Predator： Badlands Review

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00:00Director Dan Trachtenberg takes his third crack at Yautja lore with Predator Badlands,

00:05and this time the protagonist is the galaxy's most notorious trophy hunter himself.

00:10It's a pretty wild shift in perspective for the franchise, but it's one that I think Trachtenberg

00:15pulls off.

00:16I'm Clint Gage and this is my review of Predator Badlands.

00:30After Prey and Predator Killer of Killers got Hulu-only releases, the Yautja are finally

00:35back on the big screen.

00:37Predator Badlands follows Deck, a little brother, run through the litter as he's exiled from

00:41his clan and on the deadliest planet in the galaxy trying to earn his stripes.

00:45Well, his stripes and a cloaking device.

00:48Welcome to the most dangerous planet in the universe.

00:53It's a rite of passage storyline that should sound familiar, which is exactly why it works

00:58so well for this movie and the point of view change it's attempting.

01:01And listen, it's hard to flesh out mythology like this.

01:04Being seven movies deep into a franchise that's had a handful of twists and turns and failures,

01:11deciding where to shift focus is a near impossible task.

01:14Trachtenberg's answer to that is actually a pretty elegant solution, which is just to

01:18say, you know, just being a little brother can be hard.

01:21You know, just being a little brother can be hard.

01:24Dan Trachtenberg's track record, his Dan Trachten record, shows that he knows how to build a

01:30good movie.

01:31His films are structured with clean and simple storylines, but he stages sequences so well,

01:36blocks scenes so efficiently, puts a camera in all the right places to get the most out

01:41of those simple premises.

01:43Badlands is yet another example in his filmography of doing all the small things right.

01:49These small personal details get set up early in the movie, like the reason Deck's missing

01:54a fang and what that means to him and his brother that come back to play an important role in

01:59the plot later on.

02:01It's simple but effective filmmaking.

02:03Textbook, even.

02:05Trachtenberg steals from the best, too.

02:06There's always a few shots that are lifted straight from Spielberg built into his movies.

02:10Weirdly enough, it's been The Lost World a few times, so keep an eye out for that in

02:14Badlands.

02:15But, most importantly, there's always a relatable emotional core to what Trachtenberg is doing.

02:23That's what made Prey and Killer of Killers such novel entries into the Predator canon.

02:28Amber Midthunder's Nauru and Killer of Killers' casts of poor frozen bastards from across time

02:33all had proper emotional reasons to fight and survive.

02:37Deck in Badlands is no different.

02:42The other half of the protagonist's duo is Deck's new Weyland-Yutani synth-pal, Thea.

02:47I need a hand.

02:50Kyle Fanning is programmed to be an aw-shucks kind of synthetic that ultimately learns as

02:55much from Deck as he does from her.

02:57She's got this hard-coded good nature that takes her on a similar emotional journey as

03:02her new Yautja bestie, and she's got this wholesome quality that I don't think has been

03:06seen in the Predator franchise outside of some of the quieter, kind of family-based moments

03:11in Trachtenberg's other two Predator entries.

03:13Well, good luck with your journey.

03:16By the end of the movie, though, Thea does have some of the most charming and creative

03:20ass-kicking in the whole story, and Fanning really pulls it off.

03:32But the ass-kicking that had me chuckling and giddy?

03:35That was all Dex.

03:36There's a moment in the final act that had me literally pointing at the screen saying,

03:40yes, that, that is the Predator.

03:42And granted, it came a little late in the run time, but it's definitely there.

03:51The fighting in this movie is a mix of clever uses of their surroundings and brutal head-stomping,

03:57which, by the way, is how I would describe the action in all the best parts of Predator

04:01as a franchise.

04:02But to stay on the ass-kicking for a second, that they're on a distant alien planet is

04:07really the only reason this movie is PG-13.

04:10As the first non-R-rated Yautja hunt, Badlands still goes pretty hard.

04:15The biggest difference is that it's all alien gore splashing around.

04:18If it were people, like it wasn't Prey and Killer of Killers even, the brutality with

04:22which Dex goes about his business would be an easy R rating.

04:26Aesthetically speaking, the creature design is pretty good.

04:28The alien Death Planet is populated with ravenous flora and fauna, and while they compare unfavorably

04:34to the creatures of Avatar, for example, they are better than most.

04:39And there's something very engaging about Dex and Thea encountering one deadly thing after

04:43another, learning a quick and important fact about them, then killing and eating them.

04:48And nothing dies the same way.

04:51All those vine things we see him fighting in the trailer, for example, not a single one

04:54of them gets a repeat dispatching.

04:56It seems like there's a lot of thought put in on how to continue to be creative with how

05:00the predator kills things.

05:02And to be fair, there's also a certain amount of, and hold onto your shoulder cannons here,

05:10cuteness in this movie.

