Predator: Killer of Killers

One for fans of the series, what this animated anthology movie lacks in detailed character development it makes up for in style, imagery and atmosphere.

Premise:  Set across various time periods, a Viking warrior in ancient Scandinavia, a samurai and a ninja in feudal Japan, and an American WWII fighter pilot, all find themselves targeted by alien hunters.

Review:

To be upfront, this is the sort of film that (regardless of its quality) was always aimed at quite a niche segment of the audience.  It’s an animated film, which instantly means that a large part of the adult audience will dismiss it sight unseen as being ‘a cartoon for kids’ – despite that fact that this has been rated 18 for bloody violence and gore.  It’s also an anthology movie, which means by definition we only spend a limited amount of time with each group of characters, which often means the characters are only sketched out in very broad terms.  Thirdly, it’s a Predator movie, which again will mean that some people just aren’t interested.

But … if you can get passed all of that, Predator: Killer of Killers has a lot going for it.  For one thing, it’s directed and co-written by Dan Trachtenberg who’s responsible for 2022’s fantastic Predator live-action film, Prey.  We knew that he had been working on Predator: Badlands (which is due out later this year), but when it was announced that he was secretly planning to release two Predator movies in 2025, it felt like all our Christmases had come at once.

“…more of a tone-piece, focusing on style & ambiance…”

In many ways, Killer of Killers is the antithesis of Prey, insofar as Prey was a character-driven thriller focused very much on its central protagonist, whereas Killer of Killers is much more of a tone-piece, focusing on style and ambiance over character depth.  That’s not to say that the characters are poorly written – even though each main character only gets about 25 minutes of screentime, they all feel like fully realised people – but we only get a brief snapshot of their lives and personalities.  That is, of course, the nature of an anthology movie, but Killer of Killers at least does a lot to sketch out its three main protagonists during each of their sections of the movie.

But admittedly, the movie is more concerned with tone and atmosphere than character development, and it’s here that the film really excels.  The animation style is beautiful to watch, like an animated hand painting.  It’s not as stylised as something like the Spider-Verse movies or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, but it’s just as visually striking in its own way, and the more grounded animation style really suits the more mature (and graphic) content.

“…the feudal Japan segment is personally my favourite…”

Each of the historical eras is given its own visual style – the world of the Vikings is harsh, inhospitable and savage, with the main Viking clan just as brutal and unforgiving as the elements.  The feudal Japan segment is personally my favourite – the beauty of the surrounding nature and architecture echoed in the grace and elegance of the combat, which I thought was the most effectively animated of all the movie’s action sequences.  Cleverly, the film never repeats itself, with the third section focused on aerial dogfights between American WWII fighter planes and a mysterious Predator spacecraft.  The film then has a final concluding chapter (which I won’t spoil here) which has a visual style distinct from the previous three.

It's probably fair to say that Predator: Killer of Killers is unlikely to appeal to viewers who don’t like animation, anthologies or Predator movies – but even as someone who likes all three, I’ll confess that I had low expectations for this movie.  A straight-to-streaming animated spin-off from a live-action franchise is normally not something to get very excited about, but this exceeded my expectations, and has introduced characters into the series that I would be happy to see pop up again in the future.

“…the franchise feels in very safe hands with Dan Trachtenberg…”

All that, and this has made me even more excited for the release of Predator: Badlands in a few months.  The franchise feels in very safe hands with Dan Trachtenberg.