Welcome to my mini review of Predator: Badlands that nobody asked for. Listen, I went to watch this movie the day it came out, its been nearly a week now so I'm fuzzy on minor details. But that doesn't matter, here's what matters; the lasting feeling the movie left, and it was overwhelmingly positive. Just like a good memory from years past, the more time goes by the harder it is to remember exactly how things went, but what lingers in the feeling, it's what made that a good memory in the first place, it's the part that stays with you forever.
A bit intense to talk this way about this movie? perhaps, but that depends on who you ask. I liked the characters, I liked the setting, I liked the cast, and I liked where the story is going. I hope we get to see what's next for our unlikely clan
Now, Elle's character might be my favorite Weyland-Yutani mass produce waifu ever. This has been an unwritten rule for me, when certain people find some characters "annoying" it tends to be a sign for me that I will find the character endearing. I liked her a lot, she was great. Both mains begin using each other only to realize their bond is deeper than that, and their contrast worked perfectly for me, like fire and ice managed to hug each other
Now... Dek, I like this character, and I disagree with nearly every criticism I've seen of him. Insecure? emotional? bruh... the amount of people who's brain is incapable of empathy is nuts, disliking the story is fine, but not understanding how resilient Dek is can't be forgiven, bro wasn't just a social reject. His own father had enough of him and ordered his older brother to kill him for being weak. Imagine the kind of life he had up until then, with that kind of trauma people usually take two paths; a) they care too much about what others think of them, or b) they develop a nearly sociopathic type of detachment and they don't care about what anyone thinks of them. Guess what, 98% of people end up in a) so Dek behaves as expected, in fact, a human in a similar situation would struggle with basic day to day let alone embark in a journey to prove themselves, which is what Dek did. This also takes me to the everlasting topic of masculinity in the predator franchise, a lot of people might not have read the 1918 edition of the Junior Collier Classics, they are great both for kids and adults, there is a volume that mentions stories of young Native American men who, willingly, went out into the wild. To face danger, to test themselves, to test their limits and to know their limits, to become men. And Dek did exactly that. Pardon me for this but I can't help but notice that a lot of this kind of criticism directed towards Dek comes from children who are yet to become men "its predator for girls!!1" you definitely are a child if you think liking a movie will define your manhood. It is also not a surprise that this comes from childless men, they don't even know how true responsibility looks like, what could they possibly know about being a man? exactly, not much. Now I understand those who simply dislike this direction for the franchise, that's alright. But know that Prey was probably the last attempt at microwaving a burned bread one last time, thing looks like charcoal now. Doing the same predictable story over and over doesn't have a future, I was not surprised to see Feral fall, and I knew I was done with the classic formula then.
The things I disliked are very minor, like the armor design for Dek, especially the chest armor, dunno, it just doesn't look good. I'm a purist in the sense that I love the armor of the first ever predator, closely followed by the City Hunter's armor and the AVP armor gets an honorable mention for being heavily inspired by the original. Speaking of, I can't wait for Dek to get his golden mask with green armor, IYKYK
Excuse my little rant there, anyhow. There is potential here, the future looks promising, I love Thia, I love Dek and I love Bud too. The movie is good, really good, it's great. I loved it and I will get the steelbooks and other overpriced media related to it.
Final verdict: C I N E M A
germansingergirl
izzy806
baratheonpilled
snowghoul
titsay
yousharknotpass
