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PREDATOR: BADLANDS Trailer (2025)
- Thread starter clarky
- Start date
Kacho
Gold Member
"A few days ago, I threw out my back, so I wasn't sure I'd make it through to the end watching a movie. But armed with my secret weapon—an inflatable lumbar pillow into the chair—I watched "Predator: Badlands." A back-friendly 107 minutes! And it was great!
I'm sure some long-time fans will say, "This isn't Predator!" I, too, love John McTiernan's Predator (1987). But director Dan Trachtenberg already pulled off a brilliant reimagining of the original style with "Prey," successfully completing that mission. "Predator: Badlands"marks his next phase. It builds on the animated film, "Predator: Killer of Killers." This is a character-driven movie about the Predator "Dek" and his partner "Thia" (Elle is, as always, adorable). Rather than a tale of "terror of being hunted," it's a classic, comedic action film that depicts the "friendship" born in the midst of the hunt."
Failure of the weak, isolation, journey, training, encounter, rebellion, clash, comradeship, betrayal, redemption, reconciliation, unity, revenge, growth, choice, family—and a new threat."
These elements form the very blueprint of mainstream Japanese manga storytelling, typified by "Weekly Shonen Jump." The film also takes heavy visual inspiration from video games. It represents a new direction for Hollywood entertainment led by a new generation of filmmakers who have inherited the global 'memes' of manga, anime, and gaming culture.I especially hope young anime fans who usually steer clear of live-action Western films will give this one a try. Even with Dek's "ugly" face, you'll find yourself emotionally invested from the opening scene. You'll definitely get hooked."
Predator had a tone of machismo, threat, intensity, and, for lack of a better term, "swagger" that Badlands doesn't have. It's not a total genre shift like Alien to Aliens, but it is DEFINITELY a step down in tone and a big shift in focus, so while it is a very fun film, it doesn't leave you with the lingering sense of having seen something awesome that Predator did. By trying to show more yautja society it really just strips away the aura of mystery from the first few films and doesn't add a lot (for example, their merciless "kill anything that's weak" attitude to the point of killing your own offspring for merely allowing another to go on a hunt) doesn't seem to be one that would foster their technological advancements because they only show these things in techno-savage arenas. We never see a slave population that must be the things actually building their gear, maintaining their ships, and growing/raising their food. Or a sense that they are a parasitic culture feeding off the relics of a prior advanced society. It's a partial glimpse into their culture that doesn't open up questions, really, just doubles down on the little we already know.
So in that context I don't feel that Trachenberg is really advancing our understanding of Predator "lore", he's had three films now that have all circled this "survival of the fittest" mantra we basically got from AvP.
Anyway, long story short, enjoy the movie as a fun action romp but don't expect it to carry the nearly 4 decades old torch of Predator.
Reizo Ryuu
Member
This is exactly what it is, they were enslaved by a super advanced race and all that tech is theirs, they overthrew them and repurposed the tech for their own use, but they don't really understand how it works; as in if something breaks they just discard it instead of performing maintenance. They basically got kicked into advanced space age straight from the stone age.
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
Dan is the best Trachtenberg since Michelle.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I liked it, I liked prey more but this was also good. I can see why some people might think this is a big departure from the normal predator franchise.
Don't be fooled by the PG13 rating. It's only that cause there's no "human" gore. Buncha wild life, synths, monsters etc get brutally beheaded, gutted etc through out the film. They maximized the shit out of the legalese of the age ratings.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Box Office: ‘Predator: Badlands’ Ignites to Series-Best $80 Million Globally, ‘One Battle After Another’ Nears $200 Million
"Predator: Badlands" clawed its way to $80 million at the global box office, ranking as the biggest debut in the nearly 40-year-old franchise.
variety.com
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ForAcademicPurposes
Member
Dewgong of approval.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Mostly agree with him except the part where he goes he always wanted to see a predator team up with another person.
It's ok in a vacuum or isolated movies like this, but if they start doing that in every film, it'll get tiresome real quick.
Stitch
Member
But this already happened in AvP
Bartski
Member
Seen the film.
Overall I had a blast despite it feeling like a Disney take on the Predator a bit too often. I loved Dek as protagonist, great job there. IMO all of the Predator anthropomorphizing (language, emoting etc) is the way forward. I hope the sequel takes place on Yautja Prime, exploring their culture and technology.
I'd rate it even higher than Prey, and a notch above Killer of Killers, which was also really good except that pointless final chapter... I think this franchise is in good hands.
Overall I had a blast despite it feeling like a Disney take on the Predator a bit too often. I loved Dek as protagonist, great job there. IMO all of the Predator anthropomorphizing (language, emoting etc) is the way forward. I hope the sequel takes place on Yautja Prime, exploring their culture and technology.
