Predator: Badlands

{5/5} “‘Sister. I guess she is. I have a sister. What a lovely thought. I need to find her.’ ‘And legs.’ ‘Excuse me?’ ‘Find your sister. And legs.’ ‘Was that a joke?'” — Thia & Dek

Predator: Badlands, released in 2025

In Dek’s clan you have to make a kill to be considered a man. Dek is considered a runt, so he vows to go to the Death Planet and kill the unkillable Kalisk. His father just wants him killed, but his brother Kwei lets him live to give him the chance to prove himself. When Dek’s ship crashes on the Death Planet he believes he will strike out on his own and kill the Kalisk but that’s not what happens.

In a startling turn of events, I watched not one but two Predator movies 30 years after the original. The director of Prey returns with another intriguing question — could we make the Predator the main character and have him be sympathetic? 

It’s about someone who doesn’t think he needs any help and someone who helps him anyway. It features the Weyland-Yutani company from Alien.

Like the previous movie, it’s about someone who’s paying attention carefully to their surroundings.

It’s beautifully filmed. If you’ve never seen a torso and a pair of legs separately fighting some bad guys, you should check this out.

Fanning is hilarious — hopefully she will do more comedies after this.

It was filmed in New Zealand.

Stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (Prey). The music is by Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2026 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Reviews of movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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