‘You’re hunting something that can’t be killed...’
The Alien and Predator franchises will always be intrinsically linked. Interestingly, while the former continues to flounder because of its stubborn refusal to move away from the source material, the latter has gone from strength to strength by taking the predator out of the jungle and into the past, the future and beyond. Predator: Badlands, Dan Trachtenberg’s third entry in the franchise after Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, is a standalone story that is totally different to the films that came before it. Unsurprisingly, it’s another success…
For the first time, we have a predator protagonist. The film follows Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young Yautja outcast, as he attempts to capture and kill a hideous monster to prove himself to his father and avenge the death of his brother. Dek reluctantly enlists the help of Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic. Fanning pulls a double shift as Thia’s synthetic sister, Tessa.
Now, we’ve seen a human-predator team up before with disastrous results in Alien vs Predator. This, coupled with the PG-13 rating, set alarm bells ringing. I am happy to report, however, that neither of these things harms the film in any way. There is still plenty of violence (presumably they were able to circumnavigate the censors because there are no humans in the film), and Fanning is so convincing that her unlikely bond with the predator actually works really well. The presence of a cute, animal sidekick is perhaps a little much, but aside from that, Badlands is everything that Alien: Romulus wasn’t. It nods at the source material without rehashing it, the film manages to combine humour and action without compromising either, and it moves the franchise forward without boxing it in.
While it’s perhaps not quite as propulsive as Prey, Trachtenberg has still crafted another exciting chapter in what is fast becoming the most consistent of all the ’80s action franchises.
