Predator: Badlands

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) joins the hunt in Predator: Badlands (Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

The Predator has always been an evil force as a single-minded alien hunter. In the movies, it somehow finds its way to Earth and becomes a villain battling desperate humans. Sure, it has fought Xenomorphs in the Alien vs. Predator spinoffs, though it is still a bad guy. Until now. The latest entry, Predator: Badlands, recasts the title character as the protagonist. It is an ambitious attempt to reboot the series as pure sci-fi action, with no horror elements. It introduces new mythology, a cute creature and tries to humanize what had been a fairly effective one-dimensional concept.

The result feels like a Star Wars movie. The action is mostly tame and generic, as this is turned into a coming-of-age story about a youngster finding itself on a deadly hunt. The last act, when our hero finally goes on the offensive, is definitely its strongest. Otherwise, it is fine. I suppose it works as far as making this franchise more family-friendly, though that is not really what I was looking for from a Predator movie. It feels like every other PG-13 sci-fi/action blockbuster, with nothing all that interesting to distinguish it.

Dek is a Yautja, the alien species we know as Predators. When his brother is murdered by their father for refusing to execute Dek as the weakest of their clan, Dek journeys to a dangerous planet to claim an unkillable monster as a trophy, so he can take his place as a true Yautja warrior.

Dek meets Thia (Elle Fanning)

Everything about Predator: Badlands (99 minutes, without the end credits) feels derivative of so much science-fiction entertainment. From the narrative to the theme of finding your family to the world Dek finds himself on to the way the characters are portrayed. This is so safe. Even the violence (which there is quite a lot of) is cartoonish in nature. This is a killing machine turned into the star of a product for teenagers. It is a big change for the franchise; one that is sanitized to total unoriginality.

As for the positives? It follows its formula well. The pacing is good. The narrative does open up new storytelling avenues, even in the way it connects to Alien through the Weyland-Yutani synthetic that assists Dek in his quest. That would be Thia, played by Elle Fanning as a friendly and talkative robot straight out of the C-3PO playbook. This is the most obvious of the many ways this material has been softened from previous entries. Her personality is occasionally endearing, yet primarily annoying.

Some of the action is clever, as Dek learns to use his surroundings as a weapon. There are promising ideas here and the final twenty minutes or so are actually almost good. However, there is no sense of risk. It is an adventure following the universe’s greatest hunter that never for a second suggests the slightest bit of danger. I guess it does what it set out to do successfully. Unfortunately, what it set out to do is very disappointing. After Prey, which approached the concept in a fresh way, the filmmakers are trying to turn Predator into a cookie-cutter commercial hit. I get why (and it will probably work), but I don’t have to like it.

2½ out of 5

Cast:

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek

Elle Fanning as Thia

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

Screenplay by Patrick Aison