Predator: Badlands just isn’t very good.

Predator: Badlands, is more like Predator: Bad Families, since it’s all about family dynamics. The synthetic human, predator and indigenous creature become a found family because their real families aren’t up to it.

The predator is supposed to be a smaller, weaker individual, but pictured next to a typical predator, it’s clear that some chromosomes got mixed up.  We’ll call him Special Ed.

The synthetic human think she cute.  She is supposed to be extra smart and sensitive, but she sounds like a 14 year old girl, babbling endlessly about nothing or asking impertinent questions.  We call her Chatty Kathy.

This monkey-cat seems like a cutesy merchandising opportunity, but it’s central to the plot.

Special Ed’s dad killed his brother, so Special Ed goes to nasty planet to kill the big monster to prove to his dad that he’s not a downer cow.

Chatty Kathy goes to the planet to catch the same big monster for research.  She gets damaged, and is confident that her robot sister will come to save her.

The monkey-cat is the baby of the big monster everyone else is hunting.

There were some incredible coincidences that should have been avoided and odd creative choices made in writing the movie, 

On the entire planet, it’s very lucky that Special Ed crash landed near Chatty Kathy.

It’s also very lucky that the monkey-cat joins their team and marks Special Ed as part of his clan.  That saves Special Ed’s life when he fights the big monster.

It’s lucky that Special Ed had a team.  He was a terrible hunter, with no stealth or strategy.  He’d have been dead.

Chatty Kathy was supposed to be a more advanced synthetic human.  Pairing her up with a predator was supposed to be odd couple humor.  She had no ability to understand that different species and cultures, might not be like hers.

Special Ed learned the value of friendship, but nothing about hunting or fighting.

By the end of the movie, Chatty Kathy learned that her sister-bot was a psycho bitch, who deserved to die.  Special Ed learned that it wasn’t so hard to execute his father.  The monkey-cat lost her mother, but didn’t seem to care now that she has superfriends. 

Chatty Kathy and Special Ed are fugitives or maybe just unwelcome, at their home planets.  The monkey-cat is an orphan, but can still live on nasty planet.  Maybe they all live on nasty planet now.

Predator: Badlands loses a point for Chatty Kathy, so I’d give it a 6/10.

IMDB gives it a 7.5, which is too high.  Ticket sales were $175 million with a production budget of $105 million.  That means it lost about $100 million.