Internet Janitor
Predator: Badlands is like watching an hour-and-a-half cut scene from a video game you never get to play. It’s not inherently terrible, but still one of those that should have been animated. While it is a bold move to try to frame a film around a being that has been for decades a ruthless, albeit honourable, killing machine as our hero, I couldn’t get entirely behind it.
Our tale introduces us to Dek (played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a runt of a Predator who is saved by his brother and sent on a hunt to kill an impossible beast. Only after Dek proves himself worthy to be part of the clan will he be able to return home. Dek finds himself on a planet where everything wants to kill him, modelled after Australia, I presume. He stumbles across half a synth from the Wayland-Yutani corporation (from Alien) named Thia (played by Elle Fanning from Neon Demon), who provides one half of the film’s comedic relief as well as someone who can explain things to the audience. Oh, and because this is a Disney film, now there’s an adorable little guy, I called him Monkey Grogu to provide more yucks.
The movie at least makes the right choice to have our hero be a runt, to be mocked by his people. Had we been given a full Predator in this type of movie, it would have worked even less than this did. Yes, they do a very good job at making Dex expressive, allowing Dimitrius’s performance to shine through the computer-generated head. He does a great job at expressing emotion through movement, body language as well.
At its heart, though, it’s a buddy movie. With Thia being our Eddie Murphy to Dex’s grizzled Nick Nolte (80’s reference), we get a lot of dry humour. This is an unexpectedly comedic film, which I also did not expect. It is PG-13 due to there being no red blood, and with a few edits, you could make this PG and sell it to kids.
I just couldn’t get behind it, and I loved, loved the director’s previous entry into the franchise with Prey, which was masterful. The character to me just does not work in the lead, such as this, with the cliche/trope side characters and Disney merchandising opportunity.