If you don’t like the first 10 minutes of Predator: Badlands, a movie that features a prominent and unforgettable high-five between a hand and a foot, you are gonna hate the whole durn thing. However, if you are comfy with the words “fight sequence” and “plot” being interchangeable, butter up those brass knuckles, babies.

It is, at a bare minimum, highly improbable that director Dan Trachtenberg has now squeezed three consecutive squeal-inducingly-good sci-fi spectacles out of a franchise best known for a handshake meme. There is so little lore and narrative substance surrounding the Predator series that it has to repeatedly borrow from Alien, its smarter sibling from the same studio. Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison explicitly embrace this “youngest child” mentality, delivering what can generously be called a moral parable about finding your way out of a toxic family.

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a Yautja, which is apparently the name of the techno-curious murderous race of aliens who have upsetting mouths and Gary Oldman’s hair from True Romance. Dek’s dad wants him dead because he is essentially the runt of the litter. His brother doesn’t quite believe in him but believes that he at least deserves a chance to prove his worth. The way the Yautja prove their worth is the same way that the spoiled children of oligarchs do in real-life: a trophy hunt.

Dek declares that he will kill the Kalisk. Its nickname is “the unkillable,” which doesn’t bode super great. The Kalisk lives on a planet where literally everything is mean. Trees will strangle you, the grass is basically razorblades, and the insects explode. It’s basically what it would look like if the hyperbole used to describe major U.S. cities was actually real.

Dek needs an ally to survive the Very Worst Planet Ever™ and comes across Thia (Elle Fanning), a synthetic humanoid from the Alien universe. She has been severed at the waist and is essentially a talkative backpack. The pair meets what passes for an adorable creature on the hell planet, and the newly minted trio soon must face off with Thia’s “sister,” an android of the same model with more rabid corporate loyalty. Family: Can’t live with them, can’t help attacking them with increasingly ridiculous weapons.

Predator: Badlands is 100% aware of what it is and says so. When Dek meets Thia, she changes to a “universal language” setting and says something to the extent of “everyone will hear me talk in words they understand.” It is right up there with Bruce Willis yelling “I don’t want to talk about time travel!” in Looper. Trachtenberg and company are more than happy to frequently acknowledge how silly and stupid this all is. That only works if they can deliver on the goods, and boy howdy do they ever.

The effects are simply incredible. Unlike so many blockbusters these days, the film looks and feels complete and not like someone finished uploading rushed code and then hit play. The fight sequences are rhythmic and intense. They are relentless but not redundant, with each sporting creative elements and consistently rising in intensity. Fanning is endearing as Thia and deliciously evil as her “twin,” although not having Dakota play the bad droid does seem like a missed opportunity.

Predator: Badlands is the best version of itself and the new standard bearer for a simplistic franchise that impossibly keeps getting better. Given what he’s done with this intellectual property from the 1980s, if Trachtenberg chooses to launch a SilverHawks or Garbage Pail Kids live-action reboot, I’m 100% there.

Grade = A-

Other Critical Voices to Consider

BJ Colangelo at Fangoria says “For as much as people keep desperately trying to squeeze the blood out of the ‘it feels just like the 1980s!’ stone, Predator: Badlands actually does it by becoming the exact type of movie that a kid from that decade would watch due to its not-an-R-rating that completely changes their brain chemistry forever.”

Sabrina Ramirez from Geeks of Color says “I was genuinely shocked to connect with Predator: Badlands as profoundly as I did. I appreciate some of the movies in the franchise, but they haven’t necessarily been for me. This film really fired on all cylinders, showing exactly how to create a compelling action film that transcends what we would typically expect from a blockbuster.”

Kat Hughes at The Hollywood News says “There is a way to tell a story with a hero predator without having to resort to censorship, but disappointingly that is not the approach that has been taken here. As such Predator has followed The Terminator series in becoming a soulless shell ready to be harvested and sucked dry for some easy money. It is only a matter of time before the Xenomorph follows suit and that really will be game over, man.”