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Hey, this is Scott Snyder, the writer of American Vampire, Barnstormers, Witches, White Boat and Batman, lots of other comics.

And you are listening to the best comic podcast around, the Oblivion Bar podcast.

Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 220 of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

I'm your hapless, Weyland-Yutani refinery operator stuck in middle management Chris Hacker and joining me is the only man who doesn't need three pounds of tobacco dip to be considered a sexual tyrannosaurus, my co-host MBFF Aaron Knowles.

What's the matter?

CIA got you pushing too many pencils?

Dylan, you son of a bitch.

Welcome back everybody to the Oblivion Bar podcast.

This week, as you've seen, as you clicked on the episode and also probably heard from our little preamble there in the intro this week, Aaron, we are talking about the latest installment in the Predator franchise.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

Predator there.

Is that a meow?

What is that?

Is that a growl?

What would you call that?

It's like a growl.

would say it's like a, mean, if they're having a good time, the predators could be purring.

A purr, that's what I was actually thinking of.

uh Have you ever heard the, there's a really fun video essay that I'm spacing of course now, but they basically make the comparison that Dutch in the first movie is basically the first last girl ever.

All the different members of the squad represent sort of a prototype of a slasher film.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger is basically just like Neve Campbell from Scream.

He's the last girl that somehow survives the end of the movie.

Have you ever made that connection?

never heard that term before the last girl.

So I mean, I, again, that might be on me because I don't really dig slasher movies that much.

Like there's, there's a few far, like I've, didn't watch all of the, know what you did last summers.

I didn't watch all this.

What are you waiting for?

uh love slashers.

I mean, like I very vividly remember like being so excited about scream when that first came out.

I remember like dressing up as Ghostface as a young person.

It's one of the only early costumes that I remember actually like really wanting.

remember.

Like it's either plastic or sweat.

Those are the two smells that mask.

Exactly.

Well, again, as we said, we'll be talking about Predator Badlands this week.

is a huge Predator fan, obviously huge alien, huge, a huge, I'm more of a Predator fan myself.

As I've said many a times, I feel like this is getting kind of annoying that I have to keep saying this, but I will.

Predator is my favorite action film of all time.

It's one of my favorite movies just in general.

So I have a special attachment to this franchise, but not really Aaron, because I love the first one.

And then honestly, yeah.

Not really any of the rest.

Like I like some of them, but not, I'm not like a ultra fan like you are.

I don't know why this popped into my head.

It's really not funny, but it's also slightly hilarious.

was watching, I think I was doom scrolling the other night and there was uh somebody was dressing up.

It was like a kid who was dressing up as the predator.

Like he had just made a predator costume and he goes to his dad and he's like, look dad, I'm a child predator.

And all you hear is like the dad go, no.

uh gosh, that's fun.

That's good time, especially in the climate we're living in currently.

on.

Will you tell the people at home, especially after that comment, would you tell the folks at home how they can support the show?

beep out that and just bleep out that entire comment.

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So Erin, first up this week, have Brainiac has been confirmed as the villain in James Gunn's upcoming Superman, Man of Tomorrow, which is of course the sequel to this year's Superman.

We both loved it, covered it here on the show.

So according to the rap, Brainiac will be the main threat in the sequel Superman movie.

After being in prison at the end of Superman, Lex Luthor, who will reportedly find himself in more gracious confinement while working with Rick Flagg senior must team up with the man of steel when an alien menace arrives.

before we move on to, guess, who Brainiac is, I think it's important to recognize that this is our very first, I'll say live action Brainiac, even though we've gotten him, I think he was in the show Krypton on sci-fi.

Did he show up in the Superman show that was on HBO?

Has he shown up anywhere else besides like Krypton?

I'm pretty sure Brainiac was in Smallville.

You would be the expert on that.

actually, I've, I've not seen smallville all the way through, so I don't know.

Wow.

Somebody save Chris's nerd card.

ah Well, I guess I would be in question here also.

You know what?

While you continue to read that, I'm going to Google that and see.

Yeah, because you know, the all knowing Google machine.

That's right.

Yeah.

Check out the Google machine there.

making his debut in 1958, action comics, 242 from writer, auto binder and artist Al Plastino, the hyper intelligent green skin, colon.

I think I'm saying that correctly is known for his vast intellect and longevity.

Brainiac originally appeared as a collector obsessed with preserving civilizations by shrinking and storing their cities in bottles.

Uh, Brainiac is widely considered the smartest being in the DC universe, followed by Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne's Batman, and then Michael Holtz, Mr.

Terrific.

So we've already met.

all three of those other smart, well, not in this universe, I guess we haven't met the Batman yet, but Michael Holt and Lex Luthor we already have met.

So Brainiac will be officially smarter.

I'm assuming that's going to be sort of the turmoil in this film is that Superman is going to inherit the help of his friends and Lex Luthor.

They're all going to put their brains together and go, Oh, just kidding.

We're not that smart.

We don't understand.

We're like two steps behind this guy.

cannot get ahead of him.

Braniac wasn't smallville.

He was, and he was played actually, uh, I gotta remember the actor's name, but, if you remember spike from angel and like Buffy, that's the actor who played.

OK.

Just one of those like 2000 sitcom that guy, know, like one of those guys that, you know, he showed up in multiple of those type of uh shows.

among his many infamous acts over the years, capturing the Kryptonian capital and lost city of Kandor uh is among uh one of his biggest feats and something that constantly brings Kal-El back to Brainiac's door.

So Superman Man of Tomorrow is set to release on September 9th, 2027.

So we still have quite a bit of ways until we get this movie, but.

Aaron, guess I'll ask you, there's no right answer here, but what is sort of your attachment to Brainiac?

Do you have any knowledge on the character outside of the fact that he's smart and green?

I've seen him in a lot of different things.

Obviously the cartoons, the comics, the injustice video game.

want to say injustice too.

He was kind of like the pivotal like bad guy in that.

So he's an obviously smallville as well.

I think he's a, I'm pretty sure he was also in a super girl as well.

I'm pretty sure he was in super goal.

So I feel like he's, he is an underused and it sounds like he's being used a lot, but I feel like he's really an underused, underdeveloped.

Big Bad.

Like the quality of his character in like standalone is has not been really used to its potential in any capacity.

I think the problem with Brainiac is a similar problem, similar but different problem as Superman.

What do you do when you have the smartest character?

And a very similar way is what do you have if you have the strongest character?

And I think there are ways to get into that.

Like uh Brain versus Braun, they actually kind of touched on that in the first movie a little bit.

There's that part at the end of the film right before he's about to take on the clone, Ultraman as he's called in the film.

But Brain versus Braun is sort of the central conflict between.

Brainiac and Superman.

And usually Superman has to inherit the help of the Justice League and other heroes to take on Brainiac because as we said a moment ago, Brainiac is usually a couple steps ahead.

So this is exciting.

I don't even know who I'd want to play Brainiac.

I would imagine it's going to be someone in a, you know, a dotted suit of some sort and he'll be mostly CGI.

But, you know, I think it would be, it would be who of James Gunn and Peter Saffron and the DC folks that, you know, the powers that be to find someone with like a sort of a smart aleck intellect, you know, someone that has like that is smug and like knows how smart they are, but it's still sort of charismatic in that way.

no, what are you thinking?

want Brainiac to be cold and calculated.

I want him to be almost machine, like machine smart.

Like I want him to maybe, I want him to embody our fears of AI because that's what he is.

That's basically what I would say.

I mean, obviously they didn't really understand like what AI could really be in 1958.

They didn't really understand the detrimental impact it could have to, you know, existence in general.

ah So I want them I want them to really have just like And again, this is why I say he's been undervalued He's been underused because you do you whenever they've used him.

He's had a bit of ego He's had a he's had vulnerabilities.

I want a cold calculated fucking brainiac machine that has no cares No concerns just has his mission and he's not going to stop until he can until he completes it And I want and that's the thing that it's going to be a lot like uh very much a lot like fighting Lex Luthor because you're going to have Lex Luthor who is unattached to a degree on emotional other than his rage that he has for Superman.

So he's going to be a bigger, badder, worse version of Lex Luthor.

And I think Lex is going to see that.

That's what's going to bring them together.

Is that exactly that Lex is going to see this guy and go, oh my God, he has no remorse whatsoever at any point.

