I SAW PREDATOR: BADLANDS

Predator: Badlands is director Dan (10 Cloverfield Lane) Trachtenberg's follow-up to his acclaimed Prey and his interlocking-chapter, animated effort, Predator: Killer of Killers.

For Badlands, we're introduced to a Predator, a Yautja (younger, smaller than those seen prior, but when need be, as translucent as the best). He's named Dek, portrayed by Dimitrius Schuster-Kolomatangi, who's been dispatched by his brother, Kewei (Mike Komik), to the harsh, Skull Island-like world of Genna (the Death Planet) to impress their callous father, Njohrr (also played by Schuster-Kolomatangi). It's on Genna that Dek must defeat (of all daunting things) an "unkillable," limb re-attaching behemoth called the Kalisk. Along the way, he's joined by a Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Thia, played by Elle Fanning, who he finds severed in half, but that doesn't stop her from encouraging him toward his Samurai Jack conquest. (Incidentally, Thia has a twin, Tessa, who's not so nice as she leads a synth team to capture a Kalisk, and there's a cute, reptilian-monkey thing called Bud [Rohinal Nayaran] who holds a surprising connection to the mega-beast, but to reveal it would spoil too much.)

The plot is effective for being fast and lean. For a portion of it, a Moby Dick motif manifests, which prompts one's emotional investment, despite the otherworldly (re)location (just as Star Trek: Wrath of Khan and First Contact did all those years ago). However, as the story builds, it adapts a reverse-Gorgo dynamic (but to detail its intricacy would also reveal too much). 

Much of the movie matches Killer of Killers' final act, with brutal survival placed upfront. It's different, though, to see a Predator as the prey, unless one considers certain pivotal points in the Alien vs Predator set, though in those instances, the Predators pushed the battles. (This got me to wondering how a Planet of the Apes chapter might click with such an approach, that is, with a lone simian and perhaps a Nova-inspired gal against belligerent humans.)

Anyway, the movie works, adding another superb notch to the Predator universe. I do hope that fans will come out and support it, for there are so many unique angles yet to explore for this franchise, in particular if Trachtenberg remains on board. In other words, it would be a damn shame to call it quits, which (as we all know) no worthy Predator would ever do.