I'd rate it even higher than Prey, and a notch above Killer of Killers, which was also really good except that pointless final chapter... I think this franchise is in good hands.
analog_future
Resident Crybaby
Nah. I think it's great that Trachtenberg is expanding the scope of what a Predator film can be. There's no reason to limit it to just a horror franchise. There's so much more to explore with the lore.
DirtInUrEye
Member
Screenwriting lectures from the same guy who wrote the incomprehensible drivel that is Death Stranding.
Draugoth
Gold Member
This felt like a Dysnified version of The Predator. The comedy attempt completely destroyed the film for me.
The first 10 minutes of this is fantastic and should have kept the same tone.
The first 10 minutes of this is fantastic and should have kept the same tone.
They should have gone with a serious storyline about Dek finding love for his brother instead of his clan, cut the monkey out of the movie and focused on Thia making Dek reflecting that he could still be a great hunter despite his flaws like his blood-brother tried, it would have been great if they focused on that.
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kpopSuperstar
Member
That last battle was so absurd with the tamed animals and the synth fighting while detached. What a hell was that. He had the spitter animal as his shoulder cannon :-/
Dev1lXYZ
Member
What an average movie this was. I didn't go in with high expectations, but the Predator should have just thrown the chatterbox bubbly synth up on the rocks after he found her and just kept moving. I probably would have liked the movie more if he had. I get that they had to give him a companion to interpret his language to those that can't read subtitles, but I would have been fine with just watching him hunt alone and not talk at all, personally. 
For a Predator movie, it was very tame compared to past films, unfortunately.
For a Predator movie, it was very tame compared to past films, unfortunately.
Riker Laforge
Neo Member
INC
Member
still looks shit, and fake due to the CGI, compared to the orginal practical make up. and no amount of word salad and explaination as to why it looks shit will change that
Ulysses 31
Member
The issue (as often with modern Disney) is that the movie uses crappy design language to convey that, taking the easy route by making it look more human and give creatures more cutesy eyes to immediately show it's not evil.
Just look up existing Predator designs that could've been used/altered for Dek's.
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Riker Laforge
Neo Member
I get what you're saying,
But aside from this being the point of this character, an inferior small runt last-picked-for-the-football-team,
The feral-predator in Prey only used facial animation for certain segments, 98% of the time it was wearing a helm or shot at a distance, a very tall man in a rubber suit seeing through the slits.
This movie by comparison has the Predator as the main character extensively emoting, much of the time focusing on the face unmasked. Which itself, far from being lazy, required extensive work and thought combining both digital effects with nuts and bolts practical tinkering.
If prefer complete practical effects I can understand this argument, in general I agree aesthetically it is pretty much always better, though think it would lead to limitations of its own and contextually, it makes sense in this movie to combine it with digital. Typically puppetry tends to be static or sporadic.
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INC
Member
I get what you're saying,for practical reasons it makes more sense in this particular movie.But aside from this being the point of this character, an inferior small runt last-picked-for-the-football-team,
The feral-predator in Prey only used facial animation for certain segments, 98% of the time it was wearing a helm or shot at a distance, a very tall man in a rubber suit seeing through the slits.
This movie by comparison has the Predator as the main character extensively emoting, much of the time focusing on the face unmasked. Which itself, far from being lazy, required extensive work and thought combining both digital effects with nuts and bolts practical tinkering.
If prefer complete practical effects I can understand this argument, in general I agree aesthetically it is pretty much always better, though think it would lead to limitations of its own and contextually, it makes sense in this movie to combine it with digital. Typically puppetry tends to be static or sporadic.
or not make a buddy cop predator movie, where we get to see a fucking predator with emotions in the first place, and solve the whole issue from the get go
Riker Laforge
Neo Member
or not make a buddy cop predator movie, where we get to see a fucking predator with emotions in the first place, and solve the whole issue from the get go
You can watch Predator, Predator 2, Predators, The Predator or Prey for that.
The vast majority of people, critics alike, are enjoying it, not seeing it as a problem, further, this concept existed in the comic books, video games and was in AVP about 20 years ago.
It's not new.
INC
Member
well if you wanna watch a disney predator with daddy issues, go for it, and most "people" and "critics" have no idea wtf theyre on about, and will swallow any old trash that fits the marvel formula
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
But I felt so sad when it suicided itself to protect the guy that fed it a few berries!
The hair, I think. They did a good job making them easily differentiated with the eyes and scars. Not sure about that "sister" relationship as we never got much about their actual programming versus just the body they were in.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
They did a good job differentiating them. Elle also talked about it in the interview that she shot both the characters on completely different times so she could focus on one role at a time, instead of having to switch make-ups on the same day etc.
She did a pretty good job with the dual roles, all things considered.