Lex, we didn't really see in the first movie, but I think he still has that human part of him that he doesn't want the earth to explode or be entrapped in a bottle.

don't think.

Right.

So that's really the main difference.

It's hard to rule if you're if you're if you're under somebody else's thumb in a fucking glass jar, right?

And Lex Luthor wants to be in charge.

Totally.

Good friends of the show, Jeff Johns and Gary Frank now over at Ghost Machine.

They were of course two huge creators over at DC for a long time.

They have an excellent run.

I'll call it.

It's Action Comics 866 to 870.

It's literally just called Superman colon Brainiac.

You can find it in a trade.

It's excellent.

If you want to really learn more about the character of Brainiac, I think it's a really good read there.

So you sort of, you spoke about sort of the dangers and the nervousness of AI and we're trending ever so, you know, actually I wouldn't say we're trending, we're literally careening towards it currently, Aaron.

Why don't you talk about the next topic here?

Ugh, this is fucking disgusting.

Pardon my language.

It's gross.

It's absolutely gross.

And I've already on Twitter, I will cancel my subscription.

Marty there.

Plus has been canceled for a bit for me.

Yeah.

Bob Iger says AI generated content uh is coming to Disney plus in the near future during the company's quarter four earnings call.

Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that Disney plus will soon incorporate AI in new and unexpected ways, including the ability for users to create their own AI generated content.

No, no, no, no.

uh So according to Bob Iger, Disney has been having interesting conversations with some of the AI companies describing those discussions as quite productive, whatever the fuck that means, since they don't produce anything, they just steal it.

The studio's goal, he explained, is to explore how this technology can be used to enhance storytelling and consumer interaction while protecting Disney's massive library of franchises and characters.

It can't.

I don't understand how they can't understand that.

just really quick.

I'm sorry.

I don't mean to cut you off, but just let's just analyze that last sentence.

Consumer interaction franchise.

That's what Bob Iger is thinking about.

He does not see, he does not see the Marvel universe or star Wars or Mickey Mouse as a lovable character.

He doesn't look at it as like a four year old could make Mickey Mouse his favorite character.

Like that plush that that four year old has that's just a, that's a dollar sign to Bob Iger, you know, That's what that's what's wrong with.

Gosh, we do not need to get in this topic more than we have to.

But like that is wrong with these out of touch billionaires that just have no fucking clue what they're doing to the world with this.

Like it's insane.

And he says here as well to enhance storytelling, as you said, Aaron, A.I.

does not it doesn't storytell it patterns.

It creates patterns and it copies.

So everything you if for anybody who uses chat, GPT or any type of A.I.

for storytelling, it's not telling a story.

It's stealing.

from other people and mixing it all together in just a dead eyed fucking horrific way.

That's all it is.

Exactly.

So he goes on to say the changes include a number of game like features supported by Fortnite developers, Epic Games, and a brand new focus on user participation.

The other thing that we're really excited about that AI is going to give us the ability to do is to provide users of Disney plus with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user generated content and to consume user generated content, mostly short form from others.

First off, this isn't YouTube.

This isn't TikTok.

This is supposed to be a streaming service that we pay for.

Why am I paying for somebody else to make content and put it on Disney Plus?

I don't want to see that shit.

I don't want to see big fucking companies making AI generated bullshit.

So why would I want to see other like other people?

it's that's my problem.

It's infected every other like algorithm and other stream of whatever information you get already.

I mean, I was just going down headlines because I use certain uh apps and tools to look at headlines just so I know kind of what I want to click on.

And that has an algorithm base that understands the things that I want to see.

When I'm reading down that recently, I've started seeing like information gathered by AI underneath some of these topics.

I'm just like, this is completely fucked.

That's not what I want.

So uh Disney also announced that Disney Plus added three point eight million new subscribers this past quarter, helping boost streaming profits.

The company plans to invest one billion dollars more in content in twenty twenty six than it did in twenty twenty five.

I don't care.

I have a theory that those subscribers that they've gained, I would venture, and I feel like this might be sort of a, I'm totally, this is shot in the dark, but I would imagine more than half, if not slightly below half of those 3.8 million subscribers are people who canceled during the Jimmy Kimmel shit that was happening.

And then re either like silently or just came back after that whole debacle was sort of fixed.

I'm going tell you where they came from.

Where they came from fucking app like like these people who sign up customers who sign up for like Verizon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

T-Mobile who get a bundle.

These aren't paying like people who want to come in there.

These are people who are who are literally like force fed a subscription subscription because it comes with their phone plan.

So you can't this is not a voluntary number.

I'd also like to know how many they lost compared to how many they've gained over twenty twenty five.

So I hope they put those those statistics out because uh I call bullshit.

I mean, obviously the movie we're talking about today is sort of under the umbrella of Disney and we can have that discussion when we get to Badlands.

But I will just say that like from my viewpoint, it feels like what's really keeping Disney afloat and just sort of keeping them towards the top is not Disney Plus.

It's their parks.

ah I don't know.

I was I think I told you, Aaron, on the grid last week that is actually this past week that I was in Savannah and then we went down to Orlando for Universal.

And there was a part of me that kind of wanted to go to Disney.

Like just there's like a small inkling that was like, let me just look at the tickets.

Let me just see what it would cost and take for us to get over there for like just maybe like six hours.

Right.

When I tell you that it was like $200 plus for a half day pass to go to Disney and that there are some families out there that for one reason or another are willing to shell that kind of money out for their kids.

I think it's mostly kids, right?

It's not, there are probably some Disney adults and those are weird Disney adults.

Yeah.

I I'm weird ass Disney adults.

get it.

But like it's mostly a dad who's worked too hard just trying to make it up to his kids or as you know, a mom who wants to take pictures so that she can put them on social media and show her show her friends and family that she's a good mom.

It's those people, right?

Paying way too much to do a thing that's not worth it.

So the parks and it's been it's record profits every quarter for for Disney World and Disneyland out in California.

So I think that's what's keeping them afloat.

And at some point, there's going to be a breaking point with those two entities.

Like at some point, people are going to stop doing this shit.

We'll see what that is.

think that I've ever paid full price for a Disney or like any park pass because I mean in the mills or we have the the tickets and tours office on base so you can usually get a pretty good bundle but those those tickets come with like some fairly large blackout dates but however I will never pay full price I will I'm not gonna be a parent so it's a parent I'm not a parent so I'll never have to pay for anybody else besides you know you know Carly to go to fucking any any like that but I know.

I do want to ride the Tron ride.

That's the only thing.

the Aaron.

That's the thing is that like I even had the same feeling when we went to Universal for Harry Potter world.

Obviously JK Rowling, a complete monster.

She was who we thought she was everybody.

When she came out and said all that horrible shit back in the day on Twitter, I was like, wow, that's fucked up.

That's terrible.

And then, and then she did sort of a PR spin.

She's like, Oh no, no, no, I'm just a feminist.

I think people took it out of context.

And then Aaron, I don't know if you've noticed, I'm not on Twitter anymore, but my understanding is that for like the last seven years since then, She has just been constantly pushing this anti-trans rhetoric constantly on social media.

has become a cesspool for So moving on.

this episode has been horrifically negative, everybody.

We apologize, but let's get into some more Disney slop.

Alien Earth has been renewed for season two as Noah Hawley expands the deal with FX and Disney.

So we covered the first season of Alien Earth here on the show a couple of weeks ago and seemed to be a big hit.

know, Aaron and I had very particular opinions about that show.

And we thought if I remember correctly, Aaron, it was a pretty mixed bag.

You liked it, think.

I was sort of iffy on some things, but I know you liked it more than I did.

I had an overall positive experience with it.

still kind of, think I might go back actually and watch it again.

I want to say this is really our first episodic intro into that kind of, the Ripley verse, or Ripley verse, me.

Ripley verse also, yeah.

really for me, it's like, I don't know, I'm still kind of up in the, to be honest, and it's odd to think about it right now, because I haven't really given it much thought since we watched it and reviewed it.

I'm still kind of up in the air about it, I might go back and rewatch it just to see how I feel, especially after having watched Predator badly.

Yeah, absolutely.

So here's what uh Noah Hawley and folks say.

So of course, as we said, season two of Alien Earth has been renewed.

