Everybody’s got complicated family relationships. Sometimes, the people we’re most directly related to are also the ones we least understand. But Predator: Badlands protagonist Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) might take the cake for most toxic family dynamic. A member of the Yautja species always headlining Predator movies, Dek is the runt of his litter and his father wishes he could’ve snuffed him out ages ago. After all, in their society, nothing’s worse than qualities like vulnerability, empathy and friendship. However, Dek is still determined to fulfill his planet’s coming-of-age ritual and slaughter a grand beast, thus proving he’s a worthy warrior.

Not one to back down from a challenge, Dek sets out to Genna. Also known as the “Death Planet,” he plans to behead the Kalisk. This is a creature the Yautja have never killed before. Before he can contend with that organism, though, our hero faces endless obstacles on Genna. Every animal and plant on this planet is lethal. Luckily, he gets some unexpected help from the bifurcated Weyland-Yutani synthetic human Thia (Elle Fanning). She eagerly pores over every new creature she discovers on Genna. He just wants to mow down everything in his path to get to the Kalisk. “They’re the original odd couple” as Troy McClure would say.

Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg doesn’t just draw from his prior Predator installments Prey and Killer of Killers for this new sci-fi actioner. He also harkens back to the intimate scale of his feature-length directorial debut, 10 Cloverfield Lane. Like that 2016 gem, Badlands is often a two or three-hander movie rather than a sprawling ensemble piece. This 2025 blockbuster spans multiple natural Genna locations rather than just a doomsday preppers basement. However, Trachtenberg’s fascination with digging deep into a handful of fictional individuals remains intact from Cloverfield.

That quality in Patrick Aison and Brian Duffield’s screenplay contorts a potentially cumbersome story into something digestible. Goodness knows 2018’s The Predator got lost in a labyrinth of untrustworthy humans, increasingly formidable Predator foes, and uncomfortable ableism. Here, though, the focus remains squarely on Dek and Thia’s dynamic as well as the pair encountering a series of outlandish alien beasties. No need for endless digressions down narrative rabbit holes existing only to tease sequels. It’s much more fun to see how Dek and Thia’s wildly diverging personalities will react to the next Genna-based obstacle.

That same script, though, struggles realizing some of its loftier attributes in the confines of a Predator film. A mid-movie conversation between Badlands’ two leads establishes that this is a film about a man discovering other ways to feel fulfilled beyond bloodthirsty impulses. Protecting and caring for others isn’t weakness, but rather stronger than taking lives. While tackling this topic, Trachtenberg and company still yearn to deliver crowdpleaser scenes involving Dek ripping out spines and brutalizing people.

Enough of the action beats land to make this incongruousness a bit more manageable. However, Badlands still frustratingly reckons with thematic material often at odds with its go-to source for cheer-worthy moments. Speaking of discordant elements, Dek and other Yautja/Predator characters come to life through practical bodies and CG faces. The latter element is often lacking. Intimate close-up shots of Dek imploring us to recognize his interiority instead highlight underwhelming digital effects work.

The practical parts of these aliens, though, look terrific, especially in the richly tactile costume work. Similarly, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi is superb inhabiting Dek. His physicality especially shines communicating a hulking figure that’s also grappling with insecurities of being the “runt” of his clan. Even when conveying absorbing prowess in the fight scenes, Schuster-Koloamatangi never forgets that Dek is often a child discovering the larger world for the first time. This remarkable turn effortlessly injects humanity and compelling personality into an organism often used for just mindless slaughter in cinema.

Playing opposite Schuster-Koloamatangi is Fanning, who continues her amusing career trajectory of playing the bounciest characters in mainstream movies (see also: We Bought a Zoo, Maleficent) to counterbalance her, heavy work in films like 20th Century Women, The Neon Demon, and The Beguiled. As Thia, she exudes big Joan Cusack energy (particularly in her earliest scenes) externalizing this robot’s enthusiasm for Genna’s assorted life-threatening obstacles. She and Schuster-Koloamatangi also share a solid rapport that makes the tender moments between their characters shine.

Armed with strong lead performances, admirable creative decisions shockingly absent in many 2025 blockbusters further buoy Predator: Badlands. While Jurassic World Rebirth and Tron: Ares took forever getting their plots into motion, Trachtenberg hits the ground running in Badlands and quickly delivers exciting cosmic action. The proceedings stay within a lean 107 minutes. Various Chekhov’s Gun’s are established without turning the plot into an excessively calculated exercise. Even an adorable animal sidekick proves both amusing and useful in the narrative rather than resonating as exclusively an excuse to stuff Predator merch into Disney Stores.

The finale is an especially fun creation, functioning as the offspring of an average Home Alone set piece or Return of the Jedi’s Endor-set climactic set pieces. Creativity abounds in these final Badlands segments utilizing various creatures and tactics specific to this story. That’s so much more fun than just regurgitating the closing showdowns of past Predator adventures. Sure, Badlands never fully evades flaws like the inevitable weightlessness intertwined with so many CG creatures hogging the screen. However, sequences like that thrilling conclusion more than balance things out.

Trachtenberg’s streamlined and classical sensibilities (as epitomized by a space leech lurking on Dek’s shoulder during the third act like a pirate’s parrot) are more endearing than not. In the context of the wider franchise, Badlands is the charming Gallant to The Predator’s edgleord Goofus. That excessively crowded Shane Black directorial effort lacked any heart (or coherent storytelling) accompanying its yawn-worthy stabs at “provocative” humor.

Badlands, meanwhile, wears its poignancy on its sleeve all while practically screaming “yippee!” focusing on a brash domestic squabble between three blood-related Predator aliens or Genna’s most dangerous entities tearing apart android baddies. Embracing these tendencies cements this endeavor as more of an enjoyable diversion than a dynamic bolt-out-of-the-blue like Prey. Trachtenberg and company, though, still deliver plenty of entertainment bound to keep Predator and action cinema fans happy. Plus, seeing Dek navigate his daddy issues may just make your holiday family gatherings seem more bearable in comparison.

Predator: Badlands begins its hunt in theaters everywhere on November 7.