Predator Badlands opens on on Yautja Prime – aka where the titular creatures are from, as brothers Dek and Kwei are fighting. However, their father decides Dek has dishonoured the family and is a runt (careful how you type that!), so must be killed… hmm… bit of an overreaction.
Kwei has other ideas, and locks Dek in their spaceship, destined for Genna, so he can go and kill the huge creature known as the Kalisk, and return with a trophy, so he can prove his worth, and then they can all just go to The Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.
Once having arrived… or rather, crash-landed, Dek – who has no ears, like Marvin the cop in Reservoir Dogs – comes across synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning – A Complete Unknown), who’s wide-eyed and legless, and tells him that no previous Yautja have killed the Kalisk, so he’s got a tough row to hoe.
In fact, Thia – who’s not singing that song, but ended up in battle with the Kalisk, so she’s currently separated from her lower limbs – works on a crew of synths, since humans clearly can’t be trusted, but then again, see how Alien turned out… although, I’m not sure when we are in terms of the time period, since it’s not specified.
I was initially sceptical about whether Predator Badlands would be worth watching, simply because no Predator film can be as good as 1990’s Predator 2 (yes, I’m serious), which I preferred over the 1987 original, and I was disappointed with 2010’s Predators, 2018’s The Predator, and 2022’s Prey.
I did enjoy Alien vs Predator, in 2004, but 2007’s Alien vs Predator: Requiem was literally just two men fighting in rubber suits, and was dire.
And then I didn’t realise, until shortly before seeing this, that Predator Badlands isn’t even a 15-certificate, but a 12A! Predator for kids?! Hang on, that sounds wrong…
Still, it does rather play the franchise for laughs at times, such as with Thia treating Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) as if he’s a bloke, even humanising him to the point where he makes a couple of daft jokes/asides along the way. Plus, when they come across a small critter – whom Thia names Bud – there’s a scene where he mirrors Dek’s movements, like the awful McCain TV ad with the dad and kid, and its even worse plinky-plonky music in the background.
However, Bud (Rohinal Nayaran) might just prove to be stronger than he looks, so don’t underestimate him… or it, or whatever it is.
Ultimately, I figured this film is a 12A because just creatures are being killed, maimed, etc, so there’s no direct threat to any humans, given that there aren’t any on the planet Genna. And for what follows, Predator Badlands winds up being silly but entertaining, and far better than I expected!
Director Dan Trachtenberg has made two previous Predator films, Predator: Killer of Killers – which has completely passed me by, as I’m not on Disney+ – and Prey, which also went to streaming, but which I later saw on Channel 4. Quite frankly, it really didn’t work for me at all. Still, after this latest one, I’d give it another go, along with Predator: Killer of Killers.
Either way, Predator Badlands is far better than Alien Romulus, although they missed a trick not labelling Thia as ‘Ant’ in some way, so we could have Ant & Dek! 😀
Additionally, I found out on Twitter, that the film’s opening title – albeit coming TWENTY MINUTES IN – came from SanjayCreates.
I’ll include it below (taken from Sanjay’s own tweet), but while it looks great, it looks silly that Fox (since 20th Century Studios is them) stuck the extraneous text all over it. However, once the film ends – aside from a brief extra scene a moment later, which is a nice bit of humour – you do get the title again, but WITHOUT all the text.
As an aside, Odeon’s pre-film junk is expanding irritatingly. As well as the usual adverts then trailers, we then get MORE crap that companies have paid extra for, to get in this ‘golden slot’.
As well as the usual Limitless promo with Taron Egerton-a-like (real Taron has since gone), then a promo for Odeon Extras (starts in darkness with the sarky guy moaning, “Don’t you know you’re missing out?”, there was a Wicked competition promo, then a Playstation 5 advert with an old tanker on top of the Empire State Building, then a Wicked Google phone ad, then finally, Audi’s “I like to move it”…
And then, finally, Odeon’s “It’s Time”… but not quite, since there was still time for the BBFC’s bouncing certificates promo. Oh, do shut up!
However, it still makes me laugh that in 2025, Natasha Kaplinsky is head of the BBFC.
NOTE: There are no mid, nor post-credits scenes.
Predator Badlands is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 107 minutes
Release date: November 7th 2025
Studio: 20th Century Studios
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (4.5K), Anamorphic Apollo Scope)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Producers: John Davis, Brent O’Connor, Ben Rosenblatt, Marc Toberoff
Screenplay: Patrick Aison
Characters: Jim Thomas, John Thomas
Music: Sarah Schachner, Benjamin Wallfisch
Cast:
Thia: Elle Fanning
Dek: Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Bud: Rohinal Nayaran
Kwei: Mike Homik
Kwei (voice): Stefan Grube
Father: Reuben de Jong
Drone Synth: Cameron Brown
MU/TH/UR (voice): Alison Wright
Kwei`s Ship Computer (voice): Matt Duffer
Kwei`s Ship Computer (voice): Ross Duffer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.