🚨 PREDATOR: BADLANDS—CRITICS ARE OBSESSED, DIE-HARDS ARE READY TO BURN THEIR MASKS! 🚨

A rogue Yautja outcast… a synth with secrets that could shatter the hunt… and one twist so wild it’s got $88M in theaters while fans scream “THIS ISN’T PREDATOR ANYMORE!” No gore, no R-rating—just pure chaos critics call “genius” and purists call “heresy.” What the hell did Trachtenberg just unleash? 😈👽

One click and you’ll see why the fandom is at war…

Hollywood’s alien hunter just got a makeover that’s got the sci-fi world split down the middle like a plasma-caster bolt. Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands, the ninth stab at the franchise that launched with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sweat-soaked jungle nightmare in 1987, hit theaters on November 7—and it’s already a battlefield. Critics are toasting it as a “lovable, inspired evolution” with Elle Fanning’s dual-role synth stealing hearts, while die-hard fans howl that it’s “not a Predator movie anymore,” torching the PG-13 rating and buddy-comedy vibes in viral rants. Grossing $88.5 million worldwide against a $105 million budget in its opening weekend, the film—premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 3—marks the series’ first non-R-rated entry since the maligned Alien vs. Predator in 2004. But as petitions surge and memes mock it as “Predator: Muppet Babies,” one question looms: Has Trachtenberg saved the slayer, or slain its soul?

The trailer’s promise of a Yautja-led adventure on the brutal homeworld of Yautja Prime delivered in spades, but not how purists prayed. Starring newcomer Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek, a runt-of-the-litter Predator exiled for weakness, and Fanning as Thia—a wide-eyed, button-nosed synthetic human from Weyland-Yutani’s bio-weapons labs—the story flips the script. No cigar-chomping commandos. No invisible stalking through equatorial hell. Instead, it’s a fish-out-of-water tale: Dek, armed with wrist blades and a chip on his shoulder, crash-lands on Badlands, a desolate frontier planet teeming with mega-fauna horrors and rival clans. Enter Thia, half-buried in wreckage, her “sister” Tessa (also Fanning) a cold corporate hunter on their tail. What starts as a kill-or-be-killed survival romp blooms into an odd-couple road trip, complete with a pint-sized alien sidekick named Bud who comic-relief rips spines in kawaii fashion.

Trachtenberg, fresh off revitalizing the franchise with 2022’s Prey (a critical darling that skipped theaters for Hulu glory) and the animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers earlier this year, leans hard into lore expansion. Scripted by Patrick Aison from their joint story, Badlands draws from Dark Horse comics’ extended universe, painting Yautja society as a rigid warrior cult where “prey to none, friend to none, predator to all” clashes with Dek’s budding empathy. The first act is pure survival porn: Dek hacking through carnivorous vines and dodging acid-spitting behemoths with practical effects that evoke Jurassic Park‘s tangible terror. Fanning’s Thia—goofy, fallible, spouting Earth pop culture quips like “This is so not in my programming”—humanizes the hunt, teaching Dek about “packs” over alphas in scenes that riff on The Empire Strikes Back‘s Luke-Yoda dynamic, but with mandibles and moral ambiguity.

Critics, it seems, couldn’t get enough. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich dubbed it “the second great Predator movie of 2025,” praising the “endearing dynamic” that “confronts the po-faced seriousness of the franchise with insolence.” RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico called it an “exceptional sci-fi action thriller” with “memorable characters” and a “structurally airtight script,” noting its Western echoes in The Outlaw Josey Wales—a lone wolf gathering a makeshift family amid wilderness perils. Consequence’s Liz Shannon Miller handed out an A-, likening it to “Terminator 2 from the T-800’s point of view.” Metacritic’s 71/100 from 40 reviews signals “generally favorable,” with Rotten Tomatoes hovering at 78% Certified Fresh, lauding the film’s “nonverbal brilliance” in performances and creature designs that blend H.R. Giger’s biomechanical dread with lush, alien flora. Even GamesRadar+ admitted, “Die-hard fans may be disappointed… but as a blockbuster action-adventure, Badlands kills it.” The action pops—zero-gravity hive assaults, a mid-film chase on bio-engineered mounts that rivals Mad Max: Fury Road‘s vehicular insanity—while Michael Abels’ score fuses tribal Yautja chants with synth pulses, nodding to Alan Silvestri’s iconic original without aping it.

