REVIEW : PREDATOR BADLANDS

[number six]

It's that time of year again.. time for a new Alien and/or Predator movie. In 2025 why not both?

Reviews have been decidedly mixed on Badlands and I understand why. On one hand a Predator movie where the Predator is the protagonist and sits around talking about his feelings whilst learning the value of friendship sounds awful in terms of what we know about the Predator. Still given how bad the Predator sequels have been overall I think it must be pretty hard to be a purist anyway (except maybe Predators). To be honest the Predator is also one of those movie villains that only gets worse the more you try to explain the origins.. not unlike the Xenomorph so what do you do really.. as you gotta make sequels clearly.

On the other hand.. as a SCI-FI Action / Comedy Badlands is perfectly acceptable. Don't get me wrong some of the plot points don't make sense if you think about them too much.. especially if you try to use previous Predator or Alien films as references but taken on it's own it's a fun ride. The major plot points are pretty cliche' and there's enough 'outcasts find a family' vibes to make James Gunn go giddy.. but still I was entertained.

So while there's no way I can wrap my head around this Predator being in any way shape or form related to the 1986 original I'll take it. I don't think we're getting an authentic feeling Predator movie again, at least not from Disney and Badlands is light years ahead of the Memberberry greatest hits that the last Alien Movie turned out to be.

So if you temper your expectations I think you can have fun with Badlands.

[tufnel1530]

"acceptable"

OK I'll be skipping that one. thanks.

[Niloc]

Oh well. The trailer looked good, and I saw another review that was more positive. Too bad.

I'll watch it, but I haven't even gotten around to watching "Prey" yet, and there was no chance I'd go to the theater for this.

That Chris Pratt Jurassic Park movie was the last one I saw in a theater I think, years ago, that and $12+ popcorn really put me off, and I saw such hits (shits) as Lawnmower Man and Tank Girl in the theater. Helped that they didn't seem to care if you saw multiple movies one one ticket, the teenage employees sure didn't care and no one ever asked to see a ticket stub.

Watched the Alien: Earth TV series as well... very mixed bag. The writers had some interesting ideas, then flubbed some of the major ones. Visually pretty good, nice FX for the most part, and some new aliens which were actually way more interesting that the standard xenomorph. They're cool, but it's been done to death by this point.