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by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

Predator: Badlands is Dan Trachtenberg's third Predator movie after Prey 2022 and Killer of the Killers 2025. And strangely enough non of these movies have any kind of connection to one other. They are not sequels. They are stand alone films, different in style and tone. Telling different stories and having different structure. The only thing that binds them together, so to speak, is the fact that they are all technically a part of the Predator franchise.

This movie is starring mostly just Elle Fanning. She plays 3 characters. A Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Tessa, who is the main antagonist of the film. She also plays her "sister", a Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Thia, who is one of the main protagonists. And she also plays Thia's legs, who are a separate character for a big chunk of the movie. There is a even a cool ass fight scene where Thia and Thia's leg's are fighting off goons. And working together in a weird body-horror action team-work, kind of way.

The main character of the film is Dek ( Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi ) . A Yautja on a mission of hunting a very big scary monster on a planet of big and scary monsters. Yes, this movie takes the main antagonist of most other Predator films and makes him the protagonist. The film gives the audience a glimpse into Yautja society and family dynamics. As well as it explores Yautja psychology.

But the main star, I suppose, of the movie is the planet Genna. And its "badlands".

A few things needed to happen in order for this movie to exist: First of all, Ridley Scott had to make the original Alien back in 1979. This established the idea of synthetics and monsters in space. Then in 1986 James Cameron had to do the sequel Aliens. This introduced a concept of an action film in the Alien franchise. As well as introduced the mecha-suit, which Sigourney Weaver uses in the end to fight off the Alien-mother. And introduced a concept of good synthetics. Then in 1987 John McTiernan ( the director of Die Hard ) had to make the first Predator. This established the existence of Yautjas. Then in 1990 Stephen Hopkins had to do the sequel to Predator, called simply Predator 2, in the review of which I speculated that this movie introduced the concept of combining Alien and Predator into one franchise. Obviously the 2004 Paul W. S. Anderson's film AVP made this combination concrete. And also introduced a concept of protagonist Yautjas. Then in 2009 James Cameron had to do Avatar which introduced a planet full of custom plants and animals, which the main character comes into contact with. And which the main character learns to like, to some extent. This movie also had a mecha-suit, and Sigourney Weaver.

So then comes Dan Trachtenberg and makes a Predator with Alien franchise elements ( such as the synthetics ), where the main character goes onto a planet full of custom plants and animals and by the end of it learns to like those plants and animals, or at the very least, learns to respect them, in the Yautja way. And the movie, by chance has a mecha-suit, though sadly no Sigourney Weaver. We get a very good and quite legendary substitute in a form of Elle Fanning.

Even though the visual effects for both Avatar and this movie were done by the same company Weta Digital, I'm not going to pretend that this movie has the same level of thought put into the world of the film. It is mostly just normal forest, shot pretty normally somewhere on earth, with a few plot-changing custom elements. While in Avatar everything is pretty much custom. But the feeling of the custom world is there and is very damn strong. I was kind of thinking I was watching something like Avatar, but horror-esque. Even though the scale is not even remotely the same.

I wonder, if James Cameron wants to move on with his life and do the Hiroshima movie he wanted to make, maybe he can unload the last 2 remaining Avatar sequels onto Trachtenberg?

Happy Hacking!!!

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  Troler c:0 January 10, 2026



I have been watching a lot more of world-building videos. I love science and science fiction. Combining both to create a reasonable guess how live would evolve on planets with different circumstances is very cool!

... replies ( 1 )

  Blender Dumbass c:1 January 10, 2026



@Troler There are like breakdown videos you can find by actual biology people. Who breakdown the evolution of certain creatures on planet pandora. The detail is that good.

  Blender Dumbass c:1 January 10, 2026

... c:0

  Troler c:0 January 10, 2026

While in Avatar everything is pretty much custom. But the feeling of the custom world is there and is very damn strong.

I have been watching a lot more of world-building videos. I love science and science fiction. Combining both to create a reasonable guess how live would evolve on planets with different circumstances is very cool!

@Troler There are like breakdown videos you can find by actual biology people. Who breakdown the evolution of certain creatures on planet pandora. The detail is that good.

... replies ( 1 )

  Troler c:3 January 10, 2026



@blenderdumbass I am listening

  Blender Dumbass ( J.Y.Amihud ) c:2


@Troler Just want to try answering from here.

  Troler c:3 January 10, 2026

... c:1

  Blender Dumbass c:1 January 10, 2026


c:0

@Troler There are like breakdown videos you can find by actual biology people. Who breakdown the evolution of certain creatures on planet pandora. The detail is that good.

@blenderdumbass I am listening

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