And with that, the announcement comes with the biggest reveal is that Noah Hawley got a huge payday.

He basically signed a massive nine figure deal to not only sort of show run season two of Alien Earth over on FX, which will no longer be on Hulu.

I don't know if people have heard, speaking of Disney Plus is that Disney Plus is about to absorb Hulu and then there will be no more, everything on Hulu will be just beyond on Disney Plus.

uh It says here that FX chairman John Lengraaff praised Holly's continued partnership saying, has been our great privilege to work with Noah for more than a decade on some FX, some of FX's best and biggest shows.

And we are thrilled to extend our partnership well into the future.

So the Walt Disney company announced that the first episode of Alien Earth garnered a 9.2 million view count worldwide within its first six days of streaming, making it the ninth most streamed original series of all time, cumulatively, according to Nielsen's media research.

Aaron, I'm guessing here just based on context that you are excited for this and want more of this.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'll be excited, especially with kind of the route that we're going right now.

Like I am very excited, very excited for for mom.

Yeah, I guess it's spoiler.

know why you're stopping because this could be an interesting conversation to talk about what has 20th century done to Alien and Predator since Disney bought the properties, right?

I think that's something we can talk about here in a moment, but I agree with you.

And I think I even said during our Alien Earth review that while I didn't have the best time with Alien Earth, I think there were a lot of bad decisions with that series.

I want more of that.

Like it was was excellently shot.

It looked great.

Sounded great.

I feel like it had all the hallmarks of things that I wanted from an Alien series.

I just didn't particularly love the story and how very centric it was and how we basically just got to look at it more once or twice.

Synth-centric you say.

We're about to get more synth centric here in just a moment.

That'll do it for our News and Notes everybody.

Thank you so much to Onypress for sponsoring the show.

Let's go and get into our review of Predator Badlands, but before we do, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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Alrighty, here we go.

Let's talk about Predator Badlands.

Aaron, initial thoughts on the latest entry and the third entry of Dan Trachtenberg in the Predator 20th Century universe.

Awesome.

Anything else you want to add to that or just restart there?

Very awesome.

It was that a very in there.

Yeah.

I mean, this is interesting.

I don't know if you remember when we were talking on the grid, like we keep referring to the grid.

Hey everybody, go check out Patreon.

We were talking and I mentioned that I had just seen Predator Badlands today before.

I wanted to hear your thoughts because when I went to go see it, I saw it at AMC 17 here in Indianapolis, Salt and Dolby.

So it sounded great.

And I remember as I'm watching it, we're about 20 minutes in, it's around the time where we meet Thea.

I go, This is the most different Predator movie I've ever seen.

This is so not Dutch and the Boys out in the jungle.

You know what mean?

This is not even like Shane Black, Olivia Mund and that crew fighting up giant Predator and the regular Predator from the first movie.

This is a wildly different buddy cop version of the Predator franchise, right?

And I'm curious, was wondering, because I think one of the interesting things about Predator as a franchise, and I think this movie, best articulates this is that it's an extremely flexible franchise.

I think sometimes Predator gets lumped into the horror sort of both.

alien and predator do.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

it's like Alien 1, I guess you could maybe consider to be a horror film, maybe even Romulus a little bit too.

But in my mind, those movies are science fiction movies.

Predator on the other hand, the first movie I think is again, as I said, the best action film of all time.

The second movie is sort of a self parody.

It's kind of a schlocky sort of reflection of the Predator franchise.

Like it's not, it's so not the first Predator, that second movie.

So we had, we had a long line of films that came out about the predator to timeline.

And that was like a Robo cop.

Yeah.

There's there are comedy bits to it, but it's, it's almost satirical.

It's almost society satirical, like science fiction comedy.

You know, like yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Total recall judge dread.

Like all those where we take society.

We give it that post-apocalyptic, you know, it's dystopian kind of uh like wash to it, like filter, but then we add in a little bit of comedy to it.

And that's what you had.

I mean, you even had that with the first Predator, which was still an amazing action film, but absolutely with Predator 2.

Yeah, totally.

uh And I totally agree with you.

Demolition Man, another example of this sort of like dystopian, just sort of like turned up to whatever your setting is, turn it up to 11.

So then we move on.

So we get into 2000s.

We've got Alien vs Predator and Alien vs Predator Requiem.

OK.

And I think this is where, to my mind, the franchise sort of distorted both both franchises.

I think even before that with Alien, the Alien franchise, I think you get into like Resurrection and Alien 3 as both.

wild misses for the franchise.

While we can enjoy those movies today, think it sort of got away from I think what makes Alien so great.

Absolutely.

I think Alien sort of latched onto Predator and said, come over here, come over here to the crazy world.

And that's what they did with Alien vs.

Predator and Alien vs.

Predator Requiem.

They tried to take a radical swing to make this series, both franchise, uh relevant.

And that's what they tried to do, because Resurrection was a complete fucking flop.

It was a piece of shit.

I'm pretty sure it's considered retconned, be not even a part of the canon of the Ridley universe.

And so, yeah, they tried that.

They're like, fuck, we're failing.

They really hadn't had a Predator in a while.

So they're like, let's do alien versus predator because it makes just total fucking sense.

Right guys?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, and then they did, you know, aliens versus predator too, because number the first one got semi interested and made money and then alien versus printer too was an absolute dog shit.

Made no fucking sense.

Um, and so like, yeah, it's like at that point, that's really the last time we had a real like in depth look other than was it predators?

Well, here we go.

going into 20, so 10 years later after Requiem, we get The Predator, which is I think a movie that I discounted for a long time and has since returned to.

And I think it's much better than I remember it being.

That one deserves more love.

I think that one was misunderstood because of what like Requiem and Alien vs.

Prey, like what those two films did to the franchise or to both franchises.

I think that it made so much sense.

was, that one was probably one of the closest movies to a Predator novel that I've ever watched.

Like it made so much, it brought so much lore.

to big screen that that would, you know, cause again, like, and I'll say this alien versus predator, which was the one where they go into the, the Aztec temple in the ice that stole from, from, from novels.

And then the predator stole from novels as well.

like, but, did it much better.

You're going to see a trend everybody as we talk about Predator Badlands and sort of this overall franchise.

SD Perry is going to become very, very familiar to you because a lot of this franchise and specifically even I would even say Predator Badlands, we'll talk about it here in a moment, has been taken from the Extended Universe that was over at Dark Horse and then in some of the novels and so on.

So before we do though, Predators, all time low.

think having Shane Black direct a Predator movie makes so much sense on paper and it just...

It just didn't work like for multiple reasons, mostly giant CGI predator and boring family stuff and a military crew that is not even like a lick of interesting compared to the first movie.

So they tried they tried things, but it just didn't work.

And none of it.

Let's try and do what we did with the first Predator movie, but with veterans.

Okay, hear me out.

Instead of Arnst Schwarzenegger, Boyd Holbrook.

ah How about, how about instead of one predator that predators, he's prey.

You know, you know the predator, right?

You know, the first one, right?

Yeah.

We're to put him up.

He's going to come back.

He's back.

Everybody's back.

He's going to go up against a giant CGI one.

But he's yeah.

Well, he's back though.

Somehow.

Yeah.

um Hey, that's OK.

Let's do that.

But Predator Suit.

I think that's, that's something.

Yep.

Yep.

So we wait another 10 years, everybody.

And then we get prey a very like, Aaron, I don't, if you could, can you take yourself back three years ago to when prey came out?

We covered it here on the show as one of our first, well, not one of our first, but as one of our earlier reviews here on the show.

And we were bloat, we were both blown away by it.

And I remember at the time being like, how was this never on my radar?

And I think it's because it went straight to Hulu and it was during COVID and all those things, but like, That was a total return to form and it sort of started the now Trachtenberg universe that living in currently.

It was, I mean, I'm going to call it art.

It deserves a revisit and I'm going to revisit it.

That was pure art.

It was so well done.

And Trachtenberg has his finger, as we say, of many things, he has his finger on the pulse of like the predator.

And again, like I think having watched some of his interviews, having listened to what he's felt and thought and figured out about these shared universes.

I think he has a lot of good ideas going in him and I'm excited to see what he does.

Yeah, totally.

And then we covered it here on the show a couple of months ago, Predator, Killer of Killers, a movie again that I was sort of just, remember seeing a trailer for it and going, okay, that's interesting.

