| Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment | Release Date: November 7, 2025 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
30
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
RogerEbert.comNov 5, 2025
In the end, Predator: Badlands is a bizarrely inspirational adventure about different types of beings overcoming the limiting parts of their programming (literal or figurative) and/or proving there is more to them than others assumed. The takeaway is applicable to beings all across the universe: sometimes the things you want most are not worth having, and when you figure that out, you’ll be free.
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Nov 4, 2025
This is wickedly exciting filmmaking. The rare, flashy studio blockbuster that doesn’t read like a laundry list of creative compromises, where the money went to telling a story about fascinating characters and putting them in impossible, gorgeous, and horrifically violent situations.
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Nov 6, 2025
Badlands doesn’t compromise anything we’ve previously understood about one of cinema’s most terrifying villains. It simply opens up a whole new way of thinking about them, and what they represent. Never thought I’d use the word “beautiful” in reference to a Predator movie. But that’s what makes it such a wonderful surprise.
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IndieWireNov 4, 2025
The genius of the franchise-reviving “Prey” and last summer’s utterly awesome “Killer of Killers” is that they both cast the Yautja as a foil first and an antagonist second. Now, the super fun and fantastically spirited “Predator: Badlands” takes that approach to its logical conclusion by making one of these creatures the hero of a story in which he gets deprogrammed of his culture’s “The Most Dangerous Game”-inspired approach to other species.
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Nov 4, 2025
It cleverly pulls at the supposed laws of the series in a way that makes it more interesting without diluting the fearsome nature of the title character. Trachtenberg is making the franchise richer with every instalment. And if the film’s final shot is any reliable indication, he’s far from finished.
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SlashfilmNov 4, 2025
By far the funniest, most heartfelt, and boldest "Predator" movie of them all, "Badlands" etches its place in franchise history — right alongside the classic that started it all and the three worthy follow-ups that Trachtenberg has delivered so far. Let's hope there are many more to come.
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Nov 4, 2025
Dan Trachtenberg is heading in an interesting direction with this franchise and he gets bonus points for that. The Predator as a mysterious murder monster is getting some of his backstory filled in, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Badlands, in shifting the perspective to a Yautja main character, actually highlights what’s been great about this franchise in its better moments. Dek and Thia are an unexpectedly fun pairing that bring a new energy to the franchise and an altogether different kind of hunt. It might not be pulling the skull and spine out of us and screaming in bloody victory, but it gets close.
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Nov 4, 2025
Badlands is a decidedly B-movie that thoroughly utilizes and enjoys the freedoms allowed when any prestige ambition is eschewed. The film simply wants to be the best version of a zillionth Predator installment that it can be. If it has to complicate — and, yes, soften — the branding to do that, so be it.
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ColliderNov 4, 2025
Predator: Badlands might not be the shock to the system that Prey was, but it is continued proof that putting Predator in Trachtenberg's was one of the smartest moves this franchise has ever made. The writer and director continues to find brilliant, fascinating ways to explore and expand the Predator movies to an exhilarating level, making this series better than it ever has been.
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Nov 4, 2025
The lack of genuine slaughter in Badlands isn’t the film’s only problem. While it flips the franchise’s history by making the Yautja a hero instead of a villain . . . there is not nearly enough tension or world-building on display to become invested in this particular game of kill-or-be-killed.
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Nov 4, 2025
Trachtenberg who previously directed and co-wrote the story of “Prey” in 2022 and the animated “Predator: Killer of Killers” earlier this year, is confident in this world and it shows. He’s created a story about the betrayal of family and the joy of found family — and slicing horrific, nightmare creatures in half with a laser sword. But it’s both parts of Fanning that steal the show.
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LooperNov 4, 2025
. The fact it all adds up to an enjoyable romp, albeit one that never feels as bold as its parts, is likely an encouraging sign that Dan Trachtenberg has attained a similar status to Phil Lord and Chris Miller a decade ago, taking pitches that sound disastrous and turning them into non-compromised crowd-pleasers against all the odds.
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The PlaylistNov 4, 2025
A curious, half-successful mutation in the “Predator” bloodline, ‘Badlands’ wants to transcend the franchise’s primal instincts. Instead, it proves that sometimes survival means knowing what not to evolve. Or at least, pushing the envelope with greater execution and story conviction.
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Nov 7, 2025
Predators: Badlands might not be on the level of Trachtenberg’s 2022 Predator spin-off, Prey, but it has its pleasures. It’s a smart kind of stupid that hits the lowest common denominator in terms of story as a means of revelling in the strangeness of the world building. Each scene serves its purpose and the movie, running not much longer than 100 minutes, never wears out its welcome.
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