FINALLY!
We got a film with a Yautja as the main character.
The movies, specifically the folks who made the most recent and very awesome Yautja movie, have figured out what the comics have decades ago!
Xenomorphs are great as a mindless, unstoppable foe for humans to show their ingenuity against. (And to be slayed by in entertaining and surprising ways.) They also inhabit a more complex universe that makes for excellent overall settings, raises questions about artificial intelligence, and highlights the downside of capitalism.
But Yautja are complex individuals with interesting and often variable cultural views, cool technology, and internal moral codes. Most of the time, we only get a glimpse of these in the films (which focus on their human enemies), with the comics delving deeper into those realms.
There have been a few redesigns over the years. A bad example is the first Alien Vs Predator film trying to make them more attractive. While Dak is the focus character, and his face is more emotionally expressive than the early movies, he still looks like a Yautja, terrifying and fierce.
There were some fantastic call backs to the franchise.
One of them turned the tables on the original film. In that outing, Dutch learned that his highly trained and well armed special forces squad were useless against the Yautja, therefore he "went back to nature" using the environment to create primitive tools and traps.
Dak loses his gear throughout the film and is forced to do the same with the "everything can kill you" environment of the planet he's chosen to hunt on. The organic versus technology comparison was amped up as his opponents were all Weyland Yutani androids, and were using some of his own weapons against him.
The multiple references to a "Wolf" may have been a shout out to the one exceptionally competent and experienced Yautja we've seen in these films, from Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem.
While still using the term "Alpha," (debunked as the study it was based on only used captive wolves in zoos) the film follows the more accurate idea of the leaders of a wolf pack being the most experienced parents who protect the group while organizing successful hunts. This is another aspect of the previous stories in other mediums addressed in a movie for the first time. We have seen various levels of the understanding of true honor in this supposedly honorable species of hunters. Some fully grasp the nobility inherent in the concept. However, many others misunderstand it, as in mistaking "punching down" for true strength, or are straight up delusional serial killers.
The concept of "what is the true meaning of honor?" exists together in this film with a question imported from the Alien franchise along with their androids, "What is the true meaning of alive?" Elle Fanning (AKA Winnie from Boxtrolls) expertly shows us multiple sides of that question.
We learn through Dak's father's behavior that the protagonist of this tale comes from a clan that has corrupted the real meaning of honor into something that "leader" can hide behind with his cowardice and bullying. Through Dak's found family, he learns the true meaning of the word honor, as well as (eventually) the reality of being a strong leader.
Woo Hoo!
Bring on the next one!
And make sure Bud comes along for the ride! She's a hoot!
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