Badlands is a box office hit, but criticism is pouring in: “Disneyfied, woke, first queer predator”

Even though it has already broken box office records, becoming the most lucrative debut of the franchise, not even the new chapter in the horror saga is immune from criticism.

Greeted by very positive reviews and the enthusiasm of the public, which guaranteed it 40 million in domestic takings and 80 global, making it the biggest debut of the franchise, even Predator: Badlands he’s guaranteed his fair share of political criticism. detractors would accuse the film of “Disneyfication and transformation of the franchise in key woke“.

What alarmed the most avid fans was the rating of Predator: Badlands, the first film in the saga not to have been banned for children under 17 years of age. A “family” film, therefore, with all due respect to others lovers of the most extreme gore which had characterized the previous chapters.

Why is Predator: Badlands accused of being woke?

As our review of Predator: Badlands explains, at the center of the story we find Dek, a young specimen of Predator Yautja, who teams up with two women (the friendly creature who helps him, Bud, is revealed to be the Kalisk’s daughter in the final act) as he learns to appreciate friendship and empathy, “getting in touch with his feelings” and rejecting the more ruthless and destructively aggressive ways of his people.

Furthermore, many fans have raised the doubts about sexuality of the Yautja questioning whether it is the queer Predator cousin from the franchisefed by the joking review of the critic ofHollywood Reporter Richard Lawson.

In reality in Predator: Badlands there is no allusion to Dek’s sexuality, but with a leap of imagination many viewers have read in the story of Njohrr’s attempt to eliminate the weak point of the clan a parallel with a parent who ostracizes their child after discovering that he is gay. Unfounded hypotheses, but which fuel the discussion around the film, as demonstrated by the reactions on social media.