Flipping the script, making heroes of villains from two sci-fi series
The latest entry in the “Predator” series isn’t a game changer so much as a change-up, building a better bridge with the “Alien” film series than the comic book-inspired “Alien vs. Predator” did so slackly in 2004, showing a wry humor and, as you might not suspect, making the predator of the tile – replete with that freaky maw – the de facto protagonist.
All that said, the plot’s not that surprising: An undersized predator or Yautja named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, emoting effectively under all the makeup and special effects) is to be offed by his brother to cull the clan of its weakest (sounds like an IBM or Amazon layoff – nothing personal, right?). His brother stands up for him and lets Dek jet off to Genna, aka the Death Planet, to hunt down a Kalisk, secure the creature’s skull as a trophy and ascend into the clan of predator warriors.
But no Yautja has killed a Kalisk, and many have died trying. The beast has on-the-fly regeneration – even a severed head is a flesh wound – and a tail that can smash a military vehicle into tiny pieces. On Genna, where trees can eat you, snakes spit exploding darts and the razor grass is so sharp it slices flesh, the Kalisk is the king (or queen, as the plot has it) of the jungle.
Dek runs into trouble early on when he’s hunted by a dragon that paralyzes him, but help comes in the form of Thia, a waifish Weyland Corp. synthetic – like Ash in the original 1979 “Alien,” Michael Fassbender’s David in prequels “Prometheus” (2012) and “Covenant” (2017) and characters in the current television series “Alien: Earth” – played with scene-stealing panache by Elle Fanning.
“Badlands,” like “Earth,” scores on the mercurial nature of its human-produced replicants who can kind of think and feel for themselves but are also indentured puppets. Thia became separated from her legs thanks to a Kalisk, and spends much of the movie strapped to Dek’s back and cracking jokes – she’s better at it than David Jonsson’s synth in last year’s “Alien: Romulus.” Toward the and of the film, her legs and upper torso fight as a tag team of sorts in smackdowns with a Weyland Corp. army led by her synth sister Tessa. (Fanning plays both characters, but Tess is a bore by comparison.)
The depth, look and scape of the film is impressive; see it in Imax if you can. It’s directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who got this series back on track with the competent 2022 prequel chapter “Prey.” He feels more in his world-creating element here, and the chemistry between the gruff Dek, flaky and hip Thia and a cute Yoda-like puppy dog has the goofy synergy of that motley crew that wandered the Yellow Brick Road. It’s an effective blend of grim, sci-fi grit and nonchalantly ribald comedy. It swings for the fences and connects.
For What it's Worth 
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