Not really considering it until the day it came out.

And then we watched it and we were both like, okay, we need to talk about this.

getting shit for how I felt about that one.

Well, the thing is is that we and we said this here on the show I think if you go back and listen to our predator killer of killers episode We come across way more critical than we actually felt I think if you listen to that chat and the sort of our overall views of it at the end We're like, why are we so critical this movie?

We both liked it.

Like what's going on here?

Yeah, so it's OK to be critical and like something.

Totally.

Yeah, I totally agree.

again, talking about Badlands here, Aaron, let me know, how did you see the movie?

Again, you saw it there in New York, but I'm curious, what was your theater like?

m So I went to a basic piece of shit like small like part of Bay Ridge theater.

I mean almost to the point where it felt like it was like somebody's theater and like the back of their house.

Some billionaire just like created a theater and put it in his house.

some, some, some a hundred thousand error had like a large room that he put a screen up in and a couple of recliners.

And I haven't really even, I don't think I've even said how I felt about this movie.

I had a good time with it.

I basically, my entire, my entire viewing was just me going, I need Aaron to tell me what he thinks about this.

Because the thing is, when I was watching this movie, I remember having fun with it, but I also remember being sort of precious to the Predator franchise.

While I was watching, was like, hold on, wait a second.

Why is L.

Fanning being so cute and bubbly?

This is not a, this is a predator movie.

They're supposed to be growling and, and skulls attached to spines and, and, like weapon montages.

That's supposed to be predator.

What's, what's going on here?

But I think what I think the reason why I got on board with this movie, I'll say the fact that it looks great.

And we'll talk about the budget here in a moment, but movie looks incredible.

Sounds great.

Again, I saw it in a Dolby theater, so that really helped.

But my sort of encompassing thought on this movie and part of the reason why I had such a good time with it is that It was airtight, first of all, the story was airtight, but also it was simple.

And I don't mean that as a slight, I think it was just sort of fun to go along the ride and you just sort of, I don't know how you felt Aaron and you're more than welcome to elaborate on this, but I just sort of got on board with Deck and his sort of journey immediately, like from the opening scene.

And I think they do a good job of showcasing that and why we do that.

So I knew that I was locked in within the first five minutes because I found myself leaning forward in my seat.

And I don't think I left that position for about like half the movie till I realized like how I was kind of like, cause I felt the same way.

I felt I feel protective of this franchise because of how much I know about it and how much I love it and how much I've cared for like the movies and then, you know, like disliked some of the choices that have been made.

But I found myself with this particular film completely, like even in a theater where I was, which wasn't a great quality theater, I found myself immersed.

And that was because they did such a great job.

Tractorberg did such a great job of world building, character building, and connecting you with Dec.

And not just Dec.

And to be honest, like...

I found myself not only connecting with him as a character, but like his emotions.

And we found depth to a movie monster, quote unquote movie monster that we had not seen ever before.

Yeah, this is the first time a predator or Yautja has ever been the main antagonist of its own film.

Every other time we're following some human or something else, like even in Killer of Killers, we're following three other folks, you know?

Yeah, and so for me, like, again, when I caught myself as immersed as I was, uh as holding my breath at times, as like excited, as like intense, and like just like, you know, like making those faces and those eyes, like, holy shit, like, you know, like some of those moments, I'm just like, this is cool.

Like, I thought, and again, it was completely out of left field, and I don't ever, like, there's so few times where a movie really surprises me.

And I found myself, I surprised myself in how much I actually had a good time with him.

I think one of the things that's most impressive about this, there's two things.

It's one's about a story and one's about the look is that for me in the story, I think it highlights this really interesting thought that like for a long time as young people, we sort of have this idea.

create this goalpost in our, in our mind of something we really want.

And if we don't get that thing, it crushes us and like nothing else matters.

And I think that sort of showcases like remember Aaron, when you're in high school and like nothing is more important than just like the girl that you like liking you back.

Like something very trivial like that, where that's like your world.

And if she doesn't even like acknowledge you, it fucking crushes you.

Right?

And like as a young person for Dex specifically, him earning his cloak and getting his father's acceptance is all, that's his only goal.

He has literally no other, he has his blinders on to everything else in the world.

And I think what this movie does really well, and we'll get more in depth with it as we go on, is that you find out as you live life, as you get out there into the world, that some unexpected things become very important to you as you experience life.

Things happen to you, you learn more about the world and then like your ideals change, know, your priorities change.

So that's one thing.

And then the other thing was, looks incredible.

I think the practical look of a Yautja is so important to me.

As I said, Aaron, that's one of the things I was really precious about was I knew that Dec was going to be somewhat, if not mostly CGI.

When I tell everyone that if for some reason you're listening to this and you have not watched the movie.

He looks incredible.

actually every Yautja, every being, there are some rubbery CGI here and there.

Like when, when Deck and his brother are fighting at the beginning of the movie, that looks kind of rubbery, looks a little Marvel universe, looks a little Black Panther in the, um, my screen wasn't that high tech because I didn't notice any of that.

It just looked a little rubbery to me, but overall, like it still is a great looking movie.

So I just want to highlight those two things.

And I think the interesting thing to speak on that is this once again, this is really one of the first times where we see a feature length feature length film where the predator does not have his traditional armor on 90 to 95 % of the movie.

Generally it's the predator goes through the battle at some point towards the end in the final scene or towards the finals in the final scene, final battle.

He gets his mass damage or he's got to remove it for some reason.

You see that you see that that that traditional scene where it's like the mask just falls into the water.

It's like or in the mud.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so we didn't see that.

We saw a predator with a complete lack of an arsenal with and we'll get it again.

I don't want spoilers too much.

Well, since we haven't gotten into the summary or anything like that, but we just see a predator who is really solo.

solo and hands-on and I think again that was something that was very cool, very cool to see.

And he's a short king.

That's first short king and short king in the predator universe.

Shout out to the short kings out there.

All right.

Well, speaking of that summary, Aaron, why don't you talk about the summary here?

Alright, so set in the future on a remote planet called Genna, a young and unproven Yautja is left for dead by his clan.

Deck the Yautja runt finds an unlikely ally in the Weyland-Yutani synthetic, Thea, and the two embark on a dangerous journey in search of the ultimate hunt.

And Aaron, you mentioned it there a moment ago.

The film opens up with an entry from the Yautja Codex.

Now remind me if I'm maybe off base here, but I think they've only been doing these Yautja Codexes in the Trachtenberg films.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Just want to make sure on that one.

This is a strict code of honor held by every clan of the warrior race.

While this new entry confirms that the Yautja are friend and prey to none.

The animated anthology movie that we talked about a couple months ago, Killer of Killers was the first, it was the first predator.

uh Project to open with the codex entry of its own So maybe they didn't do it for prey, but they definitely did for killer killers I remember us talking about it on the show and in killer of killers They said go forth among the stars and seek only the strongest prey.

They shall be your trophy become the killer of killers So I like that I like that sort of soft entry into the universe and sort of uh it gives you like a Encompassing view of what the movie might be about so a skull of an I think this was showcased in the trailer so I think people were kind of excited to see what this actually was but a skull of an alien from Independence Day, which canonically is known as the Harvesters.

I've seen the Yautja Trophy room on the ship there.

Some also believe that the skull could actually be an alien from War of Worlds from 2005.

It has the same shape as the skulls of the aliens that are more similar to the skull shown in Predator Badlands.

Ironically enough, War of Worlds was also co-starring Dakota Fanning, the older sister of Elle Fanning.

So that would be an interesting tie-in to that whole thing.

then, and Aaron, I was telling this before we actually, got into the recording.

actually read the tie-in comic they put out this last week for Predator Badlands.

It's just called Predator Badlands number one.

It's actually scripted by Dan Trachtenberg.

it was, I think this was a scene or a couple of scenes that he wanted for the movie, didn't have space for.

So he actually handed it off to Ethan Sacks and it was illustrated by Elvin Chen.

And uh they basically made it into a one issue one shot.

And I read it before.

Do you want to know what the one shot is?

I mean, sure.

Yeah.

I mean, I picked it up also.

I just haven't gotten a chance to read it yet.

So, but yeah, I'd love to hear kind of the summary.

