Predator: Badlands (2025) Movie Review - A surprisingly fun sci-fi action movie
If you think Predator means muscle-bound soldiers and an invisible monster in the trees, this one's going to catch you off guard. Predator: Badlands flips the camera to the hunter's side and sticks with it. No humans. Just Yautja, an android, and a planet that wants to eat everything that moves. It sounds like a gimmick, but it plays like a real story.
The hook is Dek - the runt, the kid nobody expects to make it. After his father kills his brother Kwei for showing mercy, Dek bolts, driven by guilt and stubborn pride. His goal is brutal and simple: complete the rite of passage by taking down a Kalisk on Genna, a death-planet that chews up better warriors than him.
Genna isn't just a backdrop; it's a gauntlet. Razor-blade grass. Predators inside predators. And sitting in the middle of it all, the mark: a Kalisk that already ripped an android in half. The corporate stamp here is familiar - Weyland-Yutani - a neat nod for anyone who tracks the Alien (movies and tv series)/Predator connective tissue without turning this into a crossover.
That android, Thia (Elle Fanning (movies and tv series)), becomes the film's heartbeat. She's optimistic, chatty, and quite literally separated from her legs. She bargains for Dek's help in getting them back and offers him a map to the Kalisk's den. He rejects her on principle - Yautja pride runs deep - but Genna humbles people fast.
Fanning threads the needle. She's funny without undercutting the stakes, like the bright friend who talks you through a panic attack while you're still in it. If you've seen her earlier work on The Great, you'll recognize the warm, disarming optimism. It's what softens the film's edges and keeps the tone alive between grisly set pieces.
Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (movies and tv series) has the tougher assignment as Dek. He's buried under creature design and speaking in Yautja, yet the performance still reads. The eyes, the pauses, the way his shoulders drop when the façade cracks - that's what sells it. You feel him learning. You feel him choosing who he wants to be.
The action comes steady and sometimes a bit samey. The film seems to know this, so it keeps tossing fresh hazards and weird visuals into the path - from killer grass to a severed pair of legs that keeps fighting like a loyal dog. Some segments click, some don't, but the imagination stays on.
What makes the movie stick isn't the body (movies and tv series) count. It's the bond. Dek and Thia fall into that sunshine-and-grump dynamic that works because it's earned, not cute for cute's sake. Found family shows up, too, framed as a choice, not fate. And the film says out loud what these stories often swerve around: compassion isn't weakness; sometimes it's the only way through.
There's a broader franchise note worth flagging. After the back-to-basics jolt of Prey, steering Predator toward character-first survival and sharper world-building feels smart. Badlands doesn't try to out-muscle the originals; it changes the angle. And that's why it feels fresh.
For lore-minded readers, the Yautja focus and the Weyland-Yutani presence suggest careful stitching across universes without leaning on fan service. If you want a quick refresher, here's a solid primer on the Predator species and mythos via the franchise background. And for the corporate boogeyman threading through sci-fi, Weyland-Yutani's history is a useful companion read.
- What works: A clear emotional spine, a committed Dek performance under heavy VFX, and Thia's levity keeping the movie human.
- What stumbles: A few overlong tussles and a pattern you can spot coming - peril, quip, escape, repeat.
- Bottom line: A creature-feature with heart that earns its quieter moments between the claws and plasma.
Verdict: 6.5/10
Read More: Predator: Badlands Ending Explained
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