Rent Predator: Badlands (2025)

Better Than I Was Expecting - Predator: Badlands review by KB

This was one of the most impressive films i saw last year .The Predator franchise can be a bit hit and miss & i didn't like the previous offering " Prey" at all so i went into this with a bit of trepidation despite its good reviews .However, as soon as the film started i liked it straight away & i found the film entertaining and enjoyable.

Painful just like Prey. The female Android, just seems uninterested in her programming. - Predator: Badlands review by GM

There’s not much to this film story wise.  It strays too far from the original movie’s seriousness.  Elle Fanning’s Android has a job to do, yet for an unexplained reason ignores her programming.  Both my girlfriend and I agreed this was another ??. It gets top ratings and audio marks by online schills as usual who must get perks for the cinema and home releases.  I find this practice unethical 100%.

I’ve beef with all new Disney studio’s Surround soundtracks.  They’re so quiet as if a DRC night mode has been engaged on my AV receiver and there’s no Atmos there to get juicy, no decent bass and mild ambiance.  More like Dolby Atmouse.

Why are they doing this?  I’d love if it were fixed. 

Pointless New Predator Film - Predator: Badlands review by GI

Another rather pointless addition to the Predator franchise and the one where, inevitably I suppose, the Universe's most efficient and ruthless alien is given a human side. All this does is give you a visually expensive and impressive load of alien monsters but a story that isn't really a Predator film at all. The Predator in question here is Dek (even giving him a name seems ludicrous), a young and pint sized member of his clan, who is to be killed by his father but escapes intending to prove his worth by killing the unkillable beast from another planet. He eventually needs help and it comes from a damaged android he finds abandoned. This is Thia (Elle Fanning) who is part of a failed mission by the Weyland-Yutani company trying to catch the same creature Dek wants to kill. And here we have the next issue, for me at least, and that's the pointless attempt of mixing the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise once again. Here we have a narrative link with the TV series Alien Earth and there's even a set piece scene of a battle between Dek and a load loader as in the climax of Aliens (1986). I would have thought this franchise link idea has already been proven to be flawed. Director Dan Trachtenberg did a fine job with his earlier Predator film, Prey (2022) which did make a lot of sense and kept its feet on the floor. This one goes off in a direction unnecessary and it just doesn't feel like a Predator film.