Yeah, it's basically, Deck and Quay are pretty much uh on a mission, more training, I guess is what you would say.

And uh their father, who I'm spacing the name of right now, is looking for some kind of like interface for a ship.

needs a new interface for one of his ships.

So Deck and his brother go off to do that.

And when they go to this ship, this abandoned ship on their planet in Genoa, uh they get on there and there's an interface, but it's also being protected by, it's like a giant defense system that manufactures itself into a Yautja.

So basically he fights like a giant Yautja and like there's these like random aliens in cryostasis.

That's sort of where the issue ends.

I think it might've been possibly a setup for something, but that's all I know.

So it was interesting.

Just a quick correction.

they're the the original scene like they're they're on Yautja Prime.

Gena is the planet is the the the what do they call it?

Planet the help?

Planet of death.

Yeah, so Yeah.

Aaron, talk a little bit about the director here as we've already spoke his name a couple of times, Dan Tractorbird, but talk a little bit about his career thus far.

Yeah.

mean, so the things that we really want to highlight are obviously 10 Cloverfield Lane from 2016, which I don't know.

Have we talked about that?

Did you enjoy that?

Did you watch that one?

That's the second one, correct?

Or is it the third one?

I want to say the fuck I don't remember you had the Cloverfield paradox.

think it was It's a second one.

Yeah, this is the one with John Goodman.

Yes.

And yes.

Yeah, it is good.

I really liked that one.

I mean, I did like the paradox as well, but you also have prey from, so 10 Cloverfield lanes, excuse me, was from 2016.

Then you have six years later, you have prey 2022.

And then you have predator killer of killers for 2025.

And then now obviously predator badlands, badlands completing, well, not completing, but you know, kind of finalizing a trilogy at least for Dan himself.

And tractor bro has said that he was inspired by terminator to judgment day, which If I could just say kudos for taking inspiration from Judgment Day and T-800's heel flip from villain to protagonist.

He sought input from its director who is James Cameron.

If you don't know though, initially skeptical and I want to say Terminator 2 is an Oscar award winning film by the way though.

Initially skeptical Cameron saw an early cut and told him that he had quote unquote pulled it off.

Yeah.

Here's a question before we move on.

Between Dan Trachtenberg and Fetty Alvarez over there, and I guess Noah Hawley too with Alien Earth and Fetty of course being the director of Alien Romulus, with these three sort of at the helm, I think everybody keeps anticipating that we're eventually going to get another Alien versus Predator.

Like I think that's where we're leading.

I think they're just, they're not pulling out the toys from the toy chest quite yet, you know, to smash them into each other as we did when we were kids.

But like, I think that's where we're headed.

And I guess let me ask you of the three, Fede Alvarez, Dan Trachtenberg, Noah Hawley, who would you like to see direct that eventual Alien vs Predator film?

Honestly, I'd stick with Trachtenberg.

I uh I say that because if there is any shared universe that I have complete excitement for still, it would definitely be like the Ridley verse.

And I say that because, I mean, it's been around for decades, decades longer than the MCU, decades longer than the DCU, decades longer than many shared universes, because we know for a fact And it is is proven that Ridley Scott's universes are all connected.

So you got Blade Runner, Alien.

uh Hell, I don't even know if you know this, but fucking uh Die Hard is considered part of that as well.

So there's it's I mean, I know it sounds silly, but like it has, I would say, more consistently been awesome than it has been negative.

You know, so I'll say like, yeah, absolutely put Trachtenberg Trachtenberg in charge of it.

And I'm happy to see it.

Totally.

think Trakhterberg is the easy answer there because again, as I said, Noah Hawley and sort of his view of Alien Earth, I understand why people like it, but it wasn't necessarily my speed.

And then Fetty Alvarez, I think we're both fans of Fetty Alvarez.

Of course he did Evil Dead and then he did Alien Romulus.

But I think the through line of both Evil Dead and Alien Romulus is that Fetty was very, very persistent on calling back shit.

You know what mean?

Like he's very, very lenient on fan anticipation and...

fan service.

And I guess I say that respectfully because fan service can be used as a weapon or as a tool.

And I think he often uses it as a tool, but sometimes he can get in there and overkill just a little bit.

And I'm thinking of the Android in Romulus where he says, away from her, you bitch.

Like, how would he know to say that?

thinking more of the fucking final alien that looked like the aliens resurrection baby.

It's like an engineer and like a basketball player all mixed into one.

Exactly.

was so fucking weird.

I'll say this though.

um I did watch a recent interview with Dan Trachtenberg and uh the discussion was about the where Badlands falls into the timeline of the Ridley verse.

And he has said that it comes after resurrection.

So it is, it is the furthest in the future of any alien predator franchise.

And he said that he did that.

very specifically because he did not want to step on anybody else's toes and what they're doing, especially Fetty Alvarez's toes, because he wanted to make sure that these guys, everybody had room to do their own thing in this shared universe, which I really respected.

Totally, yeah.

I think uh Dan Trachtberg and co have been on the absolute junket for this movie.

Elle Fanning, everybody's been doing their thing.

And Dan has repeatedly said that this is a single entry.

Like while there are winks and nods at like Prey, like we even see Nauru on one of the ships as like one of the warriors to look out for.

Like I don't remember exactly what the context was, but she was like a hologram on the ship at the end of the movie.

So like there are obviously Waylon Yutani, of course, a giant sort of Easter egg, I guess you want to call it that.

So there's that, but yeah, I do like that it's sort of just off on its own doing its own thing.

So Aaron, I include this next part for you because this kind of feels like if I know you, like I think I know you, are uh very particular, like you have a very particular niche of an interest.

And when I think of this, it's like Klingon language, or I guess sort of the phonology of language.

We finally have an alphabet for the Yautja and sort of their speech.

Yeah.

drawing influence from the franchise's expanded universe, Badlands is intended to be a self-contained entry in the series.

That said a consistent written and verbal language for the predators was, was finally developed for the film by linguist, Britton Watkins.

Uh, he also helped expand the Klingon language with Star Trek and was, he was a major part in developing the Navi language, or the language of the people, uh, for James Cameron's Avatar films.

Sorry.

I know I'm a nerd.

So if you guys check out our show notes, our transcripts, if you have access to those being a Patreon member, check them out.

We have the entire uh alphabet in there, but the film actually adds the term Yautja and Yautja Prime to the Predators film.

Excuse me, to the Predator film series to refer to the Predator species and their home world, because I think up until now, nobody's really referred to them as Yautja like directly, except for maybe some of the books.

Yeah.

So they were first introduced in the franchise's expanded universe.

First thing in 94.

novel, Aliens vs Predator Prey, oh authored by Estee Perry and Steve Perry, which itself was a spin-off of the Randy Stradley, Phil Norwood and Carl Story Aliens vs Predator comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics.

Yeah.

As we said earlier, it's so incredibly apparent that Dan Tractorbury was a fan of those Dark Horse books from the 90s.

You know what mean?

Like everything that he's introduced into this universe since taking it over has almost directly tied into those S.D.

Perry and Steve Perry books.

For the better, right?

mean, Aaron, I know you're a big fan of those books.

I've read one or two of them.

I actually when I think of S.D.

Perry, I think of the Resident Evil books from the 2000s.

That's actually where my and I guess because I'm from a uh younger generation, but like I think we all have an SD Perry film and or video game uh adaptation that we love.

You know, that's right.

There you go.

mean, if you go to like a book, like a Barnes and Noble or even like a half price books, everybody just go next time you're in an area that has that just go into like the film adaptation section or science fiction section.

There are droves of SD Perry books where this dude just added lore to different franchises.

Like one of the most creative people in human history ever.

ah But they said when designing the finale, the phonology of the Yeltsin language, Watkins actually took into account, they say the aliens, but I just want to say the predators speak physiology, excuse me, because they don't have lips.

And I love this quote because it reminds me of something that was said in the movie, but they don't have lips.

So they can't make ma or bar or Fah sounds, but they don't have to, they don't have the lips to do that.

So to supplement not having F and V and the and we have consonant clusters like JL and which is like C.

That we don't have in English, but they can be made lower in the throat.

And so that what I say that I'm referring to, there's a line by, by uh a fan or fending, whatever Dakota fanning or whatever the fuck her name is.

uh Ellie fanning or whatever.

