While largely filmed in the land of Hobbits and Shires, in Predator: Badlands this place is called Genna, the apparently most dangerous planet in the known universe. On these desolate grounds, even Yautja walk with caution, for here lives the Kalisk, a mysterious giant beast that is considered unkillable after every Predator who has landed on that planet failed to return. To most Yautja, it represents death. But for Dek (Schuster-Koloamatangi), it signifies redemption. Played by an actor of six feet in height, Dek is considered a “runt” by his father (Reuben de Jong) and the other members of his tribe. And when the movie begins, what Dek mistakes for playful training with his brother Kwei (Michael Homick) turns out to be a last chance.
Kwei has defied their father’s orders to murder Dek and “cull the clan” of his weakness. Instead Kwei reluctantly sends Dek on a likely one-way mission to Genna. There little brother will prove his Yautja bonafides by taking the head of the unkillable as his trophy… or he’ll die trying. And on a planet as hostile as this, there are plenty of other hazards that could kill him before he even finds the prize. Fortunately, there are also a handful of Weyland-Yutani synths scattered to the wind after their own exploratory mission went sideways. Among them is Thia, Fanning’s endlessly chipper automaton who’s long since lost her legs but never her ability to charm any audience—be they a movie house or an initially hostile Yautja in need of some new tools (and maybe company?).
With its spartan setup and ensemble, Predator: Badlands is regressively, and refreshingly, uncomplicated. It’s as straightforward as a ‘90s comic book about a Predator or Terminator meeting Batman, and yet it never feels dumb even when keeping things simple. This is a significant testament to the casting. While the extended prologue on the Yautja’s home planet is fairly lore (and CGI) heavy, once the film gallops toward Dek and Thia’s first meeting, the film finds its winsome two-hander energy and almost never lets it go.
Much of this needs to be credited to Schuster-Koloamatangi and the makeup team, who are able to convey the actor’s real performance despite mountains of prosthetics and some CG-enhancement. He still looks convincingly alien, but there is a more human and tactile performance in those eyes than anything ever before produced in the Predator franchise. We get a sense of Dek’s pride and also vulnerability. Still, the reason the movie works as well as it does can be largely attributed to Fanning, a warm and intelligent performer who knows how to beguile the camera with a sing-songy voice, which here can bely a brutal intelligence behind those luminous lighthouse eyes.
The actress actually does double duty in the movie, playing both Thia and her “twin sister,” the unsurprisingly colder and more typical Weyland model, Tessa, who is also wandering Genna with all her appendages intact. It’s a nice actor’s showcase to switch between ice and… if not fire, then maybe hot cocoa. But it’s really about the contrast she brings like an automated Scarecrow waiting to be struck down from a trap by Dek’s brutish Dorothy that gives the movie its predictable, albeit pleasant, heart.
Mileage might vary about that conventionality, however. While none of the Predator movies have ever been quite what I’d call subversive in their plotting—at least once you get over the fact that Schwarzenegger is little more than a slasher movie’s final girl in the 1987 original—they certainly were hard-edged. Conversely, Badlands has a deliberate adventure-movie coziness about it as Dek’s prickly exterior is thawed first by Thia—whom he mostly refers to as “tool”—and then a cuddly monkey-sized alien creature who starts following them around like a lost puppy. This is a far cry from the “ugly motherf****” days of the series’ origins, and indeed matches the movie’s new PG-13 look and tone.
