With Prey, Dan Trachtenberg brought a thrillingly lethal edge back to the Predator saga, and he continues sharpening it with Predator: Badlands.

Whereas his prior film was a lean, mean, direct-to-streaming venture set in the past, his follow-up (November 7, in theaters) is an operatic big-screen adventure that leapfrogs into tomorrow and, to a significant extent, flips the script à la Terminator 2 by making its alien bounty hunter a sympathetic protagonist on a multi-pronged quest to prove he’s worthy of joining his clan, to seek revenge against those who’ve wronged him, and—most unexpected of all—to learn that there’s strength in numbers.

Pairing its fanged extraterrestrial assassin with a superbly funny Elle Fanning, it’s the series’ second-best installment and a rousing start to wha

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