L fanning.

There's so many fannings now.

Um, so Thea says, uh, like which, which jaw or which teeth do the chewing?

Is it the mandibles or the inside?

And I don't know that just cracked me up when that, when that question came out during the film.

But anyways, these constant clusters compromise multiple letter, excuse me, comprise multiple letters when written out in the Roman alphabet, but are one letter in the Yautja alphabet.

Uh, the word for the Yautja word for pray, for example, starts with the letter H R R.

That's like, I can't, can't my tongue, but yeah.

Their alphabet is optimized for visual efficiency for their sound system, Watkin says.

Unlike language like French and Spanish, Yautja has no grammatical gender, so nouns aren't assigned gender categories.

There is, however, a pronoun gender distinction for he and she.

We're getting this like some deep shit here, much like English.

Similarly, all Yautja use chish for I and me, regardless of gender.

one of the reasons Yautja has no grammatical gender is because that was most practical.

So they're hunters.

They're a practical species.

It makes sense.

there was not a lot of time to create Yautja and adding gender like that is going to add complexity to the language.

I see.

get what they're doing, but at the same time, I think it makes total sense.

Watkins says, uh, he's explaining that this complexity would have made it more difficult to quickly turn around any adjustment to the script that needed to be made over the course of filming.

But the way that I look at it is this is just.

Again, they are a predatory species.

The single most thought is the strengthening of the clan.

So that makes sense that there is no gender uh in their language because it's only about the clan.

no importance to it.

Like there's no, they don't even think of it.

Right.

And what I found really interesting, I don't know if we have it in this year, but the Yautja language, there's a lot of importance on the way that your face, there's an importance to how it makes your face look when you say the word or when you start to pronounce things.

So like you can tell how a Yautja is feeling by how they say particular words in their language.

I just found that really interesting because again, they've got like crab faces.

So they've got the little tentacles and they're like, saying words, you know.

So I just found it really interesting.

I thought you might like it too.

And it's, one of those things that like, we obviously saw the little signs on the, on the armband in the first Predator movie.

And we, we've seen them throughout time in these, in these movies, but they were just sort of hieroglyphics glyphics for a long time.

And we finally have like a legitimate language to them, which is super nerdy and kind of cool.

So.

Exactly.

The composers of this movie are Sarah Shackman and Benjamin Wallfish.

These are the same two that worked on Prey.

for uh with Dan Trachtenberg.

So great soundtrack sounds great.

There's sort of like a, there's like a lot of that in this movie, you know, it sounds like a, sounds kind of like a Hans Zimmer dune movie.

Yeah, it's like Norwegian throat music.

m exactly.

uh Budget was one hundred and five million dollars.

And as we look at the box office here, as of today, November 14th, Badlands has grossed fifty one point six million dollars.

almost.

There we are.

Yeah.

And thirty nine point three million in other territories for a worldwide total of ninety point eight million.

It was the number one movie of this opening weekend.

So again.

at nearly $40 million domestically, it has already beat the record for the most profitable predator movie opening weekend of all time.

It actually beat the alien versus predator record, which was $38 million back in 2004.

Yeah.

So clearly doing well.

Right.

And for a movie that costs a hundred million dollars and it's already at 90 million, we're getting another one of these guys, like no doubt about it.

I, regardless of how we felt about it, we would have gotten some version of another predator movie from Tractorberg.

And speaking of He says while doing press for Killer of Killers a couple months ago, Trachtenberg stated that he had four initial Predator films in mind.

He had Prey, course, Killer of Killers, Badlands, and there's a unannounced fourth movie that he intends to direct and then kind of up in the air from there.

But I would imagine as long as Trachtenberg wants to keep making these movies, Disney and FX and 20th century, everybody that's involved with this will more than likely let him do it.

uh All that money they're saving using AI they can finally pay Tractorberg to keep making these movies Aaron talk about the cast here All right, so you got Elle Fanning as Thea and Tessa.

If you hear me how excited I am, Elle Fanning.

We can't just breeze past that.

What do you mean by that?

I just.

You don't like the fannings.

You don't like Dakota.

No, I feel like they ruin everything.

I don't even know where that feeling could come from.

Like what?

She has the most annoying cry slash voice like most of the Yeah, I mean still.

Especially War of the Worlds.

I've hated her since War of the Worlds.

The kid that Tom Cruise's kid is fucking annoying too.

He's the Dragon Ball Z guy.

Or Dragon Ball Z evolution, whatever.

He was in shameless.

I forget his name now, but yeah, he was annoying too.

Just stay home.

Why are you out bruising the city while aliens are around?

You know what mean?

Exactly.

Stop being a dumbass.

Also, saw somewhere, Aaron, would never partake in this type of tomfoolery.

I'm not a barbarian, but if you've seen Elle Fanning in real life, she's a beautiful person, beautiful woman, and she has got a particular, curvaceous body type, we'll say.

And there was somebody that said that there was a reason why they cut her off at the hip in this movie.

cut, basically didn't show off any of lower body, because there is a scene in this movie where her evil twin sister, is it Thea?

Is that her name?

There's a scene where Tessa is in the laboratory while Thea is being sort of rebooted while they're trying to figure out what's going on with the Yaocha on the table.

She walks out of the room and we get a oblivious look at her rear end.

And I feel like I've been seeing that particular scene, all of our social media, just neck beards freaking the fuck out because they loved it.

Is your algorithm the same as mine?

Absolutely not.

oh need to clear my cache or something.

I keep getting this bullshit.

I don't want to see it.

I'm not just just click a bunch of likes on like Christian, you know, Christian music videos, Christian.

So yeah.

L fanning is Thea and Tessa Demetrius Schuster, Koloa Matangi as deck.

Yeah.

I'm gonna call them alphabet.

uh Reuben De Jong as Najor apex predator.

Okay.

it might just be Jor.

Everybody is N-J-O-R-R.

Mike Homic as Quay, uh Rohino Narayan as Bud, a creature of the planet Gena, uh Allison Wright as the voice of Mother, and Ross Duffer as the voice of the onboard computer for Quay's ship.

Before we move on, Matt and Ross Duffer, does that name, does name sound familiar?

Yeah.

The Duffer Brothers from Stranger Things.

The people who created Stranger Things.

Oh.

Interesting.

Interesting to have them voice a ship.

That's odd.

Apparently they're all friends and I think at one point Trachtenberg was going to direct the first two episodes of this upcoming season of Stranger Things.

But of course Badlands got in the middle of all that and that's why he wasn't able to do it.

Interesting.

Okay.

So it's confirmed in the film that uh Thea and Tessa are part of Wayland's bioweapon division that actually says that title on there.

The same division that made capturing and experimenting Xenomorphs its top priority.

there's a connection there.

I mean, we'll talk about a little bit more about the connection between uh Alien and Predator in a little bit, but Demetrius Schuster, Koloa Matangi plays not only...

deck, is also is confirmed to be the body double as his character's father, Najor, who serves as one of the two major antagonists of this film.

When deactivated, the back of the eyes are shown with the classic Whalen-Yutani logo imprinted on them.

The same was featured in on Andy's eyes, a predominant synth who first appeared in 2024's Alien Romulus.

Get away from me, you bitch.

XX0552 is the species designation given to the dangerous beast known as the callus, which is the trophy that uh DEC is going after.

And that designation is given by Whaley-Newtani Corporation.

As such, it's not unlike the designation of the classic xenomorph, which is XX121.

I want go back really quickly before you go on to the next one.

I loved the reveal that bud was actually the baby of a callus and then as we see we'll talk about here in a moment in the post credits we see a grown-up version of bud or at least a growing up version of bud and he is slowly turning into what we saw basically this thing that Deccan and co were going after this entire movie.

So it's been that really interesting And then last are a little bit of uh a note that we'll talk about here is two words power loader.

Yeah.

What did you think of that?

I mean, I don't know if you saw it was in the trailer, which is so annoying.

I wish they would have saved that.

Oh, good.

I'm glad because I saw it in the trailer and it was annoying.

But I was curious.

What were your thoughts when, whenever uh Tessa shows up in a first, not only does she have a power loader, but she also has a plasma can on her shoulder.

