Elle Fanning (Thia/Tessa) and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (Dek/Father) in "Predator: Badlands," directed by Dan Trachtenberg. 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS
LE MONDE'S OPINION – WORTH SEEING
In the original film, Predator (John McTiernan, 1987), Arnold Schwarzenegger unexpectedly encounters a member of an extraterrestrial species in the Guatemalan jungle after it crashes its ship, and the creature proves to be exceptionally deadly. There are certainly shades of an alien in the Predator, but it is far more anthropomorphic and almost comical when it sheds its famous invisibility cloak to reveal its face: The reptilian biped has viper-like eyes, dreadlock-like appendages integrated into its skull and a mouth that resembles a camping tent or a trampoline with teeth.
From the very first film, it was clear that the Predator was not merely an insectoid predator, but a member of a warrior civilization with its own culture and norms, however rudimentary they might have seemed. Its weapons and spacecraft were highly sophisticated, and it appeared to collect trophies. In the subsequent films, however, the Predator remained little more than a sideshow monster to be eradicated without remorse, even facing off against aliens (Aliens vs Predator, 2004) as if in a Roman arena.
