‘Predator Badlands’ Movie Review

It’s interesting to see how Predator as a brand has traveled from something distant and scary to something familiar enough that the audience feels empathy for Dek the alien. The VFX tech has gotten really good and that gives the production permission to tell a story about the predator where we see and feel the emotions from a very alien main character. Previous renditions of predator had to hide behind a mask for production cost reasons so the story was more centered around a human actor. Now we can go to Yautja home world and learn about them intimately. And follow them throughout the movie as the main character.

Badlands is an extremely refreshing take on the predator genre. It feels equal in my mind James Camerons Avatar movies in a way. We travel to a world with a ecosystem that is very foreign yet our main character has to learn to adapt and become one with nature. Sounds familiar and I loved it.

Felt entertaining to watch throughout the whole ride. Not overall gory movie which was surprising for a Predator movie. Don’t get me wrong there is gore but felt motivated by story rather than just because they can. I am interest in finding more behind the scenes and studying the VFX work that went into this movie. Framestore did put a video breakdown for some parts of the movie. Still wondering if there were other VFX houses that helped out.

Interested in seeing where they take the sequels in the future. Not sure if they can do better but I will hold out hope.

Overall I give the movie 8/10. Will watch it again when I have a larger OLED screen.