We start the story on the Predator's barren home planet of Yautja Prime where, shorter than average Yautja, Dek is a disappointment to the bloodline of his clan, so is constantly trying to seek the approval of his domineering father. While onboard his much taller elder brother Kwei's ship, he boasts to his sibling that he plans to travel to the notoriously dangerous planet of Genna and hunt the ferociously unkillable creature known as the Kalisk.
However when their father dramatically arrives on his speeder outside, he ignores Dek's protestations and unanimously decides that, as the runt of his family, death is the only honourable outcome for his youngest son - and orders his brother to do the dirty deed there and then. At the last second, Kwei disobeys the order and pushes his younger sibling back aboard the ship and locks him there. For his dissent, he pays the ultimate price as his own father executes him on the spot. However, the elder son's final act is to remotely send his spaceship, with grieving brother trapped aboard, to fly autonomously to the planet Genna.
Shortly after crash-landing in a lush forest and narrowly escaping the clutches of some giant carnivorous vines, Dek comes across the trapped top-half of a talkative synthetic humanoid who calls herself Thia (Elle Fanning) who, through her programming, immediately understands his language. He frees her and decides she may be a useful tool for his quest. We quickly discover that as well as Dek, the Kalisk is also being hunted by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and Thia is just one of an extensive team of synthetics sent to this planet to acquire the beast for medical exploitation.
With the lore of both symbiotically entwined now, I have been a big fan of both the Predator and Alien franchises since day-one and this film certainly moves that symbiosis forward to the greatest degree yet - and doesn't disappoint as it packs in lots of the best things we love about those films. This one is basically an alien/android "Buddy" film. It's set in impressive alien landscapes with many fantastically-designed flora and fauna, immaculately rendered, which we discover to be virtually lethal to any outsiders.
Newcomer Dimitrius Koloamatangi, at 6' 3" tall, is definitely the shortest actor to take up a lead Predator role as Dek and he is in almost every scene. Speaking completely in his own language throughout (with nice bold subtitles) he still manages to convey lots of emotion, even through all that amazing makeup and prosthetics. Fanning is excellent as the relentlessly upbeat android who is desperate to be seen as more than just a Tool. Look out for a number of memorable homages to both franchises and although the action comes thick and fast, it's definitely not overdone in relation to the storyline. The 1 hour 47 minute runtime feels bang-on and the final scene sets it up nicely for a tenth film in the franchise.
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