I can’t speak for all professional film critics, but personally I live by a set of rules. You never make up your mind about a movie until you’ve seen it. You never get out of a movie, no matter how bad it is. And here’s a big one that will come up in just a second: You never call a movie “one of the best of the year” unless the year is, at least, mostly over. How else would you know?
Well folks, it’s early November and I call it: Dan Trachtenbergs “Predator: Badlands” is one of the best films of the year. This probably shouldn’t come as a shock, as Trachtenberg’s “Predator” prequel “Prey” was one of the best films of 2022. After 40 years of filmmakers trying and struggling to turn “Predator” into a consistently successful sci-fi franchise, Trachtenberg finally cracked the code. The premise is that aliens hunt humans for sport, but that’s not what the stories are really about. Dan Trachtenberg understands that the best “Predator” movies are macho stories about how machismo is bullcrap.
In John McTiernan’s original “Predator,” muscle-bound male action archetypes are powerless in the face of a superior hunter, who happens to be an alien with a vaginal face. Trachtenberg’s “Prey” was about a Comanche woman who wasn’t allowed to be a hunter, but hunted down and killed the universe’s (allegedly) deadliest hunter anyway. “Predator: Badlands” continues in this tradition, challenging regressive masculine values by telling a beautiful and poignant story about why caring about people is murderous.
On the surface, “Predator: Badlands” breaks all the rules of the franchise – for the first time, a Predator is the main character. Not only that, we finally get some subtitles when he talks, so we learn useful information about the alien species of Yautja and their culture. Turns out they’re just angry, violent idiots who live without compassion, friendship or self-sacrifice, like weekend warriors who watch pissy YouTube videos and accept every toxic thing they’re told. The Yautja are so obsessed with strength that they even kill the cubs in their litter, which is a problem for our hero, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), because he is the cub.
To save his life and prove his worth to an emotionally distant and murderous father, Dek decides that his Great Hunt – a Yautja coming of age ritual – will be the biggest ever. His trophy will be the Kalisken, a supposedly unkillable monster that lives on a planet where everything is drawn to death. The trees are trying to kill you. The grass is trying to kill you. The caterpillars are literally hand grenades. Dek is, to put it mildly, out of his depth. To put it mildly, he’s screwed with a rusty chainsaw.
Dek wants to prove that he is a Yautja through and through, but to survive he must find his own way. He stumbles upon a cheerful, chatty android named Thia (Elle Fanning) who knows all the local flora and fauna, and whose legs were ripped off (checking notes) the local flora and fauna. She wants her legs back, but her legs are in Kalisken’s lair, so she offers to guide Dek there. Oops! Yautja may not form alliances. Thia convinces Dek that since she’s a robot, she’s nothing but a tool, and he gets to have tools, so he should carry her torso around like a North Face backpack. And thus begins their search.
There’s a structural simplicity to “Predator: Badlands” that belies its depth. It’s one of those classic adventures where the journey, and just stick with me on this, is more important than the destination. Will our stoic hero learn a valuable lesson about friendship from a comic relief sidekick and a cute CGI animal, in an expensive blockbuster produced by the Disney Corporation? Yes, let’s not pretend otherwise.
But Dan Trachtenberg – working from a fantastic script by Patrick Aison and Brian Duffield – uses this familiarity to explore something new. “Predator” is once again a macho story about how machismo is bullcrap. Dek doesn’t find a new family and gives up killing things. He learns that you can kill things better if you have friends who also like to kill. He never gives up his pursuit of violent self-improvement. He’s always a Predator, and “Badlands” is always a Predator movie. It just asserts that strength doesn’t come from toxic masculinity, and you can build a better warrior — and a better action movie — by doing what the best “Predator” movies did in the past. Trachtenberg once again embraces a formula and rejects that formula’s typical message.
None of this would work if Elle Fanning, in particular, didn’t do some real heavy lifting. Which is ironic, since her character is lugged around like carry-on luggage. This is the kind of character that can easily ruin an action movie, the sort of comic relief, heart of gold sidekick who usually doesn’t have much to contribute. But Thia is a genuinely fun character, and her sensibilities are nuanced, so she’s a welcome addition to the dynamic. She is prolific, not only offering useful information but also carrying her own in fights (sometimes in bizarre ways). Without Thia, and without a performance as complex as Elle Fanning’s, “Predator: Badlands” doesn’t work. The way Fanning modulates between naïve fascination and grim annoyance would, in a universe where movies like “Predator: Badlands” were serious awards contenders, be celebrated at the end of the year.
But let’s not forget the fact that “Predator: Badlands” is also weird. Dan Trachtenberg doesn’t let the straightforward plot get in the way of his bizarre imagination. There is a terrifying acid spitting eel monster who is, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, a very good boy and deserves a treat. It’s a testament to excellent blockbuster filmmaking that you feel emotionally attached to something utterly ridiculous, and by the end of “Predator: Badlands,” it’s hard not to get swept up in the moment. I felt things when I saw “Predator: Badlands” that I never felt when I saw many so-called “serious” Oscar nominees.
“Predator: Badlands” tinkers with the formula fans are used to, but it’s a great “Predator” movie all the same, capturing the tension and themes that make the series special while successfully stretching the canvas and revealing brand new details. This is incredibly exciting filmmaking. The rare flashy studio film that doesn’t read like a laundry list of creative compromises, where the money went into telling a story about fascinating characters and putting them in impossible, wonderful, and horrifically violent situations. Like “Prey” before it, “Predator: Badlands” is mainstream sci-fi filmmaking at its zenith, and it’s proof — in an age where proof is hard to come by — that big, expensive action spectacles don’t have to suck. In fact, they can still reign supreme.
“Predator: Badlands” opens exclusively in theaters on November 7.
