PREDATOR: Badlands

 

Jeri Jacquin

Currently on Digital and coming to 4K Ultra HD and Bluray from director Dan Trachtenberg and 20^th Century Studios is the other side of PREDATOR: Badlands.

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and his brother Kwei (Mike Homik) are in the midst of intense and dangerous training. Dek wants to be made part of the Yautja tribe and wants his father Njohrr’s (Ruben de Jong) approval. Part of that is doing what other’s have not been able to – hunt and capture the Kalisk on the planet Genna. After a fight breaks out, Kwei sends his brother off in a ship on his mission.

Landing on Genna, Dek immediate faces creatures and now he becomes the hunted in many ways. Trying to escape them, he meets Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged android belonging to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Missing the lower half of her body and convincing Dek that he needs a tool to help him find the Kalisk, he begrudgingly agrees. In the fight for food, a creature Thia names Bud becomes part of the group causing Dek even more agitation.

Finding Thia’s campground destroyed by the Kalisk, she tells him about another android named Tessa that is like family to her. Attempting to fix herself with the equipment that survived an attack, Dek takes on the Kalisk. What they also get is a team from Weyland-Yutani led by none other than Tessa as they are both taken prisoner because Weyland-Yutani Corporation wants what the Kalisk has.

Dek and Thia decide that this is not how it’s going to go down at all – this is when Dek, Thia and Bud take matters into their own hands and a reckoning is due!

Schuster-Koloamatangi comes out swinging as Dek. Covered completely in special effects and masks, it doesn’t stop him from showing he has what it takes to jump, slash, climb and carry around an f/x android. It is not a bad way to be a leading man at all. His character proves that size doesn’t matter when you have skill and dedication. Starting out hard as nails, he begins to understand the world off his planet and Schuster-Koloamatangi portrays that.

Fanning gets the chance to play double duty as two androids Tessa and Thia. Thia is the one that has a grasp of the planet and its creatures but also has a heart of gold whether that was hardwired initially or not. Tessa, however, is the angry android that wants to please MU/TH/UR and doesn’t care what she has to do to accomplish that goal. Well done Fanning for getting your chops all over this film with humor, no legs for a time and lots of special effects.

Other cast include Stefan Grube as the voice of Kwei, Rohinal Narayan as the voice of Bud, Alison Wright as the voice of MU/TH/UR and Cameron Brown as Smyth.

Twentieth Century Home Entertainment brings award-winning global product and new entertainment to DVD, Bluray, and Digital HD. There amazing collection offers fans an opportunity to expand their own home libraries with the best films. To discover what other titles they have please visit www.20thcenturystudios.com.

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Bonus Feautures include Deleted & Pre-Visualization Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary: Sand Trap-Squirt Canyon-Tessa vs. Abe-Razor Grass-The Outpost-Super Power Loader Extended, Featurettes: Embodying the Predator, Authentic Synthetics, Building the Badlands, Dek of the Yautja and Audio Commentary with Director Trachtenberg.

PREDATOR: Badlands takes the Predator franchise and mixes it up the Alien franchise. It isn’t difficult to figure out which is which with the ships, equipment and concept of getting whatever Weyland wants no matter the cost or who pays the price. This is definitely a film for sci-fi fans with that combination. Schuster-Koloamatangi and Fanny completely carry the film from start to finish and it’s actually quite enjoyable.

Watching it on a large flat screen with a sound bar is pretty cool as well. So, turn off the lights, pop that popcorn and meet the mash up. Not everyone the franchises thought was bad, actually is. Perhaps we have misunderstood them both all along…nahhhhhhh!

In the end – first hunt, last chance!