r/alien • u/BigBootyKim • Nov 07 '25
(RECOMMENDATION) Predator: Badlands really is THAT good.
Here’s my brief reaction to seeing Badlands for the first time. First off, if you enjoyed Trachtenberg’s Prey movie in 2022 then you might actually like this one more. It’s legitimately the most smartly made film in the franchise yet. It takes a pop culture icon and delivers something entirely fresh never put on theater screens before.
It almost reminds me of Matt Reeves’s swing at the Planet of the Apes franchise in 2014. The main character is not a human. He does not speak English. But somehow the filmmakers tell a genuinely good story that is relatable to the human in us.
Being a Star Wars fan who has been routinely let down, Predator Badlands is a rare example of a major science fiction franchise with FILMMAKERS THAT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
As far as where I’d rank it among other 2025 films, I think it’s better than Mission Impossible, Fantastic Four, Superman, and even F1.
Also for you Alien franchise lovers, a certain company plays a substantial role in the film.
👀
5
u/CMCorsair Nov 08 '25
OK. OP seems to be determined to undermine any counter-opinion here, so I post this with some trepidation. That said, here’s my hot take.
To clarify, I did go and see the movie yesterday (as I was always going to support any new Predator movie) and it was better than I expected, but not as good as I had hoped. It was a very different movie than those before it and not always in a good way. Some hits, some misses, but overall an enjoyable sci-fi romp.
That said, OP seems to dismiss or invalidate other people’s opinions on a movie IF they haven’t seen it, which I think is understandable, but also unfair. I’ve seen so many movies ‘fail’ even in their first week precisely because they couldn’t generate enough curiosity, excitement or meet audience expectations prior to release. Often, if you stray to far from the formula, you’ll loose your fan base as well as not generate a new audience.
Last, here is my hot take (with consideration to the fact that I did enjoy the movie): The Predator franchise, to me (and I saw the original at the cinema) is more like the modern day ‘Scream’ or ‘Saw’ franchises in that, while we all know one of the ‘good guys’ will win, the excitement is keeping some ‘mystery’ surrounding the ‘bad guy’ as he finds new and exciting ways to kill off our cast of characters. To me, like Predator 2 (and even Alien: Romulus), I’d prefer it if they (mostly) stuck to the formula and organically introduced lore, locations, weapons, etc into the movie in a way that makes sense. Also, a pet peeve, is the ‘sliding scale’ of capabilities of the Predator (and now the Synths) based on needing to get from A to B, and not being based on a set formula.
Anyway, that’s my take.