Predator: Badlands

Director:Dan Trachtenberg

Dek(Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a young Predator desperate to be accepted into his clan. But Dek is a runt, not seen as worthy. To prove himself, he heads to the planet Genna, to kill the deadly Kalist and return with its head as his trophy. The Kalist is not the only threat to Dek on the planet, it seems every inch of it is deadly and wants to kill him. But he finds unlikely help in the shape of Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic, familiar with the planet, its risks and the home of the Kalist. Together they set off across the deadly planet to capture the Kalist. But Dek is not the only one wanting to capture it, leading to a deadly battle leaving the runt Predator fighting to survive.

Badlands takes the same approach as its successful predecessor, Prey, and is equally successful, delivering an entertaining and fun science fiction adventure.

As with Prey, Badlands plays a little younger than the original Predator films. But this isn’t to its detriment, as Badlands serves up a Predator coming of age film, about discovering who you are, the world around you, why friendship and family are important and how you can surpass the expectations of others, all told from the perspective of one of the universes great killing machines!

It’s full of action and its 107 minute running time zips along with a script that brings plenty of light moments.

Schuster-Koloamatangi brings lots of personality to the role of the Predator and Elle Fanning does a lot of heavy lifting, not only as the only character speaking a human language, she also plays more than one role. Together they are an enjoyable pairing.

Predator: Badlands follows on from the excellent Prey, with another original take on the Predator story. It is a fun, fast moving sci-fi adventure, full of entertaining action set pieces and a light script that keeps the story flying along. As with Prey, it plays younger than the original Predator’s, but in no way to its detriment. There’s plenty for sci-fi fans to enjoy.