I’ve skipped over so many of the Predator and Alien films that I have no idea what’s going on in that cinematic universe any longer. I opted to watch this one because it was directed by Dan Trachtenberg who made the excellent Prey. The twist here is that the protagonist is a Predator for the first time, teaming up with human-made synthetic to survive on an alien planet. It’s okay enough as an action movie but has too jokey a tone to carry any emotional weight and the predictable lesson of protecting each other belongs more in a Disney feature than a Predator movie.

On the Yauja home planet, Dek, a smaller than usual member of the Predator species, is visited by his brother Kwei. After a brief fight which Kwei easily wins, he offers Dek a chance to be blooded by hunting a target. Dek chooses the Kalisk, an apex predator on the death planet Genna despite Kwei’s insistence that it is beyond him. But then their father Njohrr arrives asking Kwei why he has not executed Dek as ordered for being weak. As Njohrr fights and kills Kwei, the ship carries Dek to Genna. Upon arrival, he is attacked by the planet’s deadly flora and fauna and most of his equipment is damaged. He soon comes across Thia, a Weyland-Yutani synth who has been bisected, leaving only her upper body intact. She reveals that she is part of all-synth sent to the planet to collect specimens but they were attacked by the Kalisk. When she proves to be knowledgeable about life on the planet, Dek agrees to carry her on his back, justifying it as her being his tool. Later they are also joined by a small, friendly creature that Thia names Bud.

It was pretty cool to get a look at the Predator home planet and their society even if as usual these types of alien warrior cultures fall apart upon scrutiny. They obviously have advanced technology, so who’s building and maintaining all these cool toys if they’re all supposed to be warriors? I also found it amusing that this confrontation between Predators and humans takes place when human technology has advanced so far past the original 1987 film that the Yauja are arguably the underdogs. Sure the Yauja still have weapons with exotic effects, but the humans have industrial scale and that always wins wars. Unfortunately that doesn’t matter much in a Hollywood action movie in which individual heroes always beat massed mooks. The action scenes look cool but carry no weight whatsoever. Dek struggles against mere plant-life when the plot calls for it and trivially takes down an army of synths when the time is right. His victories feel unearned and the fights are boring because it feels like there are no real stakes.

I read that this is the first film in franchise to receive a PG-13 rating. Certainly that was more easily achieved by not having a single real human character in it so that every act of violence is committed only on Yauja, synths or the wildlife. But that’s also accompanied by a sense that the violence here is all flash and low consequence. There’s no pain and suffering when anyone is wounded and Thia being bisected is more of a joke than horrifying. By the time we get to the lower half of her body and see it fighting independently of her, it becomes almost like a parody of itself. I do like the twist that the real antagonist isn’t the Kalisk at all but the Weyland-Yutani force but they’re just too ineffective to make for a satisfying fight. The lesson we’re meant to take away about Dek abandoning the Yauja’s warrior culture and embracing his new family instead is similarly the kind family-friendly message we’d expect more from an animated feature than a film in the Predator franchise.

It is well-made enough to be decently entertaining and there’s some satisfaction in both seeing the Predator homeworld and how advanced humanity has become. But it’s a watered-down version of a Predator film and so isn’t noteworthy enough to be remembered.