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I have conflicted feelings about this one. There's a strong sense of immaturity watching this film, the Disneyfication of Predator franchise, there's no denying that. We have the classic Disney theme of friends on an adventure, with cute xeno-species and plenty of morale-preaching and for-exposition-only dialogue you'd think a Predator would put an end to with a well aimed shot from a shoulder-mounted plasma cannon. There's even a couple of shots copying (or was it stealing?) from the Fellowship of the Ring, with the fellowship advancing along a mountain ridge path (you'll know it when you see it).

Like a few others have said, if I squint my eyes just a little, this is Predator in the name only -- it could have been any other franchise on another world that makes little difference as the plot advances along the lines that feel all too familiar. Then, just as the plot takes a turn you'd think would add the much needed complexity, it was just another arch-villain. Then everything is tied neatly back into what is Disney's well tried story scheme, the closest you'll get to a "happily ever after".

I'll be frank -- there's plenty of people who would love this movie, especially in current period I consider a drought in cinema. Badlands isn't as bad as some of the other movies of this franchise, it's just that it resolutely and confidently leaps along the same direction that its predecessors had to crawl along. So in essence, it's just a better made bad Predator movie IMO.

The bad part is that it has stripped the franchise of what in my mind constituted the value here -- a cunning, intelligent predator of _different_ intelligence and ethics/morale, that comes head to head with the homo sapiens, another prominent killer made by evolution, with gore worthy of David Cronenberg. Predator franchise has never been Cannes material exactly, but it also never was Disney-like resignation to cookie-cutter villainry. Now it has the distinction of only avoiding the former.

Perhaps the cinematic medium is dead for this kind of film. Interestingly enough, I am quite hyped for Killer of Killers by the same director. It seems animation attracts fewer vultures, giving the people who understand what they want, more freedom to get that done. This has Disney product sales department written all over it. Or let's call it Teen Predator: Badlands.

Giving it a 6 because of the action scenes and the fact the plot isn't one short straight line at least.

I loved this series -- the story, the detail, the refusal to chew it for me -- just like I prefer it. The computer generated imagery doesn't always hit the mark for my part, feeling a bit here and there in a manner that suggests they went for something that ended up being more experimental than perhaps what they hoped it would look like. But the rest of the visuals communicates there was plenty of love put in to the animation alone, and it is only for the better there is a great little story there to tell. The ending ties it all together (like it should?).

In short: the same story could be told in a different animation style for my part, the voice acting was well done and the story made me forget about the animation quickly.

All in all, this is a little gem I tend to think about now and then.