Tag: Innerspace

Oscar Predictions – Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands is the ninth overall installment in the nearly 40-year-old franchise and the third in a row from director Dan Trachtenberg. Opening Friday, it follows up 2022’s Prey and this summer’s Predator: Killer of Killers. Elle Fanning stars alongside Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Mike Homik.

Prey and Killers received impressive reviews with respective 94% and 95% Tomato meters and 71/78 scores on Metacritic. Badlands is lagging behind though not by much with 88% on RT and 69 for Meta.

In 1987, Predator starring the future Governors of California and Minnesota had a 50% chance to win Best Visual Effects, but lost to sole competitor Innerspace. VE is the only race where Badlands could materialize. If so, it would continue a recent trend of entries in long existing franchises (No Time to Die, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Alien: Romulus) nabbing slots. I’ve yet to list this in my top 10 possibilities. So while I’m skeptical it makes the quintet, it is not an impossibility and don’t be surprised if it pops up in the bottom rungs of my VE hopefuls when I do my next update. My Oscar prediction posts will continue…

Oscar Predictions – Predator: Killer of Killers

In 2022, Dan Trachtenberg took over the Predator franchise after invigorating the Cloverfield series with 10 Cloverfield Lane. The result was the acclaimed Hulu prequel Prey. This November, futuristic follow-up Predator: Badlands will touch down in theaters. In the meantime, Trachtenberg has helmed the R-rated animated Predator: Killer of Killers which is available for your streaming pleasure via Hulu and Disney+ this weekend.

Prey was a pleasantly bloody surprise to most critics and Killers can proclaim the same. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 98% with Metacritic at 78 with reviewers praising the anthology tale. Is it enough that the Academy would consider this for a Best Animated Feature slot? If so, it would mark the franchise’s second nom after the 1987 original was up for Visual Effects and lost to Innerspace.

Even with the high marks, I just don’t see this contending at the moment. Let’s see how the competition shakes out for the rest of the year though. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…