Predator: Badlands2025

Predator: Badlands, much like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes last year, seems like another attempt to bring fantasy-style films back into the zeitgeist. But given the current state of Hollywood cinema, most “experimental” films require some sort of ip connection to ever see the green light.  This is a movie that does not stray far from established tropes and ideas, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Isn’t it enough for a movie to just be fun?  It does a good job “humanizing” the Predator, and as someone who has never seen a Predator movie, I found him very interesting. I like the way he grows and changes throughout the film. Though I wish I had the experience of the other Predators before seeing this, as I feel it would have made the story feel fresher than it did to my uninitiated eyes. I enjoyed the connection to the Alien franchise with heavy involvement of Weyland-Yutani in the plot. While I knew about the Alien/Predator crossover films, I did not know the actual lengths of the connected universe with this film, especially feeling tied to the Prometheus films for a multitude of reasons.  I really enjoyed this one. I don’t know if it’ll make it into my top favorites of the year, but it at least inspired me to check out the other Predator film, so I think in that sense, it did its job.