Yeah, that like honestly like it just got more and more like the fight just got more and more badass again, that's what an incredible movie does is it just it just ascends and the battles ascend and that's exactly what happened and I didn't anticipate like any of that shit and I like I Anticipated at some point, you know deck getting his his shoulder can or getting some kind of predator predator armor some kind of something and he doesn't he's just like fuck it We ride at sunset.

He gets little spit monster.

He gets a little mistake.

How bad a was it like he went full like he went full native and I just thought that that was the coolest thing because that truly shows.

Here's the thing like I know that there was a lot of a lot of you know kind of not sure about how he was going to be be a predator in this in this role because he didn't have any of his gear he didn't have his ship and he's a short king all this stuff and to me I think they took the best route possible.

that they could have chosen to make him a predator, a full bone-plinter.

And that was him.

okay, we'll just say that he went Arnold.

He went full Dutch.

oh He went full fucking Dutch and it was amazing.

Yeah, I will say, we talked about this during our Killer of Killers review, that one of my biggest gripes with the Predator franchise is that they keep giving insignificant characters the opportunity to beat a Yautja in a battle.

And that's, I hate that.

It's one of those things.

I have the same complaint about Galactus in the comics.

Writers will use Galactus and a Yautja as sort of a punching bag in order to show how strong a character is.

And I'm like, if we keep killing, if we keep like...

using these characters as like a way of like a power gauge for other characters, then we've lost the plot on how incredibly proficient a Yautja is as a predator.

I mean, know of course like Arnold takes one down in the first movie and like a predator is killed in every movie.

I get that.

But like Killer of Killers was a good example of this where we've got people who should not be able to go toe to toe with a predator and do.

And I think what this movie does really well is that it, Deck is the antagonist.

So we can root for him.

and he's able to win.

Usually the predator is the antagonist, so we have to sort of root against them in some way or another.

Again, I mean even in movies where the Predator does win specifically aliens versus predator the first one in that it's overshadowed by humans being better than they should be You know like that should have been a movie where the predator is the only one who fucking walks away And he wasn't and so like even when the predator is the winner They're still not the best in the room and that's where they failed with aliens versus predator.

That's where they failed with aliens versus predator Requiem.

That's even where they failed in fucking uh the predator.

Yeah.

You know, And you know, as a, a yautja, when you lose, you get impregnated.

You know?

So stupid.

Let's talk about the post credit scenes.

Unless Aaron, do you want to talk?

Is there anything else you want to talk about for like the actual film?

What did you say?

I know you said you didn't like, you don't like the fannings, but what did you think of Elle Fanning in this movie?

Cause I actually found her quite charming and liked her a lot in this movie.

that I actually was really surprised about was I found myself at one point again, I related to, and that's why again, I found myself enjoying the movie even more was because I related to Dex just being annoyed as fuck by her incessant talking.

And so I think that they nailed it on the head with again, making Dex a relatable character with, know, again, he's angry, he's young, is is a runt, a pup.

um I don't think he's arrogant.

think he's just he's he's got a chip on his shoulder because he's got something to prove.

But now he's also driven by revenge.

And so his character growth in this, along with, you know, the growth of, you know, uh Thea is incredible.

And again, I just think that they turned this into almost I don't want to call it like a Goonies film.

but they turned it into like a rag.

You called it earlier, buddy cop film where they, the, the, the team up is what makes the movie so good and it makes the bat.

I'm just gonna say that, that entire scene where deck is attacking the whale and you tiny ship before it takes off with the callous is one of the coolest scenes I could have, I could have asked for.

Like he is just raw dog and this entire fucking group of synths.

And I think the thing that I wanted to talk about that we didn't talk about here was why there were so many synths and why there were not any humans on this planet.

And that's what I think is honestly great about this film is because that's exactly what humans should be doing when they do have synths.

They should be sending in, but I'm just gonna ask this, why the fuck do synths need ponchos?

I think that Elle Fanning talked about this on the red carpet that her version of Ascent is a, they're becoming more human-like as they're experiencing emotion.

That's something that I think was sort of hinted at, but not specifically highlighted in the film.

Yeah.

Well, they said like we're more sensitive than others.

And that was the other thing is like there's certain things in here.

Like there's at one point one of the male drone.

I'm just going to call him a drone worker drone is like killed.

Like he's he's got that acid spit on him by that creature.

And it's just and he's like screaming as he dies, you know.

So like that was the one thing that caught me off guard.

But again, like I loved the I loved the violence.

I loved the fact that and again, speaking on the fact that there are so many since.

So in an interview.

Dan Trachtenberg actually says that originally it was not Wailing Utani who was going to be the antagonistic corporation.

The reason that it became Wailing Utani and became such a connection to the alien universe was because he needed a reason to have all of these synths, non-humans, like no humans in the movie.

How are you going to have no humans in the movie, but a bunch of robots that are killed by this predator?

And he's like, I got him.

He said there was no other choice but to bring in uh, Waylon Yutani as this pivotal role of a corporation doing this job on this, on this planet.

And I was like, okay, cool.

So I love the fact that he created without wanting to really this huge connection.

And I, and I, and I thought it was great.

It's the first solo Predator movie to be PG-13.

Obviously Alien Wars, the first one was PG-13, but this is the first solo Predator movie to be PG-13.

So for that, I'm assuming for that reason.

Bud in this movie, Bud, he basically does like the Wachuchu from Ace Ventura.

I like you.

I like you.

I like you a lot.

Yeah.

So that's like, when I saw that I could not help but think of Ace Ventura.

Let me ask you this though.

When deck showed back up to confront his father, did you not at all, at least a little bit somehow think that he was, that deck was going to have this like healing ability?

I didn't have that in my brain.

No, but were you anticipating some kind of xenomorph upgrade or something?

Well, I was just thinking that maybe because when he spit on him and brought him maybe like it got into his jeans and maybe Or the callus and that's why he was gonna be maybe able to heal and that's what it was gonna give him the upper edge So that was that was my that was the only thing I was I wanted to ask you for sure because I kind of was like I was like I'm hoping I'm hoping like I thought he was gonna the father was gonna do the same thing He's gonna like slice his arm off like he did to his brother and it would just like grow back that would've been and we all be like No, he, mean, let's, let's just go onto the post-credits scene.

This be the last thing we talked about is that obviously deck returns back home to a Yautja prime.

He basically confronts his father.

They go at it.

It's a great fight between the two.

Uh, his father throws everything at him.

Even he uses his cloak to go invisible and deck has that answer for him.

He turns his ship on to blow up the dust and sees right through it.

Uh, he has his dad on the ropes.

His dad offers him an ultimatum ultimatum and basically accepts him.

Finally.

And deck is like, see you never cuts his head off.

We're good to go.

So it takes his cloak, takes a sword, takes his art, takes his, um, his plasma cannon.

And he's officially a Yautja, like officially officially.

That's something he says throughout the movie is like, not yet.

They keep, they keep calling him a Yautja.

He's like, not yet.

And then on the ridge above where the clans like huts are, you start seeing swords being busted out.

Yeah.

Yep.

And then right as the scene is about to end, we've got, uh, L fanning's, Thea character show up.

of course, as I said, an older, much larger bud shows up and she is almost about half the size as her mom was in this movie.

There's also been some speculation that there's a ship.

Obviously there's a ship that shows up in this post credit scene and Dex says it's his mother.

Uh, some have speculated that this is the same exact ship that we see in killer of killers that is carrying Ursa Kenji and John J Torres, as well as Dutch and Nauru that are in cryo stasis.

So.

It would be really interesting and a nice tie in if we got this fourth movie that brought all of this together.

Is that something you want Aaron?

I find it interesting.

There's two things here that I'm like my mind that this this scene kind of caused me to two different paths that I went down after they saw this scene because the first one is he's like, oh, it's my mother.

So I'm just going to tell you this background wise for for the Yautja for predator lore.

There are two different versions of the lore in some versions.

Female predators are actually larger.

than the male predators.

And so if anything, there could be some concern that she is the bigger, badder, meaner one and is going to come like, you know, get revenge and kick some ass.

uh Not for her son.

Gross.

The other thing is the other, the other side of it, of that same discussion is that the female predators are smaller, more agile, still have like, you know, female, like, you know, have breasts, have breastplates, armor, all that stuff, but they're just faster.

They're more agile.

Um, so we don't, we don't know much about female predators in a, in a cinematic, uh, sense.

