{"id":32404,"date":"2025-11-06T22:05:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=32404"},"modified":"2025-11-06T22:05:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:05:46","slug":"predator-badlands-offers-some-strong-moments-yet-feels-like-just-a-set-up-more-sequels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=32404","title":{"rendered":"PREDATOR: BADLANDS Offers Some Strong Moments, Yet Feels Like Just a Set-Up For More Sequels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 107 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film from 20th<\/sup> Century Studios opens\nexclusively at theaters and on IMAX screens on November 7th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, it seems like every successful science-fiction,\nfantasy or horror film isn\u2019t content to keep its stories and characters in\ntheir own universe. The original Predator<\/em> was a fantastic\nscience-fiction\/action spectacle made as a standalone feature. But even back in\nthe day, studio heads seemed excited by the idea of combining the villainous\nwarriors from another planet with the Alien<\/em> franchise. It resulted in a\ncouple of less-than-stellar features, but the studio has never given up on the\nidea. Predator: Badlands<\/em> is a story involving the title creature, but\none that also indeed has ties to the Alien<\/em> universe. The action on\ndisplay is creatively accomplished, yet it\u2019s not hard to see the picture\u2019s\nobvious attempts at drawing viewers into a longer narrative that will span over\nmultiple movies.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is part of the\nPredator species and a son of his home planet\u2019s Apex Predator. All young family\nmembers must hunt and kill an otherworldly species to earn the right to become\nan official Predator (or Yautja). Alas, even the creature\u2019s parent considers\nDek a \u201crunt\u201d that should be eliminated to properly preserve the Yautja line.\nDek is fueled to prove his worth and chooses to hunt one of the most feared\nbeasts in the universe, an enormous lifeform that can regenerate lost limbs.\nThe Predator ends up on the creature\u2019s strange world, but finds everything\nabout the planet dangerous. Thankfully, Dek encounters Thia (Elle Fanning), a\ndamaged synthetic humanoid research robot created by the Weyland-Yutani\nCorporation (from the Alien<\/em> franchise). Thia convinces Dek to use her as\na tool in hunting his prey. Dek agrees and as various forces from all sides\nclose in on the pair, they start to form something resembling a bond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, this is a picture that features no human characters at\nall, which is an interesting challenge. But of course, over the course of the\nstory all of the aliens and robots stop and begin to learn from each other, in\na sense, becoming anthropomorphized. Dek initially wants nothing more than to\nfight and kill in the tradition of the Predator line, but the situation\nultimately requires assistance, communication, and understanding with Thia. The\nsynthetic being knows all the species on the planet and pleads that they can\nuse them to their benefit if they treat them respectfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a lot (perhaps too much) of action in the film. But\nat least it is, during several sequences, handled in an amusing way. Various\nstrange species exist in this world and it is entertaining to see Dek use them\nduring the climax. Thia is in search of missing legs for a good portion of the\nfilm. After recovering the limbs, there are complications that arise, leaving\ntwo separate parts of the character individually helping to take out some foes.\nThese moments are impressively handled and enjoyable to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, the movie also makes a point of its characters\nunderstanding other species. This includes a small beast crucial to the story\nthat follows them around. The intent is noble, but the delivery can be\nheavy-handed at times, especially as some of the creatures on another world\nshould not be expected to display the same curious nature to invasive species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And while the script does its best to make a Predator and a\nsynthetic robot relatable and appealing, it does come off a little strangely.\nThia seems almost too jovial and jokey for an artificial lifeform, and very few\nof the jokes land. Additionally, as enjoyable as some of the action is, much of\nit involves CGI aliens battling CGI aliens and robots, and so It\u2019s hard to get\ntoo emotionally invested in the outcome. In fact, at times some of it resembles\nan impressively animated video game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story does come to a close on an acceptably final note,\nbut it does set up the next sequel in its final moments. One can\u2019t help but\nfeel like we\u2019re heading into storylines and backstories that aren\u2019t essential,\nbut intended to keep two Hollywood franchises forging ahead and earning\nprofits. Those who are already invested in the Predator<\/em> series and Alien<\/em>\nfilm and TV projects will likely be entertained by Predator: Badlands<\/em>.\nOverall, I appreciated various elements, but still fear a future of\nfatigue-inducing follow-ups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 107 minutes This film from 20th Century Studios opens exclusively at theaters and on IMAX screens on November 7th. These days, it seems like every successful science-fiction, fantasy or horror film isn\u2019t content to keep its stories and characters in their own universe. The original Predator was a fantastic science-fiction\/action spectacle made as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,221,697,1047,5879,6849,7783,9319,14186,16323,16324,16325,16326,17775,24129],"class_list":["post-32404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-20th-century-studios","tag-action","tag-alien","tag-dimitrius-schuster-koloamatangi","tag-elle-fanning","tag-fox","tag-horror","tag-monster","tag-predator-badlands","tag-predator-badlands-film-review","tag-predator-badlands-movie-review","tag-predator-badlands-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-weyland-yutani"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}