A 'Predator' movie takes a fun turn

     

     Predator: Badlands, the latest film in a long running series that began in 1987, skillfully mixes actors and CGI, employing enough computer-generated imagery to make the movie look like a teeming helping of animated sci-fi. 

    CGI notwithstanding, Badlands has a refreshing human element that keeps the movie from turning into another exploitative gook-and-gore festival -- which is not to say that you won't find oozing substances or clangorous action.

    Oddly, the movie's humanity comes from an android. Elle Fanning, the movie's best addition, appears as Thia, an android who lost her legs in a violent encounter that precedes her introduction into the movie. Thia's head and torso become a major character. Even if you consider her half a character, she exerts an outsized influence on the proceedings.

      You don't need to be well-versed in Predator lore to know that Yautjas -- warriors with fangs and strict codes of honor -- will figure heavily in the story. 

      This time, a Yautja named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) becomes the film's hero. Dek reluctantly joins Thia, who understandably wants to retrieve the lower part of her body. She also hopes to reunite with Tessa (also Fanning), the twin "synth" sister she idolizes.

       Thia's rediscovery of her legs, by the way, becomes a source of cartoonish amusement when the legs take on a life of their own.

        For much of the movie, Dek carries Thia around like a backpack while he schemes to avenge his brother Kwei (Michael Homick), a Yautja warrior who was murdered by their father (also Schuster-Koloamatangi). Kwei intervened to save Dek from his father's wrath, showing the kind of weakness the Yautja loathe. Who knew? The Yautja have daddy issues, too.

    Working from a screenplay by Patrick Aison, director Dan Trachtenberg, who also directed the 2022 Predator movie, Prey, creates exotic backdrops through which his characters wander. Watch out for deadly flora: plants with poisonous spikes, deadly vines, and seed pods that explode like grenades.

    The movie also adds a near-Disneyesque twinkle when a creature named Bud. Cute despite bad teeth, Bud joins Dek and Thia on their adventures, which involve Dek's quest to bring home the head of The Kalisk, a beast no warrior has ever defeated. It's an honorable Yautja ambition that's supposed to help Dek attain warrior status.

     Trachtenberg tweaks the plot in ways that challenge expectation and allow him to delver the movie's message -- albeit without too heavy a hand. Cooperation can be more effective than individual action and clans needn’t be defined only by blood. 

       The movie's finale and epilogue are satisfying and it only takes an hour and 55 minutes to reach the finish line. The movie's softer tone (for a Predator movie) and PG-13 rating may displease hardcore franchise fans. But Badlands is more fun than I expected. That's enough of an achievement for a franchise movie that doesn't feel like its only aim is to ride the coattails of its predecessors.