05:11Now, it makes sense, and it moves the story along, so it's not cuteness just to sell toys

05:15or shill a new ride at Disneyland, but it is ironically an alien idea in a predator movie.

05:24Some of it works, of course, and some of it doesn't, but Dex is such an earnest young

05:28youcha.

05:29The kid tries to make a joke at one point.

05:31It's one of the moments that doesn't really work, but it plays as that overly literal style

05:37of humor you get from characters like the Terminator.

05:39He's just programmed a certain way, and he's slowly learning a different way.

05:44But even though the joke didn't fully land, I appreciate the effort.

05:47And once you open the door to the youcha having a language, they can immediately start telling

05:52you who they are.

05:53From there, it's no surprise that Dex is a unique specimen among his clan, a little different

05:58from the rest.

05:59Which is fine, because how boring would that be if they were all the same?

06:02And look, I'm here for that, I mean I'm not not here for that, I mean take a swing.

06:07And these moments, these little weird moments, are the ones that really tell you how you actually

06:11feel about a movie.

06:12If you're willing to go with it, then the rest of the movie is doing something that's

06:15really right for you.

06:16But if you're rolling your eyes, the movie's got bigger problems.

06:19Now ultimately, the rest of this movie did it for me.

06:22So even though that joke didn't really land, eh, whatever, I appreciate the effort.

06:26Trachtenberg and the screenwriters take great pains to portray Deck as eager to prove himself

06:35and passionate about the youcha way of life, but also a little worried about his place in

06:40it.

06:41And actor Demetrius Schuster Kaloa Matangi manages a subtlety in his performance that makes

06:45Deck a downright relatable dude.

06:48He's not really any less strong, less violent, or more gore-averse than any predator that's

06:53been on screen so far.

06:54He's out for vengeance.

06:56He loves stabbing his prey in the head and bathing in its viscera.

06:59But also, he's mad.

07:01He's a little petulant, even.

07:03He's smart and capable and underestimated.

07:06It's the same story we saw with Nauru from Prey.

07:08They even repurposed a line of dialogue from Prey to drive that point home, making Deck's

07:13story a very familiar one, surrounded by equally familiar imagery from the youcha ship and weapons

07:18to the Alien franchise Easter eggs.

07:20But that's exactly what's needed to shift the POV.

07:24You need the familiar to get away with the new.

07:27And one of those new things is the youcha codex, which we got our first peek at in Killer

07:31of Killers.

07:32Badlands gives us another look at these biblical commandments that guide the entire culture

07:37of the hunters.

07:38And even though there was a divided reaction to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch and Danny

07:43Glover's Harrigan showing up in a post-release post-credit Killer of Killers scene, which

07:48I believe set the record for the furthest post-credits a post-credit scene has ever actually landed,

07:54point is I like what Trachtenberg and his team are doing here.

07:56Now, there is something to be said for not revealing too much of your monster.

08:01It's the don't show the shark rule of filmmaking.

08:05But as much as the last three entries in this franchise have added to the lore, there's still

08:10plenty we don't know about the youcha.

08:12Trachtenberg isn't only interested in breaking new ground.

08:16Badlands makes great use of everything predators have done to be interesting in the 40 years

08:21since that original ugly mother first blew up a jungle and all the special ops badasses

08:25in it.

08:26In fact, the thing Badlands seems to understand better than anything else is that there are

08:33only so many ways you can do, oh no, what are these giant things that are trying to kill

08:38us before that well runs dry?

08:39Would you like to meet a predator?

08:43After all, there are literal decades worth of movies that failed to live up to the first

08:48one.

08:52And Dan Trachtenberg cracked the code a little with Prey by giving the protagonist

08:56something to prove.

08:57And Killer of Killers took the next step by digging a little further into the culture

09:01of the Predators, and the natural progression from there is putting a youcha in the protagonist's

09:06seat with a chip on his shoulder.

09:08These three movies are basically an equation.

09:11Prey multiplied by Killer of Killers equals Badlands.

09:14And so, Badlands is getting an 8.

09:21I had a lot of fun with this movie, and Dan Trachtenberg is heading in an interesting direction

09:25with this franchise, so he gets bonus points for that.

09:28The Predator, as a mysterious murder monster, is getting some specifics added to his backstory,

09:34and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

09:36Badlands, in shifting the perspective to a youcha main character, actually highlights

09:41what's been great about this franchise in the moments that it really works.

09:45Mike and Thea are an unexpectedly fun pairing that bring a new energy to the franchise and

09:49an altogether different kind of hunt.

09:51It might not be pulling the skull and spine out of us and screaming in bloody victory,

09:56but it gets close.

09:58So that's what I thought of Predator Badlands.

10:01It was fun guys, had a lot of fun.

10:03Let me know what you think of the Predator franchise as a whole, check out our exhausted

10:07Predator timeline to catch up before you go check out Badlands, and as always, subscribe

10:12to IGN wherever you like to watch.

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