‘Predator: Badlands’ review: Franchise’s latest boosted by winning duo

The Yautja — the menacing species of hunters from the “Predator” movie series — aren’t exactly the most compelling aliens around.

They hunt. They turn intermittently invisible. They kill.

They don’t say much.

So if you’re going to make one of them the protagonist of your movie — as director Dan Trachtenberg has with “Predator: Badlands” — you’d be wise to give that Yautja a colorful sidekick.

That’s what we get in Elle Fanning’s Thia, a synthetic, human-like creation that’s both chatty and emotionally complex. Fanning’s performance helps the highly entertaining movie push up against what is ultimately only a medium-high ceiling.

In theaters this week, “Badlands” begins on the homeworld of the Yautja, which is where we meet our fanged hero-to-be, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi).

Not yet a full member of his clan and still to earn one of the cloaking devices that have made the Yautja such dangerous foes dating back to 1987’s “Predator,” he engages in a blade fight with his brother, Kwei (Mike Homik). Kwei ultimately tries to talk Dek out of his plan to earn the trophy of all trophies, the head of a massive monster known as the Kalisk, residing on the extremely dangerous planet Genna.

Despite the well-choreographed action, this is all rather uninteresting, as is the similarly testosterone-heavy subsequent confrontation with their physically imposing father. We’ll refrain from providing the details of that clash, but the latter likely won’t be in the running for Yautja Dad of the Year anytime soon.

Regardless, off to Genna the undersized Dek heads. There, he quickly finds himself in a jungle, the dangers of which put Earth’s hairiest jungles to shame.

Soon, he’s out of that den of alien snakes and finds himself the desired next meal of a circling winged creature, one that knows how to use the planet’s perilous environment to its advantage. Nearby resides Thia, legless and trapped in the “vulture’s nest,” as she puts it. She could help Dek, she tells him, but she’ll need a weapon. And while he wants to be a big boy and accomplish his task on his own, he soon has little choice but to enlist her aid.

Thia is desperate to return to the outpost of the company that sent her and other synthetics to Genna — a company that will be quite familiar to many science-fiction fans — to reattach her legs. She sells Dek on the idea that she is but a “tool” he can use in the hunt for the Kalisk and soon is riding on his back and offering running commentary — think a severed C-3PO slung behind Chewbacca in “The Empire Strikes Back.”

This unlikely duo is joined, off and on, by a vaguely monkey-like critter, a highly capable one who helps them out of a jam when Dek sets his sights on a large animal he intends to kill for food. (For a taste of Thia’s sense of humor, after their hunt of the beast involves a tree, she dubs their unlikely group a “dynamic tree-o.”)

At first, Dek finds her annoying but admittedly useful, though he grows to truly value her as the story progresses, a story that, along with the Kalisk, which possesses a rare ability, brings in the menace that is Thia’s “sister,” Tessa (also portrayed by Fanning).

Although he’s directed episodes of TV series here and there, Trachtenberg has — since directing 2016’s “10 Cloverfield Lane” — planted himself in the “Predator”-verse when it comes to film. After helming the well-received “Prey,” set on Earth in the early 1700s, he directed the stunningly impressive animated movie “Predator: Killer of Killers,” which debuted in June on Hulu.

On “Badlands,” he shares the story credit with screenwriter Patrick Aison. They’ve presented a tale that, while rather shallow, works pretty well. Dek remains limited by the Yautja’s terse nature, but the film still earns a measure of investment in his journey.

It helps that Trachtenberg paces the film briskly, never allowing the action-heavy proceedings to become bogged down. The movie clocks in well under two hours, and we are not complaining.

That said, we would have been happy to spend a bit more time with Thia, a delight thanks largely to Fanning (“Super 8,” “A Complete Unknown”). Outstanding on the canceled-too-soon series “The Great,” she brings a lot of personality to Thia … if not to Tessa.

Still, we’re not sure how interested we are in the potential sequel “Badlands” seems intent on setting up. On the other hand, we see no reason Trachtenberg shouldn’t keep swimming in “Predator”-y waters, as he seems very comfortable spending time among the Yautja.

‘Predator: Badlands’

Where: Theaters.

When: Nov. 11.

Rated: PG-13 for sequences of strong sci-fi violence.

Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

Stars (of four): 3.