Dek, our young Yautja, is itching to prove his strength and earn “the mantle,” which gives him invisibility and major street cred. His older brother and dad cause some family drama when Dad challenges the brother to a death match for showing weakness. Amid this chaos, Dek ends up on his bro’s ship, heading straight for “the most dangerous planet in the universe.” Sounds intense, right? This wild planet is home to the legendary Kalisk, a super-healing creature no Yautja has ever beaten.

Luckily for Dek, he ends up with some unexpected teammates: a little monkey-like creature sporting a tough shell on its back and an android who can’t walk but knows all about this crazy world.

In “Predator: Badlands,” we’re taking a fresh spin on those alien hunter movies and tossing an actual alien into the spotlight as our main dude. But what’s really cool here isn’t just seeing things from Dek’s point of view but how he pairs up with this witty legless android. Elle Fanning nails it with her comedic chops as she brings life to this quirky duo. They face off against androids from an Earth corporation in a film that’s got that Disney-style storytelling-going-for-it vibe mixed with contradiction galore.
Predator: Badlands is a wild ride in a universe full of space creatures. This time, they’ve thrown in some charm with a funny little creature that’s clearly toy-ready. Plus, they’ve swapped out humans for androids, keeping things bloodless and light enough to secure an easier rating despite the action.

Unlike Prey, which dug deep into its roots, this movie opts for more epic showdowns. If you loved the intense action scenes from director Dan Trachtenberg before, you’ll find them here but on a bigger scale—large beasts, clever traps, and heavily armed foes take center stage instead of the simpler battles from before.

Our main guy, Dek, is all digital—a blend of raging computer graphics akin to those characters from Warcraft or Avatar’s Na’vi. His constant anger might make sense given his situation but it can get old fast. The fight sequences look cool yet somehow miss the grit of real-life stunts or even the stylized vibe of full-on animated flicks like Predator: Killer of Killers by Trachtenberg too.

Interestingly enough, what really grabs your attention in Predator: Badlands is when another alien joins Dek’s adventure and shakes things up.
So, there’s this story about an android with a mind of its own. Funny enough, even though she’s just a robot, she seems more human than the actual human guy in the movie. She’s got her own share of problems, kinda like him. They’re both outsiders, but in her case, it’s because of a glitch that makes her act differently than what the big corporation expects.

This company, Weyland-Yutani—you might know them from those Alien movies—isn’t happy with her personality quirks. Meanwhile, there’s another android—also played by Elle Fanning—who’s chasing after her and the other guy. Things get pretty wild when they all collide.

And let me tell you about one scene that’s really cool: The main android loses her legs but manages to control them separately! So she ends up fighting with both halves going at it—her upper body and the runaway legs—and it’s a mix of action and comedy that you’ve gotta see to believe.