Film Review: Predator: Badlands 鐵血戰士：蠻荒廝殺 (2025) - USA
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critic Circle of Australia)
I rated it 7.5/10
Support my reviews by buying me a Coffee! https://buymeacoffee.com/neofilmblog
Support our reviews by buying from official DVDs / Blu Rays at NeoFilmShop.com
A Franchise Hunts New Prey, Finding Heart But Losing Teeth - Dan Trachtenberg, who breathed thrilling new life into the Predator saga with the lean, mean Prey, returns not to refine that formula, but to shatter it. “Predator: Badlands” is less a hunt and more a coming-of-age parable draped in sci-fi spectacle. It’s a bold, often visually astonishing gamble that swaps the franchise's signature dread for an earnest, if occasionally saccharine, tale of outcasts finding their tribe. You’ll admire its audacity even as you mourn the missing menace.
The genius stroke, and the film's core gamble, is perspective. Forget grizzled commandos or Comanche warriors; our protagonist is the Predator. Young Dek (a surprisingly expressive motion-capture performance by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, voice layered with adolescent frustration), is a Yautja exile, deemed weak by his ruthless clan. Cast out onto the gloriously hostile planet Genna – a visual feast of bioluminescent flora and razor-toothed fauna echoing “Dune” or “Avatar” – Dek’s quest for redemption involves hunting the planet’s mythical apex predator. It’s the ultimate underdog story, except the underdog has mandibles and plasma cannons.
Dek’s journey collides with Thia (a radiant and nuanced Elle Fanning), a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic discarded like yesterday’s tech. Fanning excels, imbuing Thia with a fragile humanity that starkly contrasts her chillingly efficient corporate "sister," Tessa. Their forced alliance, born of mutual survival on a world where everything bites, stings, or explodes, becomes the film's beating heart. Trachtenberg mines genuine, almost wholesome chemistry from this most unlikely buddy pairing: the ostracized alien teenager and the emotionally scarred android. Their growing trust and mutual reliance provide the film’s strongest emotional core and its most original contribution to the lore.
And visually, “Badlands” is frequently stunning. Genna is a character in itself, rendered with immersive detail and a constant sense of peril. Trachtenberg stages action with kinetic energy and invention; set pieces are thrilling, creative, and deliver a high body count (albeit with the PG-13 mandated white alien blood and clear android fluid). The world-building is expansive and intriguing, weaving threads from both the “Predator” and, crucially, the “Alien” mythos into a tapestry that feels newly connected and ripe with potential.
But here lies the rub, the trade-off inherent in this bold shift. By making the Predator our hero – a "whiny teenager," as one might uncharitably put it – the film fundamentally drains the creature of its terrifying power. The original “Predator” worked because the alien was an unknowable, unstoppable force of nature. In “Badlands”, Dek is relatable, vulnerable, even… cute? Especially with his sidekick creature, Bud (a design clearly aiming for merchandise). The tension, the primal horror, the dread of being hunted – the very essence of the franchise’s early power – evaporates. The film substitutes adrenaline-pumping action and heartfelt character beats for suspense and terror. It’s a different kind of entertainment, but it’s not the “Predator” many fans signed up for.
The PG-13 rating, necessary for this broader character-driven approach, further sands down the edges. The visceral brutality, the raw, R-rated grit that often defined the series’ confrontations, is replaced by cleaner, faster-paced violence. It’s exciting, yes, but it lacks weight and consequence.
“Predator: Badlands” is a well-crafted, often spectacular sci-fi adventure. It takes genuine risks, successfully forging an emotional narrative and significantly expanding the universe in ways that will excite lore enthusiasts, especially with its official Alien ties. Fanning and Schuster-Koloamatangi make an engaging duo, and Trachtenberg’s direction is assured. Yet, its very success in making the Predator sympathetic and the action accessible comes at the cost of the franchise’s defining intensity and horror. It’s a worthwhile, entertaining journey to Genna, but one that feels more like a vibrant spin-off than a true successor to the franchise's primal roots. Approach it not as a traditional Predator film, but as a bold, if unpolished, new chapter in a much larger, evolving saga. (Neo 2025)