Lions like the female lions go out and do the hunting Exactly.

Exactly.

And so for me, like that's where I, I'm like, I'm like curious where this is going to go.

And then the other side of that is we don't even know if she is coming to like to, to fight him or gain vengeance.

She could be like, well you have to stay because you're the new, I don't know, clan leader or you should be the new clan leader or something like that.

She could be like proud of him.

So we don't know if it's a negative thing.

We don't know if it's a positive thing.

We don't know if, you know, who's on the ship, who's not on the ship.

So It does look very similar.

We shall see what happens, but yeah, I would love to see it saying all that.

I would love to see a movie where it brings all of them together.

I don't know if I want to see that animated like we saw on killer of killers, or if we see it like a bit of both, it would be interesting.

So I'm just going to keep my mind hopeful.

I assume what's going to happen is there's going to be a completely different storyline that is going to bring everything together and there's going to be some Big ass battle maybe even going to the aliens home world.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I I think anything can be good.

And if this is done correctly, it could be fun, but for them to force the other, you know, again, Ursa Kenji, John Dutch, even like is Arnold Schwarzenegger to come back in his seventies?

I don't know.

And of course, Nauru, if it's done correctly, yeah, I want that.

But, you know, again, not forcing it.

And I, and I trust Dan Shackenberg and co to do the right thing.

So, all right, Aaron, so we've talked about Badlands to death here.

Final thoughts on the film.

ah I mean, I'm just wow.

Like I am so happy with how this turned out.

I didn't, didn't, I don't know what I expected.

I think I might've expected a little bit, a lot less, a lot less for sure.

And I am very, very pleasantly surprised with what we got.

Yeah, I think I'm in a similar boat.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting.

I think I was always excited because the trailer was pretty good.

I guess my only reservation was that they were showing me a lot of alien stuff and it kind of felt like maybe they were supplementing for something by showing a lot of Whalen-Yutani and synthetics and so on.

And again, as I saw, as I said earlier, I think it's maybe the final trailer that shows off the power loader.

So that really made me nervous, but overall I had a great time with it.

And as I said earlier, it was just sort of a fun ride and it's kind of funny, Aaron, it's when I think of this, this year.

We've gotten a Tron movie.

We've gotten a Predator movie.

We've got an alien series.

We've got a running man movie coming out tomorrow.

Yeah.

Or today.

I'm sorry.

I apologize.

We're recording this on November 14th.

What other cool things that we've gotten this year?

We got a Superman movie this year.

Fantastic Four, of course.

Yeah.

I mean, this has been a great year for for being a nerd, you know.

Totally.

Yeah.

OK, so last thing.

Second to last thing, I guess, is rating this thing.

So out of five David Winer's, Aaron, what are you going to give this thing?

I'm going to give it a four.

Okay.

was telling Olivia, as I left the theater, when I was coming home, I was like, this is really tough.

Like it's either a really strong 3.5 or it's a really weak four.

And I think I'm to give it a four as well.

I think it's a, it's a really, it's a four on the dot.

You know, it's not a weak four.

It's like, it's like a, just a four, right?

Yeah.

up the middle for a four for me.

Like it's not, it's not, this isn't great cinema.

It's not like, it's not dune, you know, it's not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's definitely a, a fun entertaining and, and, know, pardon the, the, if this is over, like overselling it, it's a great movie.

Yeah.

And if you're, if you like this franchise, if you, like you're like me or Aaron who loved that first movie and maybe you have a, maybe one or two other entries you like in this franchise, as I said in the beginning, it is, I think it's superpowers that it is so different from everything else in this universe.

it does.

Go ahead.

That was just that's a gamble that could have gone either way and they nailed it.

Luckily.

Yeah, as I said earlier, when I was watching, I was like, this is a really interesting gamble that I need to know Aaron's thoughts on because I could have very easily, even if you thought the movie was well made, I could have very easily seeing you revolt against this movie because of how different it was to what we're used to in the Predator franchise.

I am so glad that you liked it.

was terrified, honestly.

I was terrified because you are so good at hiding your, you know, how you're feeling about this movie.

And I kept wanting to ask you, I kept wanting, like we, we, we had the, we did the grid yesterday.

I'm like, or a day before yesterday, I wanted to know what you thought, but I, at the same time, I didn't want to ruin it before.

So like, I'm glad I waited and I, this means a lot to me that you you give it the same rating as me.

Um, because I was honestly scared that you're like, that movie sucked, you know?

I mean, as we said, right down the middle floor, think it's extreme.

If you're a fan of this franchise, you're going to love this movie.

That's, I think that's the best way to put it.

So I think the last thing Aaron, I want to do very quickly is don't think about this too hard.

I just want to rank this movie in sort of the encompassing predator franchise.

That includes predator predator to alien versus predator, alien versus predator, requiem, the predator predators, prey, predator killer of killers, and of course predator badlands.

So I can go first if you're not ready, Aaron, or do you want to go first?

Which was your knock this thing out.

got it.

my hair.

Start from the bottom to the top.

bottom.

That's hard.

Okay.

Bottom to the top.

Okay.

So I'm to go with, um, aliens versus predator.

Requiem is the bottom.

Okay.

Next up is aliens versus predator.

Next up is killer of killers.

Yeah.

And then next after that is, I want to say it's the predator.

That's the one with, uh, that we talked about with.

Yeah.

from 2016.

Okay.

So then it's predators and then we go the predator.

Yep.

And then we go.

That's when they're on the planet and they're like, Yeah, that's that.

Yeah, the predator.

And then I would say prey badlands predator to predator one.

Okay.

All right.

Not very different from mine.

I would say it probably for me goes Requiem, Predators, Alien versus Predator, Predator 2 is a lot lower on my list.

Yeah.

The Predator, Killer of Killers, Prey, Badlands, No, sorry.

Badlands, then Prey, and then Predator.

Yeah.

So yeah, very similar except for, except for where predator two was on that list.

Wow.

Shock.

I don't love it.

don't love it.

I've tried rewatching it semi recently and I just did not, to be fair, didn't really, I don't think I gave it the shot that I needed to, but part of that was because I just wasn't really feeling it from the beginning.

Yeah, I guess it's just the Glover effect.

You racist son of uh That'll do it for our review of uh Predator Badlands.

Again, highly recommend it as you've heard.

Aaron, next week on the show, we've been putting it off long enough.

We've holding on to this conversation for like basically a month now, but we're bringing on Kelly Sudakonic, writer of FML.

Of course, she's done much more than that, but we brought her on to talk about FML, her and Daveive Lopez's excellent Dark Horse punk rock series.

It's amazing.

As I've said, Aaron, before, we had a panel at New York Comic Con just about a month ago, and I mentioned FML is like a comic for me.

You know, absolutely love that series and absolutely love Kelly Sue and I've told you many a times and I know we it's funny.

This is a weird tie in, but on the grid this last week, we're talking about the new galaxy trailer for Super Mario and Rosalina is being played by Brie Larson.

And I know you kind of have like a little bit of a sour feeling towards Brie Larson.

I think some of that has to do with Captain Marvel, which I, guess I kind of understand, but I think I have maybe the opposite effect and sort of the opposite view of Brie Larson and Captain Marvel.

Because A, I love Captain Marvel as a character in the comics.

And it's mostly because of Kelly Sudeconik and her very long run from the early 2010s.

I picked up the books that you mentioned, so I'm gonna read those.

And honestly, I have nothing against Brie Larson.

It's honestly just like the Captain Marvel movie itself and the way that, like, to me, it just felt like a half-assed effort MCU film.

That's the only reason.

It's nothing with Brie Larson.

Okay, gotcha.

But anyway, next week again, as we said on the show will be Kelly Sudakonic.

So join us for that.

Aaron, take us out of here.

We are officially done with episode 220.

Yeah.

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And that was the last thing.

Or we'll have a yaucha with a spitting little snake guy.

wasn't that so sad when that thing died?

Yeah, he sacrificed himself for the Yautja.

Man, he was like, my treat master.

I don't know.

I love that.

I love the fact that he like befriended this that we didn't talk about that at all, but that armor, the whole setup was so bad ass.

I'm gonna go see it again.

Fuck it.

I'm.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us this week on the Oblivion Bar podcast.

We will see you next week for episode two.

Twenty.