"Predator: Badlands" is a mind-bogglingly tedious installment in a franchise that seems to have lost its way. Released this year, it attempts to reboot "Badlands," a 1973 Terrence Malick classic starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, with an extraterrestrial creature. Instead, however, the film serves as yet another iteration of the long-standing Predator franchise.
The result is a jarring mishmash of sci-fi and horror elements that somehow fails to coalesce into anything remotely compelling. Elle Fanning's effortless charm does its best to salvage this sinking ship, but ultimately it's a losing battle.
What happens when you try to humanize an iconic villain like the Predator is to strip away its most terrifying qualities, leaving behind something fundamentally less frightening – and decidedly less interesting. In this case, that entity turns out to be Dek, a youngling from the Predator tribe with an unusually soft spot for his father's enemies.
Dek embarks on a quest to reclaim his place within the Predator hierarchy by hunting down a fearsome monster called the Kalisk. Unfortunately, he finds himself facing stiff competition from robot-human bioclone twins Thia and her ruthless counterpart – essentially two sides of the same coin that promptly upend everything we thought we knew about this franchise.
One twin, Thia, brings an odd-couple charm to the proceedings, but even Fanning's undeniable star quality can't offset the crushing sense of pointlessness that pervades every moment of "Predator: Badlands." It's hard to shake the feeling that you're watching a film that's struggling to find its purpose – and in doing so, loses itself.
The result is a jarring mishmash of sci-fi and horror elements that somehow fails to coalesce into anything remotely compelling. Elle Fanning's effortless charm does its best to salvage this sinking ship, but ultimately it's a losing battle.
What happens when you try to humanize an iconic villain like the Predator is to strip away its most terrifying qualities, leaving behind something fundamentally less frightening – and decidedly less interesting. In this case, that entity turns out to be Dek, a youngling from the Predator tribe with an unusually soft spot for his father's enemies.
Dek embarks on a quest to reclaim his place within the Predator hierarchy by hunting down a fearsome monster called the Kalisk. Unfortunately, he finds himself facing stiff competition from robot-human bioclone twins Thia and her ruthless counterpart – essentially two sides of the same coin that promptly upend everything we thought we knew about this franchise.
One twin, Thia, brings an odd-couple charm to the proceedings, but even Fanning's undeniable star quality can't offset the crushing sense of pointlessness that pervades every moment of "Predator: Badlands." It's hard to shake the feeling that you're watching a film that's struggling to find its purpose – and in doing so, loses itself.
. I mean, what's up with trying to humanize the Predator? It's like taking a cool, deadly machine and making it all cute and cuddly... no thanks! 
And don't even get me started on the robot-human bioclone twins - that was just confusing as heck 
. The only good thing about Elle Fanning was her presence, but even she couldn't save this trainwreck from itself 
. It's like they took all the original Predator goodness and threw it out the window in favor of some generic sci-fi horror nonsense... no thanks!
this movie is like trying to draw a maze without any pattern 
it's got sci-fi horror elements but they just don't fit together 
the predator is such an iconic villain but making him human makes him boring 
and the new creature Dek just doesn't add anything interesting to the table 
instead of taking risks and making a fresh start 
the result is a mess 
... I mean, I love Elle Fanning, she's amazing, but even she can't save this mess from being super slow and boring 
. I get that they were trying to reboot a classic, but instead of bringing something new and exciting, it just feels like more of the same old Predator stuff 
... I mean, what's up with making him all soft and cuddly instead of scary and intimidating? It's like they took all the edge off the Predator franchise 
. And don't even get me started on those bioclone twins... robot-human hybrids are cool, but they just add to the mess 
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... it's like they forgot how to balance action and horror elements. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to seeing what they'd do with the new material, but instead, it just feels like more of the same 
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. They took something that was already kinda cool (alien hunting) and just...mushed it all together with sci-fi and horror stuff 
