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My teenager and I went to see this last night. I don't have much to add to what has already been said, but I will give a shoutout to the costume designers for the ugly, ill-fitting white pleather jumpsuit they gave to Tessa. I choose to assume this was a deliberate choice, and a bold one at that.

I do also wonder if its 12a/PG-13 rating might've turned up some noses.

Without going to spoiler territory?

Trust me. There is a LOT of violence in this movie. Just not humans going splat. Also little to no swearing, and absolutely no Rumpy Pumpy.

So it is kinda kid safe? But absolutely a mature, adult movie.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I do also wonder if its 12a/PG-13 rating might've turned up some noses.

Without going to spoiler territory?

Trust me. There is a LOT of violence in this movie. Just not humans going splat. Also little to no swearing, and absolutely no Rumpy Pumpy.

So it is kinda kid safe? But absolutely a mature, adult movie.

I will admit it turned me off a bit. People were saying the same about AvP1 back in the day, but compared to Badlands AvP was a splatterfest In addition to cutey monkey and one-dimensional chars it all just felt too disney. That's why I'm rating it rather low.

My list:
1. Predators: nice chars, nice twist, cool predators, cool action, strong actors
2. Predator: Good suspense and it started the whole thing
3. Prey: like the original, but with a more interesting setting and characters
4. AvP: Pyramid, very nice action, it's just an all around nice action monster movie
5. Badlands
6. Predator 2: not bad per se, but kind of slow. The predator gets some cool toys, though
7. AvP 2: Who forgot to turn on the lights?! And after cool antarctica pyramid in part 1 we get the most boring setting of any horror movie: US village with the most forgettable teenagers.
8. The Predator: I don't even know where to start, it's like some ripoff b-movie kind of bad and makes even AvP2 look strong in comparison.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I do also wonder if its 12a/PG-13 rating might've turned up some noses.

Its possible, but PG-13 movies of all varieties make bank all the time.

Its also possible that the last mainstream Predator movie(The Predator) was so toxic that it destroyed any excitement for the franchise amongst the normie moviegoers. Prey and Killer of Killers had niche audiences due to streaming so didn't really make a splash with the wider moviegoing audience.

And for me, and I know I'm not alone : Once I saw the plot synopsis of this I was skeptical but still interested, due to my lifelong Predator fandom. But the tone of the trailer and the confirmation that it wouldn't be a Predator movie in the vein of the first 2 Predator movies(and 3rd, to a lesser extent) and Prey killed it for me. The trailers felt more like a reskinned James Cameron's Avatar(a PG-13 franchise that is a money printing machine) movie offshoot than a Predator movie.

It could be a fun movie, and kudos to those that enjoyed it, but it wasn't something that I was looking for in a Predator movie, so I kept my happy ass at home.

As ever I’ll encourage you to give a whirl. I avoided all trailers and spoilers, so had no idea what to expect outside the usual framework.

The usual framework it wasn’t, but a very enjoyable film it is.

For sure I’ll definitely check it out, just not at ticket prices. I was just posting some additional theory/explanation for its financial flop, to supplement your “PG-13” theory.

True, true.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it finds its audience on streaming. I mean, Prey did really well on Disney+, aided by it being the first Really Good Predator Movie since the first. An initial uphill struggle against a lot of dross I’ll trust you agree. But once word got round it was genuinely superb in every way? A lot of faith was restored.

I do think Badlands may prove somewhat divisive, because it’s anything but just another Predator movie. But not in the “how can anyone enjoy this” divisive.