After taking fans back centuries with his critically acclaimed Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg has upended what a Predator movie can be once more with Predator: Badlands, turning villain into hero as it centers a more human, more compassionate Yautja. Bloodthirsty franchise loyalists may not appreciate the big swing, but if you're okay with throwing the rulebook – or should we say, 'Yautja Codex' – out, the result is a highly enjoyable, Mandalorian-esque adventure that swaps horror for humor.
It isn't, it turns out, a secret Alien vs. Predator film either, or even setting one up in fact, despite Elle Fanning playing Weyland-Yutani synths Tessa and Thia and its nods to Power Loaders and Xenomorph-fighting comic book character Broken Tusk. It's a pretty self-contained flick that keeps its "elegant" connectivity to the Alien Universe at a minimum, bringing Dek's arc full circle as he pushes back against his kind's ancient traditions and forges his own identity.
