Silly Killer

We were pretty psyched for Predator: Badlands (2025) after the success of Prey. It was great, but a whole different thing.

This one takes place on the Predator home world, Yautja Prime. Scrawny pred (or "Yautja") Dek has been cast out as a weakling, and his brother suggests that he should go to the death planet ad bring back a Kalisk, the most dangerous prey of all. Then their father shows up, and kills the brother for being soft on Dek. But before dad gets to kill Dek, he takes off for Planet Death.

He crashlands due to asteroids and bad robo-piloting. He meticulously sets out his weaponry, and then gets attacked by the local wildlife - losing most of his weapons. But he meets up with Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani robot who is missing her legs. She proposes to help him find the Kalisk, and her legs in the process. So Dek straps her to his back and away they go. 

On the road, they meet a cute little big-eyed pug/frog/armadillo, who Thia names Bud. He rolls up into a ball to roll through the razor grass. Thia insists that they share some of the meat that Dek hunted, earning Bud's trust - which he displays by spitting on Dek. 

We also meet Thia's "sister" (also Elle Fanning), another synth. She has been revived by the company to complete the mission - to capture the Kalisk as a bio-weapon. Unlike Thia, she is cold and well-brainwashed. So who is the real villain in this movie?

I went into this pretty much blind - I only the posters of a predator with a legless body strapped to his back. What I didn't realize was how goofy it was going to be. Thia is a sweet-natured emotionally mature chatterbox. Bud is a cute animal sidekick, and Dek even has a few goofy moments, like when he learns about alpha wolves. 

Another interesting factor is that, although it has all the gore of any Predator movie, there are no humans in the movie. Only synths and monsters. So the pred can kill with abandon, and nobody feels bad. But that makes this less of a horror movie, and more of a fun adventure. 

And the last scene is a hoot.

So, a goofy Predator movie. Very different from Prey, which is pretty serious. I like it - but I hope this isn't going to be the direction for the franchise. Superhero movies were saved by silliness, and now they are all silly. Keep changing it up, Predator people!