Tuesday, March 3, 2026

PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025)

 JBG

Directed By: Dan Trachtenberg 

Written By: Dan Aison 

Story by: Dan Trachtenberg and Dan Aison 

Based on characters created by: Jim Thomas & John Thomas 

Cinematography: Jeff Cutter

Editor: Stefan Grube and David Trachtenberg 

Cast: Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Ravi Narayen, Chris Terhune, Stefan Grube, Cameron Brown, Alison Wright, Michael Homik 

In the future, on a distant planet, a young predator, recently exiled from his native clan, finds an unlikely ally. Together, they soon embark on an extremely dangerous and thorny journey to ultimately find their most fierce and cruel enemy.


Watching this film it feels almost like a video game. As throughout there seems to be levels as it gets tougher and the enemies bigger.

The film is supposed to be live action, but there seems to be so much CGI and green screen. It might as well be animated like the last predator movie that was straight to streaming and took place at a different time periods.

While it’s nice that the film takes place on a planet and in other worlds where we get to see new species, aliens, challenges, and atmosphere is making it truly feel like a science fiction film it does seem to play the familiar beats where the predator is now the protagonist, whereas in the past, it has usually been the villain or an ally and now it has fully it has come full circle to be the character we are supposed to be rooting for

There are some human characters thrown in, even though they’re robots as it continues to be partially crossed over from the aliens universe with the Weyland-Yutani corporation causing all the problems.

As the android who the predator reluctantly bonds with her clan is seeking to destroy him and most of the planets, Denison and will stop at nothing to also retrieve her. Well, the predator is there to hunt big game to prove his worth as a warrior and earn his right of passage.

This is a film that is perfectly entertaining and good enough while you watch it though once you’re done, you will probably forget most of it so that it is disposable not completely. As it serves as another good sequel in the franchise that seems to promise more sequels in the future.. this is one of the better sequels as under the footage of Dan Trachtenberg the franchise well not entirely fresh is allowed to continue and be creative along the way

As I will be the first to admit when I saw the trailer for this film, I thought it was gonna be horrible just based on the young predators look though luckily as the film goes along, you pay less attention in it just feels more natural.

Elle Fanning playing two roles in the film is entertaining and really becomes the heart of the film both as the villain and as her good better half who is trying to aid the predator and become its friend.

If you’re a fan of the franchise, you’ll really like this film if not, it’s a good time waster filled with action even though strangely the first 20 minutes of what it’s supposed to be a sci-fi action film has a lot of dialogue and sometimes so that we get a backstory to go with the motivations of the story.

One could complain about the PG-13 rating, but it seems like it’s been like that since it’s alien versus predator days for the most part that it has become a little more lightened up I wouldn’t say exactly family friendly, but opened up more for teenage fans of the franchise or for those looking for more action and sci-fi elements that aren’t as gruesome, but just violent enough sort of like the VENOM franchise films.

maybe because of the dreadlocks, I’ve also always thought of the predators as kind of African-American with that toughness, but being able to show a little more nuance character and compassion than originally thought not to mention it always seems to be them versus the world literally or Sometimes they’re on the human side, but other times they’re just for themselves in their own not to mention it always seems like the humans who are usually Caucasian are either trying to control them take and use their inventions or just kill them as they are afraid of them taking over. 

Even though they usually go against a diverse race of characters and in predator two or battling Danny Glover, mostly. Though they seem to come to an understanding with him just as they did with Shania Lathan, an alien versus predator the first film. at least that is my minority report for this film.

Grade: C+

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