‘I’ ON CULTURE
One of the few science fiction/adventure franchises that Disney has not ruined is the Predator one. The new film Predator: Badlands is a lean, tough adventure movie, one of the best in the series. I have never cared all that much for the series, but this movie is making me reconsider.
The film begins on the planet of Yautja Prime, home world of the species where a youngster, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is fighting his older and larger brother Kwei (Mike Homik) as a step in proving himself as a full Yautja warrior. His brother tells Dek that his final challenge is to go to a foreign planet and bring back that world’s toughest fighter as a trophy.
As the smallest in the family, Dek has a major complex, and he decides to go to Genna, generally called the death planet, and return with the head of a Kalisk, a huge monster. But his father Njohrr orders Kwei to kill Dek because he is “a runt.” Kwei protects his brother and sends him off on a ship to the death planet before being killed by his father. Dek finds out why Genna is called the death planet right away, as everything there tries to kill him. Trees wind around him like snakes, worms blow up like hand grenades, and the monster is far worse than he imagined.
Then he meets a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic (essentially a mass-produced android) named Thia (Elle Fanning), who is missing her legs. She offers to help Dek survive and lead him to the monster in exchange for his help in being reunited with her legs. Along the way, they wind up battling against another synthetic (also Elle Fanning) who wants the monster for herself.
There are several key elements in this film that are new to the franchise. Dek begins to understand that there are better ways to hunt than doing it alone. Anthropologically speaking, that was a key element in the gradual domination of this planet by humans. Cooperation works well. Also, it allows the understanding of the Yautja/Predator culture. We get to see traditions of honor and mourning mixed in with the clear differences in families. This is part of an increased focus on world-building in the franchise by director/writer Dan Trachtenberg.
Even more to the point is the incredible detail in its depiction of the planet, one totally foreign to any of our experiences. Each species is different from what we have, and even the most deadly can play a key role in the environment, sometimes even in beneficent ways. Dek actually learns to use some of the nastiest elements to his benefit. This is a brilliant kind of complex world building.
It is difficult to deal with the performances, since Elle Fanning is just about the only “human” we see. And she handles two roles, doing both really well. Hers is an exceptional performance. Her two roles are essentially in conflict with each other, not just for goals, but even personality. The other actors, playing aliens, wear too much makeup and prosthetics to say anything beyond they really do their job. The fight scene between the brothers at the start of the film is a clear example of how to use action and gestures to build characters. But the artwork, the computer images, are brilliant. The world doesn’t have the quick, easy look of alien worlds we get in some films. Everything is detailed and present for a purpose. The planet becomes a necessary character.
The film is very violent, although it carries a PG-13 rating, which is softer than the usual R ones for this series. I guess the reason behind it is that almost none of the fighting involves humans. Actually, there are no actual “normal” humans in the film, an interesting variation. Normally, we would fasten on the humans as our focus. Here things are different. We can step back a bit and identify with a being previously being looked on as a monster.
And that sets the film apart from somewhat similar ones. There are no cute quips to distract from the action. From relatively early on, this is a straight struggle to not only survive but to grow. If you like the franchise, this is a must-see. If you like this general type of movie, I think you will appreciate it. For the general audience, it is essentially a good action movie. One of the better movies I’ve seen in a long time.
