Predator: Badlands

Choosing to make the franchise monster the protagonist of the film rather than the antagonist, Predator: Badlands introduces us to the runt of the litter in Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) who, in order to prove himself, goes to the the most dangerous world known to the Yautja seeking to kill the unkillable Kalisk. Gifting Dek with more personality than any Predator before him, the young warrior unlearns a bit of Yautja culture accepting assistance in his quest from a damaged synthetic named Thia (Elle Fanning) along with various creatures including one Thia names Bud.

The film isn't without its flaws. The murder world Dek arrives in has a great set up, but apparently he lands in the only dangerous area as after the initial trouble it's a notably long stretch of the film before anything found is even minorly inconvenient. And while I like her as Thia, Fanning's dual performance of the other sytnh Tessa (remarkably found and repaired after years just in time to have a run-in with the Predator) is a bit of a hamfisted way for Dek to see his own dysfunctional family mirrored in another. Unsurprisingly, Dek's true prey will turn out to be the other synthetics who are also after the Kalisk in a pretty basic story of a isolated individual learning to accept help and friendship.

While not as interesting, or compelling, as Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg does prove that there continues to be room in the Predator universe for unexpected stories. Dek works as a protagonist largely because of his differences to the other Yautja which only become more pronounced over the film and are shown to be strengths rather than weaknesses. His role, however, also means the film lacks the expected tension of the Predator hunting down human characters from the shadows in favor of a more straightforward action film (although we get something close to that in the final act).

Neither the best or worst Predator film, Predator: Badlands succeeds in telling the story it sets out to tell. There's certainly a novelty of Dek as our hero, which is helped greatly the the pairing with Thia and the natural humor that comes from the two. The film teases more story to be told about Dek's journey, but, while being mildly diverting enough to entertain, Predator: Badlands does nothing to sell me on an entire series featuring more of these characters.

• Title: Predator: Badlands
• IMDb: link