Another killer entry in the unkillable franchise.

Of all the franchises to have a resurgence in recent years, perhaps the most intriguing has been Predator. As a series that struggled to get anywhere past the much loved Arnie original and it’s underrated Danny Glover sequel, an ongoing Predator franchise just felt like something nobody really wanted. Nobody except Dan Trachtenberg, that is.

If there’s one person out there that believed in Predator when no one else would, it’s the director that single-handedly resurrected the long-dormant series. As if from nowhere, and with a pandemic to contend with no less, Prey shifted the Predator focus completely and changed the game forever in the process.

Altering the time period and geographical location completely, Prey was like a breath of fresh air for a decidedly stale franchise, and thus, Predator was reborn. However, as we take a step further into this brave new world, can Dan Trachtenberg continue his hot streak and keep the momentum going?

Deemed too weak and banished by his domineering father, young Yautja, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), seeks to restore his honour by venturing to the deadly planet of Genna to hunt the Kalisk, a legendary and seemingly unkillable apex predator. Stranded and struggling to survive in a hostile new environment, Dek forms an unlikely alliance with Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic. Battling their way across the inhospitable planet, the duo must overcome corporate interference, killer flora and fauna, and staunch Yautja tribal customs to survive and prove that Dek can be a true hunter on his own terms.

After Shane Black’s 2018 The Predator died a death with both critics and audiences, it really did look like that was that for a franchise that had been on life support for decades. But with the double whammy of Prey and the excellent anthology animation Killer of Killers, the franchise was born anew and the future for Predator suddenly looked full of possibilities.

Of all those many possibilities, however, few would’ve predicted that we’d land here with Predator: Badlands. If you saw the expansion of the Predator universe leading us to an odd couple buddy adventure between a runt Yautja hunter and a legless Weyland-Yutani synth then you are clearly far smarter than me, because this is not where I saw things going – at all. But hey, now we’re here, let’s just enjoy the ride.

Clearly a man with a Predator plan, Dan Trachtenberg once again proves that he gets this franchise more than most. And, while letting fans loose on their obsession is often a recipe for disaster with this sort of thing, there really are few people out there you’d want in charge of this universe right now more than Dan Trachtenberg.

Deadly serious about honouring the series while happy to have plenty of fun within its sandbox, with Badlands, Trachtenberg takes Predator to unexpected but wholly welcome places and the result, while far from perfect, makes for a truly exhilarating viewing experience that delivers in the here-and-now while promising something even more exciting down the line.

More so than any Predator entry to date, Badlands has a sense of playfulness and adventure to it that’s certainly a lot broader in its appeal than anything we’ve seen before yet manages to deliver a glimpse at the wider potential of the series. While Prey took things down a more personal, somewhat siloed storytelling avenue, Badlands takes us upwards and outwards into new, exciting, and enticingly expansive areas.

Action packed, surprisingly goofy, oddly heartfelt, and not afraid to have a little fun, Badlands neither looks nor sounds like any Predator we’ve experienced before, and while that will likely anger traditionalist fans, for those looking for something a little different, there’s a lot to enjoy here. Sure, the 12A/PG-13 rating (a first for the franchise) is a little surprising and ends up tipping things more into Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars space action territory than the blood-soaked sci-fi horror we’re accustomed to, however, Badlands still manages to maintain the brutal heart of the original films, all while offering a new, refreshing take on them.

Quite literally venturing into uncharted territory, Trachtenberg sets his stall out from the off, blasting us far away from the franchise’s planet Earth safe-zone and right into the heart of what we’re so used to considering the enemy. Only this time they’re not. Or not quite, anyway.

While on first impressions, the Yautja appear just as brutal and bloodthirsty as they’ve ever been, it’s not long before everything we’ve been trained to think is turned on its head and we’re given a reason to cheer for them – or one of them, at least. This switch from villain to hero is certainly a tricky one to get your head around initially, however, there’s more than enough going on with Dek as a character to make it work. Giving him daddy issues and an inferiority complex is definitely a start, while the surprisingly emotive performance of Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (despite the mountain of makeup and prosthetics) and his pleasing chemistry with co-star Elle Fanning ensures that we’re fully on Dek’s side by the film’s end.

While the performance of Schuster-Koloamatangi is fantastic, it would be rather hard to imagine the concept of a sympathetic Yautja working on its own, so it’s quite the master stroke to pair him with a character so unashamedly likeable as Elle Fanning’s Thia. Pairing affable synthetic Thia with stoic killer Dek may sound like a terrible idea, yet it ends up working surprisingly well. The odd couple dynamic is so diametrically opposed to everything we thought we knew about Predator, however, while some of the slapstick, screwball humour is a little too much at times, the absolute joy with which Fanning and Schuster-Koloamatangi throw themselves into it all elevates the entire thing.

Without the two of them working so well together, there’s a good chance Badlands falls flat, and as the big, loud, overtly CGI action begins to take over, it sometimes feels like, even with the two stars clicking, things may fall apart at any minute; however, their chemistry and willingness to embrace Trachtenberg’s vision ultimately wins the day.

Full of brutal action, smart world building, surprising humour, and some serious ingenuity, it’s this vision that truly takes Badlands to the next level. Under any other director, the idea of flipping the Predator script could’ve easily flopped, yet under the consistently steady hand and keen fanboy eye of Dan Trachtenberg, it all works admirably well, proving that the franchise still has that killer instinct in it.

While Badlands’ odd couple buddy adventure isn’t the expansion of the Predator universe many were expecting, it’s certainly a welcome one. Deadly serious about honouring the franchise while happy to have plenty of fun within it, Dan Trachtenberg nails it once again with another killer Predator entry that’s at once thrilling, goofy, brutal, inventive, oddly heartfelt, and massively entertaining.

Predator: Badlands is in cinemas now.