Predator: Killer of Killers

When I first watched Dan Trachtenberg’s film Prey on TV back in 2022, all I kept thinking was “Why the hell was this not in theaters?” After watching his latest co-directing animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers, again on my TV, all I kept thinking was “Why the f#@& was this not in theaters?!”

We start on Earth in 841 AD with a tale titled “The Shield” where we follow a group of vikings heading into battle. Their leader Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) is on a mission of revenge against the man who caused the death of her father. The following story “The Sword” is set in 1609 Japan where two feuding brothers (Louis Ozawa) go head-to-head in a samurai vs. ninja battle to the death. The third segment “The Bullet” has a young man (Rick Gonzales) drafted into the war in 1942 as a mechanic but has aspirations on becoming a pilot.

All three stories have familiar action movie troupes and shortly after the character set-ups a Predator (in the mythology called Yautja) gets thrown into the mix. Much like Trachtenberg’s Prey film, we get solid if yet simple character development with easy to understand goals that are interrupted by the hunting space creature. In Killer of Killers (A title I still dislike ever since I heard it) each segment is just the right length, the second one set in Japan is mostly silent, but all are bloody brutal and bad-ass. Writer Micho Robert Rutare manages to keep each Yautja unique for it’s setting, the Viking one is big and hulking, the Japan Predator is lanky and fast moving, while the WWII creature is like a space pirate complete with metal eye-patch. Also in the WWII segment we get Vandy voiced by Michael Biehn going against the Predator, now he joins the other legends Lance Henriksen and the late great Bill Paxton as actors that faced an Alien, a Predator and a Terminator.

Their weapons used in the film are all different but still fit within the Predator mythos and the execution of said weapons is simply awesome.The animation is solid with a blend of the Netflix series Arcane and the gorgeous Spider-verse films. At times it feels very video-gamy, but all the battles play out epic in scope and lead to a phenomenal and unexpected finale.

I know that Trachtenberg has another live action film coming out later this year, Predator: Badlands, (finally in theaters) which looks just as incredible as his last two efforts. If anyone gets what makes these characters work it’s him and I cannot wait to see what he does with them next. Until then, I’m gonna go watch Killer of Killers again, which is the only good thing about it going straight to streaming. Now I get to geek out on all the fan service hidden in the film. One I noticed on the first watch was a cool detail nod to the original Star Wars. So if you are a fan of the Predator series, don’t skip this one just because it’s animated. It’s just as rated  R as the other films and it more than lives up to the original in the best possible way.