PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025) review
written by: Patrick Aison (screenplay/story) & Dan Trachtenberg (story)
produced by: John Davis, Brent O’Connor, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg & Ben Rosenblatt
directed by: Dan Trachtenberg
rated: PG-13 (for sequences of strong sci-fi violence)
runtime: 107 min.
U.S. release date: November 7, 2025
Who would’ve thought we’d have three great Predator movies in a matter of three years? Director Dan Trachtenberg is behind all of them, starting with the straight-to-Hulu release “Prey,” which dropped in 2022 and was a huge hit. This year, he helmed an animated feature, “Predator: Killer of Killers”, a cool triptych with strong visuals and epic action that also dropped on Hulu this past June. Now he gives us an epic theatrical experience with “Predator: Badlands”, the first movie in which the alien hunter is the lead protagonist. It’s pure sci-fi live-action action, and the first movie to mention the species name of the Predators, Yautja, with Trachtenberg and writer Patrick Aison (who also worked on “Prey”) focusing on survival, as well as loyalty and family.
The movie opens on the planet Yautja Prime, the home planet of the Predators, where we meet our protagonist, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young warrior eager to prove himself and earn his cloak. He has to work harder and smarter than anyone else of his species due to his smaller size, which is why he’s considered a “runt” and weak. He’s determined to hunt and capture the unkillable beast Kalisk, located on the dangerous planet of Genna. Yautja cannot tolerate weakness, and despite intense training with his older brother, Kwei (played by 6 ft. 8 in. New Zealand basketball player, Michael Homik), their domineering father, Njohrr (played by 6 ft. 10 in. New Zealand kickboxer/MMA artist Reuben de Jong), wants Dek killed. To save his brother from their father’s wrath, Kwei sends Dek off on his ship, which is programmed to go to Genna.
Once he crash-lands on Genna, we learn why it’s called the “death planet.” Just about everything that lives there, creature or fauna, is designed to survive and, therefore, kill. There’s razor-sharp glass, plants that shoot out paralyzing needles, and deadly attacking vines, and that’s not even counting the beasts. Dek may be a determined fighter, but he’s in over his head and has no idea how to track a Kalisk. Fortunately, he encounters another sentient being in Thia (Elle Fanning), a Synthetic belonging to the Weyland-Yutani corporation, who was left in a bad state after a physical encounter with the Kalisk.
Reluctant at first, because Yautja typically do everything solo, Dek accepts Thia’s helpful assistance, considering her a “tool” rather than an actual being. The upbeat Synthetic can communicate with Dek thanks to her universal translator, adding English to the subtitled film. As they go about their journey through dangerous terrain, with Thia strapped to Dek’s back (like Threepio and Chewbecca), they pick up another ally in a crafty, acrobatic, gremlin-looking creature that Thia names Bud (which brings an unexpected cutesiness to the story). The trio unexpectedly develops a team dynamic, finding ways to use the planet to their advantage. Meanwhile, in another area of the planet, Thia’s “sister,” Tessa (also played by Fanning), leads a team of Synthetics tasked with capturing the Kalisk for Weyland-Yutani, which will inevitably pit her against Dek and his companions.
“Predator: Badlands” is a lot of fun, mainly because of how the surprises it offers work so well. We don’t necessarily equate humor with these movies – although some of Ah-nuld’s responses in the first “Predator”, way back in 1987, were humorous – but there’s some comedy involved in the interplay between the heroic trio. The instigator of the comedy is Fanning’s Thia, whose upbeat perspective and chatty disposition are an unexpected presence for Dek, who was raised to work alone and sees relying on a partner as a weakness. To be clear, this is not a comedy, but the humor does offer surprising moments of levity, allowing us to see unexpected dimensions of the Yautja, thanks to Dek’s responses to his situations and Thia’s presence. Trachtenberg and Aison succeed in threading the line carefully, offering riveting action in an imaginative environment first and foremost, while interweaving a story that features a hero’s journey arc for a character we all once thought was an “ugly motherfucker” at one time.
Trachtenberg is obviously a fan of the franchise, or else he wouldn’t be investing such time and energy in three well-made features, but he’s not just drawing upon what came before “Badlands” in the series. This could easily be a stand-alone sci-fi adventure for someone coming to the franchise for the first time, but it also feels just at home alongside the expanded Predator universe in novels, comic books, and video games. The creature designs and otherworldly landscapes are creative and convincingly immersive, which boosts the believability of the world that a movie like this offers. Cinematographer Jeff Cutter, who also lensed “Prey”, filmed principal photography in New Zealand, and he and Trachtenberg built upon the environment to present a place that’s both hostile and wondrous.
“Predator: Badlands” has a larger budget than “Prey,” and it shows, with fantastic production design and visual effects that fully support the project’s ambition. However, the standout of the movie, by far, is the work done to bring Dek to life. While Schuster-Koloamatangi is in the creature suit, Dek’s face was also digitally enhanced using motion capture animation on the actor’s face to convey a broader range of emotional expressions. The result offers subtleties that we haven’t seen before in a Predator movie, conveying convincing emotions from the double-jawed alien, such as rage, shame, and regret. While the story of a son yearning for approval from a demanding father is as old as time, how it is applied and implemented here is quite compelling.
I didn’t expect to root for a crab-faced alien, much less feel for him, but it’s easy to do here. It’s the kind of transition audiences experienced when they initially feared Schwarzenegger as a cyborg antagonist in “The Terminator” and then rooted for him in the 1991 sequel, as he was transformed into a hero, assisting the protagonists. It’s a nice change-up, since this could’ve been another Predator movie where the alien is the brutal villain.
On that note, die-hard fans of the franchise may cringe when they see a PG-13 rating for movies that are typically known for their blood-soaked content. There’s no need for any of that. Trachtenberg doesn’t skimp on the violence, as there’s still a lot of it (often crunchy and crushing) and blood, it’s just the glowing green goo or milky white kind that’s typical of Yautja and Synthetic characters. There are creative kills and badass action sequences, along with a funny action moment involving both halves of Thia.
Apart from the surprises that Trachtenberg offers in “Badlands”, he provides an engaging and compelling entry that fits nicely alongside his previous two Predator entries. It’s like flipping through an absorbing comic book (BTW, the recent Marvel Predator books are pretty great) with a killer soundtrack, thanks to composers Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch. It’s refreshing to have a sci-fi adventure film in theaters that anyone can enjoy.
RATING: ***1/2
