An excerpt from my script review for Prey which will be available 11/10/25:
2.) Plot Stability
This came out during that magical time after Covid that the Cap’n and I were so fond of.
Theaters weren’t really open yet, so a lot of bigger budget films were going straight to exclusive streaming services.
Man did I love that! Watching a film when I wanted and in the comfort of my living room couch under a warm blanket. Without having to interact with annoying people.
Good times.
I enjoyed watching this film back then, and was a reason why I took the youngest to see the newest installment.
As I read though, I must have confused this story with Alien Vs. Predator, which is another film I enjoyed.
For some reason I thought Naru and the Predator worked together to kill a saber tooth tiger or some shit that was attacking her village.
That was not the story however, and after reading it I’ll have to go back and watch this again, especially with the Littlest since she didn’t want to go see Badlands initially, but openly admitted she enjoyed it on the drive home.
(Quick side note here, during the final battle scene in Predator: Badlands, she sat up, legs crossed in her recliner seat because she was that engaged. She tries to play it off like her back hurt, but one of the reasons I enjoy watching films with her is because she is engrossed in them almost as much as her father. Remember, this is the same kid who two years ago cried when Gambit died in the X-Men ’97 series, then became happily misty-eyed when he showed up in Deadpool & Wolverine.)
Anyway…
This story mirrors the original Predator film in that a group of hunters go out to solve a problem only to become the hunted.
There’s little hints dropped here and there, but also like the original, we don’t get the full display of the Predator’s hunting powers until about midway through when it kills a grizzly bear.
Other than that, most of the story is this “coming of age” narrative about Naru, a female Comanche, wanting to be a hunter, a role typically reserved for men, as she tracks a “bear” that was so big if frightened the mountain lion that was stalking her village.
With the help of her younger brother Taabe, the elite hunter in the clan (and short-lived chief!), she eventually fulfills this destiny, killing a Predator by herself.
All the good stuff is in here, but again this is a perfect example of “give me the same, only different” that Hollywood is always yammering about but in the Predator franchise.
Sure it’s similar to the original, but the setting and problems are unique enough that we’re entertained.
The question you should be asking yourself is, “Can I take something that’s in public domain, or the rights are easy to acquire, and find a unique setting that makes the story original?”
(The new Frankestein film Bride movie comes to mind, set in the 1920s.)
I like the initial story of the lion attacking the Comanche tribe, and even after killing it, Naru knows there’s a reason why it got scared off, even if no one else wants to believe her.
(But again, similar to real life, would you believe someone who said they saw a 9 foot humanoid massacre a bear, but it was invisible?)
Oh, and this is something the Cap’n mentioned in his review above, but there’s a pistol given to Naru by a French fur trapper with “Raphael Adolini 1715” inscribed on the barrel.
This was an Easter Egg from Predator 2 when Danny Glover (not Sidney Poitier as a college roommate insisted) is gifted a pistol by the Predator in that film.
The director had the awesome thought to include it, almost as a reason for the 1719 setting. Unfortunately he wasn’t given the “Predator Bible” that would have explained they already covered the pistol’s origins in a Predator comic from the 90s.
Fun story about all that here.
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