Part of me wants to dislike the film for taking one of the most ferocious creatures of 1980s cinema and making them like a Star Wars character while on the flipside I want to congratulate screenwriter Patrick Aison (Last Light) and director Dan Tratchenberg (Prey) for giving us such an amazing insight into the culture of the Yautja. Such good insight in fact that you start to wonder whether we were wrong about these ‘predators’ all along.
The film itself centres around a Yautja named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamantangi – Red, White & Brass) who is the runt of his family. When he makes the decision to travel to the death planet – Genna – to kill the elusive Kalisk – his brother, Kwei (Michael Homik – Avatar: The Way Of The Water) tires to stop him. Not wanting Dek to embarrass their family their Father (Reuben de Jong – Spartacus) orders Kwei to kill Dek. When Kwei refuses to do so their Father attacks him.
While battling against his father Kwei sets the controls for a ship to take Dek to Genna. As the ship departs Dek becomes horrified to watch his Father deliver the fatal blow to Kwei.
Upon his arrival on Genna Dek soon learns why it is known as the death planet. It seems that there are creatures and even plants that have the ability to kill you around every corner. Dek tries to battle on but ends up finding himself being helped by a damaged synthetic called Thia (Elle Fanning – Super 8).
While Dek feels he doesn’t need help he ends up taking Thia on the journey to find the Kalisk with him which puts them both on a collision course with Thia’s sister, Tessa (also played by Fanning), who plans on following whatever plans have been given to her by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
The storyline maybe basic but it is creative the way the filmmakers have given the audience more of an insight into the Yautja. The problem here though is that in other aspects the film lacks creativity. While some of the characters feel like they have been given a Disney Star Wars makeover more of an issue to me was the fact that some elements of the film felt a little too close to the storyline and aesthetics of the first Avatar film.
While I do see the comparison of Bud (Ravi Narayan – Sweet Tooth) to some of the characters from Star Wars the one thing you can’t say is that he is as annoying as Jar Jar Binks – and the twist around his character does make him an important piece to the Badlands jigsaw.
Given all that though I still can’t say that I hated Predator: Badlands. I like the fact that this becomes in a way a villain origins story. The fact that Tratchenberg is creative enough to be able to introduce the ‘human’ side to a character that any film nerd has been brought up to view as a vicious monster is kind of impressive. Not only do you end up liking Dek you actually end up barracking for him.
The creativity doesn’t stop there either. Tratchenberg and Aison have brought together a stunning world in the form of Genna. The dangerous vegetation and creatures bring an air of originality to the film while the look of Genna is captured brilliantly by cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane) whose work makes this a film that you could easily watch over and over.
Also on the positive side of Predator: Badlands is the performance of Fanning. She literally has to put in a Jekyll and Hyde performance here as she plays the naïve and kind Thia and also the mean-spirited and ruthless Tessa. Fanning shines playing Thia while her performance even manages to overcome the cliches that litter the character of Tessa and makes her truly unlikable.
While you can argue that Badlands simply doesn’t match the brilliance of Prey it does up and whole new side to the Predator universe. The big question now is where doe things go from here. Now the Yautja are ‘likeable’ what happens next time they come across a group of humans?
Still Badlands is well worth a watch. It might be predictable at times but it does more than enough to be an enjoyable watch.
Predator: Badlands is currently screening in Phuket and is rated ‘15’.
3/5 Stars
David Griffiths has been working as a film journalist for over 25 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. He currently hosts a film podcast called The Popcorn Conspiracy. He is also a Rotten Tomatoes accredited reviewer and is an alternate judge for the Golden Globes Awards. You can follow him at Facebook: SubcultureEntertainmentAus.