Without raising too much of a film culture racket, the Predator films have endured for nearly four decades, steadily turning out a new entry every few years to keep the brand name alive. The persistence is commendable, but the results run the gamut from spectacular to abysmal, with the highest of highs going back to 1987’s The Predator, a meathead masterpiece with a genuine stake to the claim of greatest American action film ever made. The lows, meanwhile, include an ill-advised crossover with the Alien saga and, more recently, 2018’s The Predator, an exceptionally idiotic sequel that nearly killed off the franchise outright. Breathing new life and restoring focus to the series was 2022’s Prey, which pit the iconic Yautja beast against a fierce Comanche warrior in 18th century America. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, Prey was met with quite this positive reception, despite not having been granted a proper theatrical release and left to compete for its audience amidst the glut of streaming content. That film was crucial in getting Trachtenberg the gig to return to the live-action Predator world with Predator: Badlands, due in cinemas this fall, but in the meantime he’s released Predator: Killer of Killers, an adult animated anthology film that explores the violent history of the Predator species. And while far from the best the Predator franchise has to offer, Killer of Killers does at least make for an entertaining amuse-bouche, spinning three tales of honor and survival that are jam-packed with stylish animation and plentiful servings of ultra-violence.
The first story is set in Scandinavia, 841 A.D., charting a Viking expedition out to eradicate an enemy clan. The leader of the pack is the ferocious Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy), a vengeful Valkyrie who has brought along young son Anders (Damien Haas) in the hopes of molding a warrior out of him yet, forcing the boy headfirst into battle to gain firsthand experience in combat. As Ursa and company home in on their target, an invisible menace observes from the periphery, waiting for its moment to strike. Admittedly, the animation style for Killer of Killers takes some time getting used to, as the 3D-rendered characters are designed to emulate live-action movements, at least during the more dramaturgically pressing sequences. It’s a baffling design choice that recalls the worst of the Into the Spider-verse series, reducing any non-skirmish sequence into a soporific eyesore. Thankfully, matters do improve once the action heats up, allowing Trachtenberg and co-director Joshua Wassung — working from a script by Micho Robert Rutare — to kick things into high gear, first charting the might of Ursa as she rampages through an enemy Viking village, before setting her to square off against a Grendel Predator. Given its subtitle Killer of Killers, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that beheadings, bisections, and limb removals prove to be in ample supply, with Trachtenberg and co. relishing every moment to spill blood on screen, ending the first section on a high note.
This momentum carries on into the film’s middle section, which shifts the action to feudal Japan. Two brothers, Kenji and Kiyoshi (both voiced by Louis Ozawa), fight for the honor of becoming successor to their samurai warlord father, with Kiyoshi emerging victorious as Kenji flees the kingdom. Years later, Kenji returns as a ninja to confront his brother, though the reunion is cut short with the emergence of another Predator, forcing the skilled swordsman to take on an unfamiliar foe armed with futuristic technology. This section serves as the highlight of Killer of Killers, delivering a longer confrontation between Yautja and samurai that was only teased in 2010’s Predators. It also highlights the limitations of Trachtenberg’s concept, as any time spent watching Killer of Killers eventually gives rise to memories of the Spike TV series Deadliest Warrior, which likewise explored history’s greatest fighters and squared them off against each other in staged deathmatches. Here, that conceit remains fully intact. What would it be like to see a Predator fight against a Viking? A samurai? A ninja? What about a Naval fighter pilot?
Cut to act three, which nearly drops the ball completely. Moving on to World War II, our hero here is an American mechanic named Johnny Torres (Rick Gonzalez), who is drafted into the U.S. Navy and stationed in North Africa. When a Predator spaceship appears, Johnny takes to the skies with a Wildcat aircraft to fight off the invader. Killer of Killer‘s Ursa and Kenji segments benefit from centering strong, silent-type protagonists, letting the action do the heavy lifting and shading in the story. But in the film’s third segment, Johnny is realized as an irritatingly loquacious character, one who also he spends much of the aerial combat sequences hanging off the wing of his plane as he frantically tries to repair it — a feat that would have been more impressive had we not just seen Tom Cruise do this exact same stunt for real in last month’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. But things don’t end at the conclusion of the third story, with Trachtenberg instead serving up a battle royale as an extended epilogue, even hinting at potential sequel territory with this project. By the time that tease occasions the screen, Predator: Killer of Killers has nearly run out of gas, despite clocking in a relatively concise 85 minutes. The final result slots in somewhere in the middle of the franchise’s spectrum of quality: it’s a not infrequently fun and diverting exercise, one where blood-soaked violence certainly is aplenty, but Trachtenberg and Wassung don’t leave the audience with much of anything lasting to chew on. Probably best to just look forward to Badlands.
DIRECTOR: Dan Trachtenberg & Joshua Wassung; CAST: Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa, Rick Gonzalez, Michael Biehn; DISTRIBUTOR: Hulu; STREAMING: June 6; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 25 min.
Originally published as part of Tribeca Film Festival ’25 — Dispatch 3.
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