But for fans who’ve skinned spines since ’87, it’s heresy. The PG-13 rating—secured by sidelining human guts for synth blood and monster maulings—sparked fury pre-release. “No more invisible hunter vs. elite soldiers? Just a whiny teen alien and his robot BFF?” griped one Reddit thread that ballooned to 50,000 upvotes. X (formerly Twitter) erupted post-premiere: @PredatorPurist tweeted, “This isn’t Predator—it’s a Disney buddy flick with dreads. Where’s the gore? The tension? Trachtenberg ruined it!” racking 15,000 likes and quote-tweets mocking Fanning’s Thia as “manic pixie dream synth.” A Change.org petition for an “R-rated director’s cut” hit 25,000 signatures by Tuesday, decrying the “feminist overhaul” that humanizes the Yautja into a “sympathetic hero with a tragic backstory.” Slate’s Dana Stevens quipped it proves the franchise is “now feminist,” citing Dek’s arc from lone alpha to pack protector as a “life-affirming sentiment” from a series built on ultraviolence—drawing fire for “queering” the hunter (a joke from Hollywood Reporter’s Richard Lawson that ignited homophobic backlash). IMDb user reviews average 7.6/10, but fan forums like r/LV426 seethe: “Legacy fans left disappointed,” with one calling it “the weakest entry” for ditching R-rated grit.

Production whispers add fuel. Shot in New Zealand’s Fiordland for Yautja Prime’s jagged badlands and Atlanta soundstages for synth labs, the $105 million shoot wrapped in June after strikes. Trachtenberg, eyeing a trilogy (with Killer of Killers as the animated middle chapter), told IGN the PG-13 pivot targets “audience-swelling” families while preserving “trademark violence” via non-human carnage. Schuster-Koloamatangi, a 22-year-old Samoan-New Zealander with rugby roots, bulked into the suit via motion-capture marathons, voicing Dek’s guttural roars in post. Fanning, dual-portraying the sisters, endured 14-hour slime sessions: “Thia’s naive but fierce—like if Yoda was a TikTok teen.” Bud, the baby Yautja comic relief, steals scenes with puppetry from Legacy Effects, his “kawaii spine-rip” a meta jab at franchise tropes.

Controversy isn’t new for Predator—The Predator (2018) bombed for comedy misfires, Requiem (2007) for murky visuals—but Badlands cuts deeper. No Dutch Schaefer Easter eggs. No human prey beyond holographic flashbacks. Instead, it probes Yautja culture: clan politics, honor hunts gone corporate via Weyland-Yutani cameos (Lance Henriksen’s Bishop hologram nods Aliens). The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw panned it as “pointless,” with Fanning’s “imperishable star quality” the lone oxygen in a “schmaltzy” void. Yet test screenings hit 85% approval from casuals, with walkouts from gore hounds.

Merch flies off shelves: Hasbro’s Dek figure with interchangeable mandibles sold 100,000 units Day One; Funko’s Thia Pop! (with glow-in-dark eyes) tops Amazon. Hot Topic’s “Pack Over Prey” hoodies mock the alpha shift, sparking store scuffles. Memes proliferate: Dek Photoshopped into Finding Nemo, captioned “Just Keep Hunting.” Trachtenberg retweeted one: “The hunt evolves—or dies.” Cast buzz? Fanning posted set selfies with “Survived the badlands—now root for the monster!”; Schuster-Koloamatangi, breakout star, teased a “Dek spin-off” at D23.

Box office bucks the backlash: $45 million domestic opening, outpacing Prey‘s streaming debut, with IMAX screenings 80% sold out. Disney’s pivot post-Fox buy—streaming-first for Killer of Killers, theatrical for Badlands—pays off, eyeing $200 million global. But whispers of reshoots for more “edge” circulate, and a third Trachtenberg film hinges on word-of-mouth.

Zooming out, Predator: Badlands embodies franchise fatigue’s cure: boldness over nostalgia. The original grossed $98 million on $18 million, blending horror-action with machismo. Sequels devolved into crossovers and quips, but Trachtenberg’s trio—Prey‘s indigenous grit, Killer‘s anthology variety, Badlands‘ emotional core—redefines the hunter as hunted by its own lore. Critics see genius in vulnerability; fans, dilution. As Dek growls in the climax—subtitled for the first time—”Survival isn’t alone.” In a multiverse era, maybe the Yautja need friends. Or maybe Arnie was right: “If it bleeds, we can kill it.” For now, the badlands rage on.