What’s It About
Cast out from its clan, an alien hunter and an unlikely ally embark on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
It is not like the Predator films were anticipated to be winning the championship again in 2025. Following the chaotic 2018 fiasco, the majority of people thought that the franchise was finished, just another throwback from the ’80s that didn’t know how to keep its relevance. However, then Dan Trachtenberg appeared as the friend who really knows how to repair your car, and therefore, we are receiving films that not only function but are actually great. First came Prey, which reminded everyone that these films could be dope again. Then we got Killer of Killers earlier this year, keeping that momentum going strong. Now Badlands rolls up, and Trachtenberg’s basically telling us he’s not done cooking yet. What makes this one wild is that he’s doing something the franchise has never tried before, making the Predator the good guy. Yeah, you read that right. We’re rooting for the alien hunter this time, and somehow it works way better than it has any right to. The movie follows Dek, a young Predator, or Yautja, if we’re being proper about it, who’s basically the runt of his family. His dad thinks he’s weak and doesn’t deserve to be part of the clan. His brother Kwei tries to give him a chance, but even that comes with doubt. Following a situation where his father almost kills him for being “soft,” Dek goes off to a nightmarish world named Genna in order to find and kill a Kalisk, which is a kind of creature that “the unkillable” is the literal translation of. Are you thinking it was a clever decision? However, that’s the way it has to be if he’s to show that he is part of the gang. At Genna, Dek meets Thia, a character played by Elle Fanning, and with the arrival of this moment, the storyline becomes fascinating. Thia’s an android, one of those Weyland-Yutani synthetics like Bishop from the Alien movies, except she’s been torn in half. So for a good chunk of the film, she’s basically a talking backpack strapped to Dek’s shoulders. It is a funny idea, right? But the movie is kind of perfect in that way. The film is aware of the whole thing it is doing, it uses the ridiculousness of the situation to its advantage, while it still manages to evoke empathy for the two outcasts who decide to work together. What caught me off guard was the amount of love this thing carries. Yeah, it’s got all the brutal action you’d want, heads getting ripped off, creatures getting sliced up, weapons doing absolutely ridiculous damage, but underneath all that violence is a story about finding where you belong. Both Dek and Thia come from places that rejected them. Dek’s family thinks he’s trash, and Thia’s creators left her for dead on the worst planet in the galaxy. Witnessing the characters create their own little found family amongst the struggle of survival really impacts the viewer in a way that is different from just another monster movie. The mood of the movie will definitely affect some people negatively. It is not a usual grim and gritty type of Predator movie. Trachtenberg and the scriptwriter Patrick Aison decide to incorporate real jokes and cheerful moments, which are more reminiscent of Star Wars rather than Schwarzenegger. Sometimes the shifts from cute comedy to extreme violence feel jarring, like you’re watching two different movies smashed together, but honestly? Most of the humor lands. The film is pretty funny, and the humor is well integrated into the plot rather than being separate sketches. There are two characters in the movie that Elle Fanning portrays, and I’m pretty sure she is the only one who could have accomplished that so perfectly. Thia, the character, is full of charm and vibrancy. This is probably the reason why people don’t realize that she is actually a robot playing a human. Nevertheless, she also acts as Tessa, the darkest side of the twins, Thia, a character who is cold towards others and loyal to the corporation. Fanning switches between them so smoothly that you never get confused about who’s who, even though they look identical. It may be her best work mixing ridiculous moments with real grit in a way that feels completely believable. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi must be given the major credit for making Dek come alive. Expressing real emotion in a character who is heavily made up and has prosthetics? It is not your cup of tea. But he makes Dek to be a live, empathic, and dominant at the same time. You cannot help but feel that he is going through all those layers of latex and special effects with his emotion. The physicality of the fight scenes in which he is involved is great as well; the guy moves like he was made for this role. On the subject of fights, Trachtenberg definitely did his homework. No one action sequence is the same as the others, and you can feel that through every single one. The planet Genna throws everything at Dek: trees that grab you, grass that cuts like razors, bugs that straight-up explode, and the movie keeps finding new ways to make each encounter feel fresh. The gadgets and weapons that Predators use have always been cool, but here they’re used in creative ways that make you go “oh, that’s sick” instead of just looking flashy. Here’s something that might shock people: this movie is rated PG-13. Usually, that would be a death sentence for a Predator film, right? But somehow the violence still hits hard. Creatures get torn apart, synthetics get dismantled in nasty ways, and the action never feels watered down. Trachtenberg figured out how to give us the brutality without crossing into R-rated territory, which opens the movie up to younger audiences without selling out the fans who’ve been here since day one. The movie also expands the Predator lore in ways that actually matter. It is not that we get random backstory thrown at us, but we discover the Yautja culture through Dek’s trek. The entire honor system, the family relationships, the stress to establish your worth by violence, it all humanizes them to the extent that they become less like monsters and more like a real society with laws and customs. That substance makes everything more engaging because now we know what Dek is fighting for besides just survival. This one, in fact, looks stunning from a visual point of view. The whole thing is very well-lit, and Jeff Cutter, the cinematographer, makes a scary world seem kind of lovely in its own perverted way. The special effects blend practical and digital work so seamlessly that you stop thinking about how they made it and just get lost in the world. That’s what good effects should do—disappear into the story instead of calling attention to themselves. Is it perfect? Nah. Those tonal changes can feel uncomfortable at times, and the humor might not be appreciated by all, especially fans who prefer their Predator movies to be dark and serious. There are some instances in which the film tries to be funny and tense at the same time, but the mix doesn’t always work. However, the movie is able to regain its footing fast enough, even when it falls, so you are not really thinking about the stumbling points. Predator: Badlands is a demonstration of how the gamble can turn out to be very successful. Trachtenberg was able to take the safe route and give us another humans-versus-Predator story, but he decided to turn the tables and create something that sounds like a genuine new one. It has the characters’ confrontation, the grandeur, and the inventiveness that made the original one so great, but it also has nice concepts of family, loyalty, and what it means to be worthy, coming from the fresh side. Almost forty years later, this franchise is still somehow going uphill instead of dying off. That is not very common in Hollywood, and it is worthy of being acknowledged.
OUR RATING – A YAUTJA 8.5
MEDIA
- Genre – Science Fiction
Street date
- Digital – January 9, 2026
- 4K/BluRay/DVD – February 17, 2026
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size 2.39:1
- Sound – English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
- Subtitles – English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras
- Audio Commentary featuring Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt, Jeff Cutter, and Jacob Tomuri
- Embodying The Predator (HD 5:43)
- Authentic Synthetics (HD 6:41)
- Building the Badlands (HD 6:53)
- Dek of the Yautja (HD 6:11)
- Deleted & Pre-Visualization Scenes w/ Optional Commentary (HD 27:37 Total)
- Sand Trap
- Squirt Canyon
- Tessa vs Abe
- Razor Grass
- The Outpost
- Super Power Loader Extended