With Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg (of the brilliant 10 Cloverfield Lane) brings one of cinema’s most semi-appealing alien species closer to first-tier status — if not fully, then nearly.
But to make it to the big league, the aliens from the hardcore hunting species, the Yautja (that’s their name) needed a bigger brand and a little mythic scaffolding: the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the malevolent backbone of the Aliens franchise.
For those to whom these names sound like gobbledygook, here’s the gist: since the first two Predator movies — the wildly popular 1987 original with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the less financially successful 1990 sequel with Danny Glover — the franchise has been in a persistent rut. Despite novel and comic publishers regularly putting Predators on shelves (the Yautja have fought Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine and even crossed paths with Archie), the films were sporadic and uneven in terms of their storytelling and lore-making. Predators (2010), starring Adrien Brody, was a moderate success — it made three times its $40 million budget — and The Predator (2018, starring Olivia Munn) was less successful.
For a while, Predators leaned heavily on Aliens for support. The clash has long been a fan favourite, birthed in the comics, spawning two Alien vs Predator (AvP) films — both of which were atrocities, though they were financially successful to a degree. Yet they did little to boost the Yautja’s fortunes at 20th Century Fox.
Although Predator: Badlands is not built on an original premise, it is a superior, familiar story that works
That changed when Trachtenberg arrived with Prey (2022), a Hulu original set in 1719. He followed it with the animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers (2025), again for Hulu, nudging the Yautja mythos credibility up a notch. Even so, the franchise still needed the Aliens heft.
This brings us to Badlands — a film that wholeheartedly extends itself into the Aliens lore (and not in the janky manner of the AvP movies). Rather than throw Xenomorphs yet again into the fray, Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison (who also wrote Prey) bank on another nefarious creation of the Aliens stories: the androids called Synthetics.
Elle Fanning plays the synthetic Thia and her ‘sister’ Tessa. Tessa, pressured by the corporation, is cold and ‘robotic’, while Thia — bubbly and talkative — sits decapitated on a hill, surrounded by plants that fire paralysing darts into a world called Genna, a planet even Yautja fear because it teems with lethal wildlife.
From Genna, the Weyland-Yutani Corp wants Kalisk, the apex predator of this world, which cannot be killed because of its regenerative abilities; the Yautja — especially Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), the runt of the clan — crave it as a warrior’s trophy.
Dek’s father is a ruthless clan leader and though his mission begins as one of redemption and revenge, it gradually becomes one of friendship, with the Yautja strapping the half-decapitated torso of Thia on his back like a backpack (Vikram Baital and Demon Slayer much?) as he braves the treacherous terrain. The two also find a critter companion — named Bud — and become a small clan of sorts.
Badlands, though not built on an original premise, is a superior, familiar story that simply works. Trachtenberg is not a refined director, but his storytelling carries the film well enough through a first half that doesn’t always look visually believable (we finally see the fabled world Yautja Prime, but it lacks visual appeal). The second half is a notable improvement, as the story rumbles toward a feel-good climax.
Badlands leads directly into a sequel — one that brings in another character from Predator lore — and, with the way things have been handled, Trachtenberg and Aison’s sincere approach would be more than welcome.
Released by 20th Century Fox and HKC, Predator: Badlands is rated PG-13 and offers action-science-fiction adventure buffs plenty to appreciate
Published in Dawn, ICON, November 23rd, 2025
