Originally published to FOX5 Vegas on Nov. 5, 2025.

It’s rare in the current era of filmmaking, so steeped in sequels, reboots, and rebootquels, for a franchise from the late 1900s to get a truly fresh coat of paint. One that doesn’t just rehash the concept of the original film with the gloss and sheen of modern CGI, but actually tests and expands upon it.

Predator: Badlands attempts that, telling the story of a runt “predator” or, in this film, Yautja, shunned by his clan in the most violent imaginable way and forced to prove himself by going out on his own to prove his worth. Sound serious? Well — it starts that way.

The first 20 minutes of Predator: Badlands do take themselves quite seriously, to the detriment of the film. And therein lies the first of my issues with the film: it’s inherently silly. Dek, a Yautja — a “Predator” — is the main character of the film. For most of the runtime, Dek communicates primarily in his own subtitled language. When emotional moments occur, we are asked to set aside our suspension of disbelief and relate to him. A horrifying-by-design, rage monster, killing machine is our good guy.

The good news is that Elle Fanning as Thia is not far behind, and to call her character a breath of fresh air would be an understatement. Fanning as Thia is charming, funny, and helps the audience relate to Dek in a way we were previously unable to, and truly elevates the film from a CG-laden slog to a watchable, nay, enjoyable time at the movies.

Badlands is Predator by way of The Mandalorian; it’s all very clean cut, with no human blood ever on the line. Plenty of phosphorescent colored blood and foamy robot innards, but nothing that we, a human audience, could relate to. There’s even a cute-ish CGI character that joins them, very much in the vein of baby Groot or Grogu. It’s about as PG-13 as the franchise will ever get, while still packing in some intense violence.

Predator: Badlands is neither bad nor does it totally land. At just under two hours, the movie doesn’t wear out its welcome, and the tonal shift from an intensely violent film in the first half hour to a humorous, odd-couple action thriller is necessary. Thanks to those choices, Badlands becomes a fun, if imperfect, theatrical experience.