Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi in “Predator: Badlands.”
20th Century Studios
Predator: Badlands, a reboot of the Predator movie series that puts a new spin on the mythology, is coming to theaters this weekend.
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (Prey), Predator: Badlands plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.
The film’s official summary notes that the story “is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Elle Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
The review embargo for Predator: Badlands lifted Tuesday afternoon. As of this publication, the film has earned an 87% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 63 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus, audience summary and Popcornmeter score are still pending.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Predator: Badlands’?
William Bibbiani of The Wrap is among the top critics on RT who gives Predator: Badlands a “fresh” review, writing, “Like Prey before it, Predator: Badlands is mainstream sci-fi filmmaking at its zenith, and it’s proof — in an era where proof is hard to find — that big, expensive action spectacles don’t have to suck.”
David Fear of Rolling Stone also gives Predator: Badlands a “fresh” review on RT, writing, “It’s really a comedic road movie at heart, with as much yuks over a mismatched pair trying to get along as yucks involving the goopy innards of cosmic mastodons.”
Richard Lawson of The Hollywood Reporter is also high on Predator: Badlands, writing in his “fresh” review summary on RT, “The film simply wants to be the best version of a zillionth Predator installment that it can be. If it has to complicate — and, yes, soften — the branding to do that, so be it.”
Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, meanwhile, gives Predator: Badlands a “rotten” review on RT, writing, “The sheer pointlessness of everything that happens subtracts the oxygen and even Fanning’s imperishable star quality can’t save it.”
Barry Hertz of the Globe and Mail is also a detractor of Predator: Badlands, writing in his “rotten” RT review summary, “A sometimes inventive but too frequently anemic effort to expand the proudly R-rated Predator-verse into the mass-market appeal of PG sterility.”
Also giving Predator: Badlands a rotten review on RT is the AV Club’s Jarrod Jones, who writes, “The mystique of the Predator, what it was and where it came from, was best left to the imagination; the second you start pulling at that thread, the whole idea falls apart.”
Rated PG-13, Predator: Badlands plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.