Review: Predator: Badlands

Posted by: Matthew Ardill  •  November 10, 2025 @ 9:30pm

Filed under: Reviews

Predator: Badlands opened this past weekend to a rather positive reception, the third in Dan Trachtenberg's (10 Cloverfield Lane) reboot of the Predator universe after Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers. For a director who previously worked on a handful of TV shows and shorts, he has very much proven to be an unexpected shot in the arm for a series that was floundering after 2018's The Predator, which thankfully can be discarded as it was created under the prior stewardship at Fox. It's unclear how much beyond the first two Predator films starring Arnold Schwarzenagger and Danny Glover respectively will remain canon, but from moments seen in Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, we know the events in those two films unfolded as seen on the screen but little else.

Told from the perspective of a runt Yautja named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Kolomatangi), there is no need to have seen the prior Trachtenberg films to enjoy this film, but it does help build on the enjoyment as we learn more about the Yautja culture, humanizing them in a way more seen in secondary material (comics and novels). This expands them from a cartoonish monocultural society – think Klingons or Orcs, where they are driven by a single societal value – to a more complex balance of emotional drives – think the evolution of Vulcans in Star Trek from a monoculture driven by logic to a complex society fighting a balance of biological drives using different emotional tools, with Romulans and Vulcans following divergent paths.

Yes, I realize that was one of the nerdiest things I've ever written, but that illustrates how Trachtenberg has put thought into his world, creating more grounded and believable drives beyond cruelty for cruelty's sake. At the same time, he's formally tying his new Predator universe into the Alien universe with the presence of Waylan-Yuanti synths from the planet Dek crash landing on the planet Genna. Early in his exploration, we are introduced to a synth named Thia (Elle Fanning). Endowed with emotions to make her able to better do her job studying flora and fauna, Thia's curiosity is endearing, but like all Waylan-Yaunti synths, there's more to her than meets the eye. This is very much building on the blocks laid down by this year's Alien: Earth, and I'm excited to see how this pays off.

The film is ripe with easter eggs (the Duffer brothers for example playing the computer voice of the Dek's ship is a tossaway) but it's a full tale of family, grief, and growth that is not what I would have expected from a film sprouting from the compost of 80s action cinema. But having watched the prior two films, I am pleased and not shocked by this turn.

There are very few actors in the film, which is part of the Predator structure, with most of it being filled by Fanning and Schuster-Kolomatangi. Fanning brings a cheery, kind, and curious character to the screen who you can't help but cheer for. Schuster-Kolomatangi, who not only played Dek on screen but voiced him, brings a great deal of strength and even humour to an alien language we see through subtitles. He sells it behind prosthetics and alien languages. Visually stunning with a compelling story, I highly recommend seeing this in theatres while you can.

Tags: Predator: Badlands, Dan Tratctenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Alien, Alien Earth, Predator, Disney

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