My Cultural Diet

2022’s Prey expanded the Predator franchise into an 18th-century Native American setting, which gave the venerable sci-fi franchise some historical heft. I was a big fan of that film and thus, pretty excited for Predator: Badlands. Alas, the latest Predator film doesn’t really measure up to its predecessor; the return to a more traditional sci-fi setting has decidedly mixed results. The setup’s promising, with a young Predator (or Yautja, as they’re called in-universe) traveling to the galaxy’s most hostile planet in search of quarry that will prove his mettle to his tribe. Unfortunately, he soon crosses paths with a Weyland-Yutani android (played to bubbly extremes by Elle Fanning) who really, really loves meeting non-human lifeforms. From that point on, things just get goofy, especially when compared to Prey’s grounded intensity. If you ever wanted to see a movie in which a Predator and an android have a meet-cute, well, here you go. There’s even a cute alien critter thrown in for good measure. Things improve slightly in the film’s second half, but by then, it’s too little, too late.

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