Badland Hunters could have been good if it decided what kind of movie it wanted to be. I love a good apocalypse kind of movie. And from what I was getting from the trailer, I understood it to be a movie where animals were a big-time foe and there was going to be a divide between human and monster. That last bit kind of came true with the lizard people. But that’s a conversation for down the line in this review. Badland Hunters couldn’t decide if it was an action movie, a feel-good movie, a sci-fi movie, or a movie about a gentle giant who actually has a dark past and it gets tangled into the story.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Ma Dong-seok. He of course had a role in Train to Busan, which absolutely tore me apart. And then he had The Gangster, The Cop, and The Devil. And let’s not forget about the Eternals, which brought him to Hollywood audiences. Point being, he’s a star. And he’s the reason why I decided to watch Badland Hunters. And while I love him as an actor, I didn’t get this role of Nam San. We got to know nothing about his past, even though they hinted at it left and right. There was no explanation as to how he met Su-na, Ji-Wan, or Grandma. There wasn’t even an explanation as to how his character knew Eun-ho. We were supposed to just understand that Nam San was feared at the end of the world. And that only works, when you eventually come back to it and explain why he is feared.
That’s one of the things that really hurt this film, they didn’t really explain anything. They didn’t explain why this big earthquake happened that completely destroyed South Korea. They didn’t even explain if it destroyed South Korea. We are just assuming that it did. They didn’t explain what happened to the daughter of the doctor that he had to come up with this experiment. Or Nam San’s daughter. They didn’t explain what the soldiers were transforming into. And we had to assume it was lizards because of the lizard body parts running around in the beginning of the movie and them eating mice. And they didn’t explain why all of a sudden there hadn’t been rain in a really long time. We were just supposed to assume that things were bad and focus on the story of Nam San rescuing Su-na, who in a way was a replacement for the daughter he had lost. That’s another problem this movie has.
I have seen Dong-seok connect with a bunch of different actors across a bunch of different movies. And he sold it. But there was something about this story that just felt so bland. I did not understand his character’s connection to Su-na and why he would even go to find her. There was no emotional residence and this is coming from someone who has watched movies like Jason Statham’s The Meg and seen how he connected with the daughter of his colleague and there was this little family bonding going on. My standards are low. So if this movie can’t even meet the bare minimum, then it’s a wash. At least for me.
The most exciting part of this movie were the fights and the reveal that these people were turning into lizard people. The fights were on point of course because if there’s anything that South Korean cinema knows, it’s how to create a fight scene that feels badass. And while I love all the scenes that we got with Dong-seok, I really wish that we got more scenes with Ahn Ji-hye aka Eun-ho. Part of it is because I have a thing for strong and powerful women that could absolutely take me down several notches. But it also has to do with…no I think that might be it. Nothing deeper. I like to see women that kick ass and this movie could have done with giving me more of this woman and maybe developing her storyline a little bit more.
Ultimately Badland Hunters is forgettable and not even worth watching to pass the time because it’s not silly enough or action-packed enough to pass as a mediocre action film. Part of me wishes that they leaned more into the lizard people of it all. Because those prisoners in the basement with their fork tongues, that wasn’t enough. Neither was the guy ripping off a part of his face and you being able to see the skin below. It needed more ridiculousness. It needed to choose what kind of movie it was going to be and stick to it. If it was going to be action, stick to it. If it was going to be cozy old grandpa antics, stick to it. It would have done a better job if it decided what it wanted to be.
Watch the trailer below:
Badland Hunters is now available on Netflix.
