Dave Vanos

I was genuinely excited for a new Predator movie, but Badlands left me severely underwhelmed. The biggest issue is that it abandons the core identity of the franchise: the Predator as an unseen, stalking threat. Instead, it turns into a flashy, front-and-center action character—more like an anime samurai berserker than a hunter. There’s barely any tension, no paranoia, and none of that “something is out there” dread that made the original work. What really killed it for me was the decision to give the Predator heartfelt dialogue, sibling bonding, and even daddy-issues-style emotional baggage. I’m not against lore, but the Predator doesn’t need to be humanized into a melodrama protagonist. Predator stories work best when the creature is alien, unknowable, and terrifying—not emotionally relatable. On top of that, the movie leans hard into CGI spectacle: predictable slow-motion fights, weightless action, and “cute” alien antics that feel closer to Marvel side-quest humor than Predator horror. Toss in a few groan-worthy one-liners and it starts feeling less like a survival thriller and more like franchise content engineered for clips. This isn’t ‘woke.’ Woke means being alert to real inequality and social injustice. People now use it as a catch-all insult for anything they don’t like. Badlands isn’t political—it’s just a tone-deaf, CGI-heavy movie that forgot Predator is supposed to stalk and terrify.