“then my death will be honorable.” predator: badlands, more like predator: BADASS! dek of the yautja gotta be the aura farmer of the century. i was nervously optimistic going into predator: badlands as the predator franchise only recently has found its footing with prey and having a yautja as the protagonist is a bold new direction. but man, i should never doubt the man that is dan trachtenberg. this film should serve as a blueprint for how to reinvent a franchise with new, innovative ideas while staying true to what made it cool to begin with. the first thing that stood out to me as soon as the lights dimmed was the sound. i saw this at my local imax theater and the audio boomed. the score was so cool and reminded me of star wars weirdly enough. every blade slash and yautja battle cry had so much detail and immersed me way more than i was expecting. the sound also enhanced the action exponentially, really pushing the boundaries of pg-13. limbs slicing off and skulls crunching all sounded so visceral and gnarly, making the planet of genna feel genuinely dangerous. the film follows dek, a runt yautja, on a mission to reclaim his honor by claiming his trophy — the head of the deadly kaiju, the kalisk. along the way, he meets the no-legged weyland-yutani synthetic, thia (elle fanning) as they try and survive the deadly planet genna. the character development is fairly standard and predictable but that doesn’t make it any less effective. i really liked this new spin on predator where unlike previous iterations of the character, dek doesn’t have the endless supply of technology at his disposal. dek has to adapt and not only utilize his environment and the hazards he faces, but also learn to work with and rely on others to survive. pretty effective storytelling and it helps that the pace of the film is at mach ten. the film never drags and i was completely on board with how it progressed throughout, except my initial skepticism regarding the cgi alien comic relief character. i have seen reviews call it a “baby yoda” equivalent, and while it is partially true, i grew to like it as the film approached its finale. speaking of the finale, the whole third act is actually peak fiction. without spoilers, the final battle is so well done and the final scene of the film both serves as a fitting conclusion and sets up what’s next. the cgi of the film is immaculate considering the budget. while $100 million is still a ton of money, i cannot believe they were able to pull off a film of this scale. the alien landscapes and creatures all looked so cool and not too cartoony and the designs of the yautja are simultaneously ugly and badass. the little hints towards the larger alien/predator universe had me kicking my feet and i hope someday we get an alien vs. predator film from dan trachtenberg that is actually good. i am so glad this film is exceeding box office predictions and that the word of mouth is good. it is for good reason as this is a blockbuster banger. my only real criticism would be the humor of the film. there are moments where the film tries to include some one liners and gags and frankly most do not work very well. unfortunately some of them felt very “disney” and “marvel” coded and i would have preferred the film to keep the more action-oriented tone throughout. the leg fight towards the end was fire though. “wolf.”