The Predator franchise has been diminishing ever since the alien decided to take on Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 1987. That is, until writer and director Dan Trachtenberg came on board with his 2022 film, Prey. Earlier this year, he gave us the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, and now he takes the story to a whole new dimension with Predator: Badlands. Instead of making the alien the enemy, he has put us in its shoes for an adventure that is a whole lot more fun than it has any right to be.

Dek is the youngest of the predators and finds himself an outcast in his clan because of his ruthless father. Determined to prove himself, Dek heads to the Death Planet to bring back the head of a creature that no one has ever killed before. Once there, Dek finds himself facing a planet where everything wants to kill him, and his only hope is relying on a legless android called Thia to guide him to his prize.

When Trachtenberg took over the franchise and delivered us a much more mystical sci-fi action film with Prey, you knew that we were no longer going to get the safe bet of the creature being hunted by humans, as Arnie and his team of mercenaries did back in the 80s. Even the dire Alien Vs Predator movies couldn’t save the series from ultimate doom. Yet Trachtenberg has given it new life, and this one, he has changed the game completely. No longer is the predator being hunted, but he has made the alien almost human.

The audience gets to see the life this creature has to live. At the start of the film, we are told that it has no friends, and it is a predator to everyone. However, the goalposts have been moved, and we have an alien who has to rely on something else for help. An android sent down to the planet by a big corporation to capture the same monster that the Predator wants to prove his worthiness to his father.

This is where the film shines. Trachtenberg and fellow screenwriter Patrick Aison have taken us to a whole new world that looks like something from an old dinosaur movie, yet every turn, there is a threat, whether it be glass grass or plants that explode with poisonous darts. Even the creatures that live there are deadly and won’t stop at killing other creatures in the same jungle.

Add to this the relationship that has developed between Dek and Thia. The android is unable to move after losing her legs and hopes to be of help to the Predator, so she can find her sister, another, less friendly robot called Tessa. This relationship is the heart of the film, being both funny, carrying the emotional baggage and ultimately proving that not all predators have no friends. There is also an element of Star Wars here, with the relationship between C-3PO and Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back.

There isn’t much of a stretch performance-wise, but the film is stolen by Elle Fanning’s dual role as the two very different androids. She manages to bring humour to a movie that would be non-stop action and violence, while also bringing a level of heart. In her role as Tessa, she is a much harder-nosed corporate monster who will do nothing to get the job done for the company (which ties into another particular franchise).

Predator: Badlands may not be the most bloodthirsty of the series (the safe 12A certificate shows that), but it most certainly is the most fun, and even though it is loud and in your face, it still leaves you thinking that, for a franchise film, it’s far better than we are used to with previous films.

4 out of 5

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Starring: Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Reuben de Jong, Cameron Brown, Michael Homik, Stefan Grube

Written by: (also story) Patrick Aison, (story) Dan Trachtenberg, (based on the characters created) Jim Thomas and John Thomas.

Running Time: 107 mins

Cert: 12A

Release date: 7th November 2025