I think the mechanics of physical face mandibles require a wider head to accommodate the hydraulics or whatever they use, which is one of the big visual differences with Dez and the rest of predators. Pair that with his top knot hair style and he's very dainty looking and decidedly un-masculine compared to previous yautja. I really though he was gonna be some sort of half-human crossbreed (guess that could still be the case with the 'mother' not being revealed).I get what you're saying,for practical reasons it makes more sense in this particular movie.But aside from this being the point of this character, an inferior small runt last-picked-for-the-football-team,
The feral-predator in Prey only used facial animation for certain segments, 98% of the time it was wearing a helm or shot at a distance, a very tall man in a rubber suit seeing through the slits.
This movie by comparison has the Predator as the main character extensively emoting, much of the time focusing on the face unmasked. Which itself, far from being lazy, required extensive work and thought combining both digital effects with nuts and bolts practical tinkering.
If prefer complete practical effects I can understand this argument, in general I agree aesthetically it is pretty much always better, though think it would lead to limitations of its own and contextually, it makes sense in this movie to combine it with digital. Typically puppetry tends to be static or sporadic.
kpopSuperstar
Member
It turns out all the animals were just misunderstood and wanted a buddy.
Or maybe its a coded message that "stronk womyn blasts man and only by emasculating himself can he survive"
Ocean Dweller
Member
what??? Prey was great
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Or maybe its a coded message that "stronk womyn blasts man and only by emasculating himself can he survive"
Riker Laforge
Neo Member
Purely opinion but I think this is the worst Predator design in part because it's head looks comically massive and overly tech'fyd.
The Feral Predator is probably fav design even over the classic OG. I love the lanky, more primative look of the sub-species. It's skin (in the movie) almost looks like raw meat. The design as well suggests it's from a warmer region/planet without having to spell it out.
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So we have Thia as the softer, more maternal, more feminine "twin" with Tessa as the hard, cold, feminIST one. Thia is literally split into her upper, intellectual and communicative part and her lower, all ass and sexual parts. Her lower half can defeat the beta males around her, representing women using their sexuality to get ahead and men being uncaring for a womans opinions. But sexuality is insufficient in the face of militant feminism, represented by Tessa in a GIANT asexual mechanical body, devoid of any softness, capable of destroying even raw maternalism, as seen by her chainsawing the Mother in half. And even aggressive masculinity falls before the power of militant feminism as Dek has to sacrifice his penis-like appendage to save himself. But maternalism is resilient and eternal as the Mother can reform, until hard feminism LITERALLY freezes it from the inside and destroys it. But when the family unit, Father (Dek), new Mother (Thia) and CHILD unite, they can defeat feminism as it is ultimately rotten in the core. The new Father then goes on to destroy his father, with the only goal to obtain invisibility so that he can remain unseen within the family, placing the Mother and Child ahead of himself as dutiful but unimposing provider. At least until a new, more intimidating Mother arrives.
How's them liberal arts film critique classes for yah????
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
So we have Thia as the softer, more maternal, more feminine "twin" with Tessa as the hard, cold, feminIST one. Thia is literally split into her upper, intellectual and communicative part and her lower, all ass and sexual parts. Her lower half can defeat the beta males around her, representing women using their sexuality to get ahead and men being uncaring for a womans opinions. But sexuality is insufficient in the face of militant feminism, represented by Tessa in a GIANT asexual mechanical body, devoid of any softness, capable of destroying even raw maternalism, as seen by her chainsawing the Mother in half. And even aggressive masculinity falls before the power of militant feminism as Dek has to sacrifice his penis-like appendage to save himself. But maternalism is resilient and eternal as the Mother can reform, until hard feminism LITERALLY freezes it from the inside and destroys it. But when the family unit, Father (Dek), new Mother (Thia) and CHILD unite, they can defeat feminism as it is ultimately rotten in the core. The new Father then goes on to destroy his father, with the only goal to obtain invisibility so that he can remain unseen within the family, placing the Mother and Child ahead of himself as dutiful but unimposing provider. At least until a new, more intimidating Mother arrives.
How's them liberal arts film critique classes for yah????
INC
Member
madem web also made a 100m at the box office..........how does this have any relevance to anything
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
INC
Member
probably the same people who loved the fact that the xenomorph in alien earth, became a house trained pet, and were glad how theyve taken the franchise to new disney heights
cant wait for the alien vs predator musical
INC
Member
too late....by like 40 years
cheque please
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diffusionx
Gold Member
Our Most Macho Sci-Fi Franchise Just Went “Woke.” It Did Not Go Broke.
The killer new Predator movie is … feminist?
Stop supporting this bullshit
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
INC
Member
Yeah man, the last non Disney Predator was such a banger afterall.
yep thats also utter dog shit
