Predator: Killer Of Killers Review – A Bold Step With Flaws In Execution

Social media has recently been taken by storm as millions have tried to argue whether 100 men could beat a gorilla in a fight. That same playground spirit can be found in director Dan Trachtenberg's hyper-violent animation "Predator: Killer of Killers," in which the famous movie monster — typically known for targeting buff action stars and character actors — is pitted against legendary warriors throughout the ages in brutal hypothetical matchups. If you've found the previous live-action "Predator" movies (including Trachtenberg's own franchise-reviving "Prey") to be too heavy on plot at the expense of the carnage, then the brevity of this spin-off is exactly what you'll have been wanting, stripping down the formula to its barest essentials across three brief stories.

Personally speaking, I was less enamored with 2022's straight-to-streaming "Prey" than many other critics, finding less depth in the way it invoked its historical setting than others; it added a fresh change of scenery to the franchise, but came up short when it came to the much trumpeted period authenticity, feeling every bit as artificial as the movie monster thrown into it. The same criticism could be thrown at "Killer of Killers," although thankfully, this is where the episodic structure of the anthology film works in its favor. At roughly 25 minutes apiece, each segment is structured around one big fight scene, ending alongside each knockout blow. You're not given room to breathe, let alone consider how shallow the period accuracy is, and it's all the better for it.

The first installment of "Predator: Killer of Killers," titled "The Shield," sets the table effectively. It takes us to 841 AD as the mother and son of a Viking family are in the final stages of a brutal revenge mission, aiming to take a throne they believe is rightfully theirs. Even before the Predator shows up thirsty for a fight, the blood is in full flow and the deadly threats are everywhere the characters turn, with flaming arrows hitting their ship in the seas, to armed guards awaiting their arrival once they've arrived at their destination. The animation is gorgeous and inventive, the gloomy Nordic color palette brightened by gushes of gore, with swords and shields deployed in various ingenious ways; if there's any flaw, it's that to sustain this pace, there can sometimes be a lack of visual clarity in the choreography, a common issue in live action that infrequently carries over here. But then the Predator arrives, and the stark differences in character design flatten out that criticism.

Why the Predator has chosen to reappear in each distinct period isn't revealed until an epilogue that manages to tie in "Prey" without resorting to distracting fan service callbacks. Until then, however, the film really does function as a dramatization of eternal playground debates as to whether a Predator could beat Vikings, samurai, or a WWII pilot in a fight, in brutal, brief segments that are like this franchise's cousin to Marvel's "What If?" series.

I don't mean it as a negative when I say that, if you removed the most violent moments, this could function as the kind of animated TV spin-off to a more adult-skewing franchise that used to be commonplace in the 1980s and 1990s, when even films as nihilistic as "Robocop" were reimagined for a Saturday morning audience not old enough to see the real thing. I don't think for a second that Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Micho Robert Rutare were aiming for this necessarily, but it's an unintentional achievement on their behalf to help foster a sense of nostalgia for that era of tie-in without watering down what fans want from the source material itself.

Following the first segment, we jump forward to 17th century Japan and a decades-spanning sibling rivalry between a samurai and a ninja who both have regal aspirations. As with the first story, the greater specifics behind this familial relationship and each character's aspirations of power aren't fleshed out enough by the screenplay to sustain more than a 25-minute segment, and once again, their distinct emotional journeys become an afterthought when our old friend the Predator shows up. Again, this isn't necessarily a problem for fans, who aren't coming to this franchise in the hope of profound depth and a vivid recreation of several distinct historical periods, but I felt like this section in particular put too much weight on character journeys that have been written too broadly by design. The intrigue of these stories are the specific fights, and nuanced characters aren't a necessity to make those pack a punch — the illusion of a more fleshed out character drama just made this segment feel lacking even with some of the best action of the three entries.

The third chapter takes us to WWII as an aspiring pilot finds himself up in the air and in the crosshairs of the Predator's spaceship, wasting little time in getting its protagonist to take to the skies. In terms of action mechanics, it's the simplest — even if it does make liberal use of the laws of gravity in a manner that'd fit right at home in the Looper-reviewed "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning." But those narrow parameters for the action makes for the most exciting of the three stories, embracing the constraints that can come with aerial fight scenes. Even in animation, where anything you can conceive of can become a possibility, Dan Trachtenberg quite ironically ensures this is the most grounded story of the three; a viewer who wouldn't be able to suspend disbelief for the previous segments might be pleasantly surprised by this, keeping the action simple and concise without being a stickler for realism.

"Predator: Killer of Killers" has been developed in tandem with Trachtenberg's own live-action sequel "Predator: Badlands," which is released in theaters this November. But an animated series could easily continue to exist outside of the franchise timeline he's establishing — even if the closing shot suggests everything we've seen in both mediums so far is intertwined. Personally, I'll take stripped-down, high-concept fights over the development of an expansive cinematic universe any day; I wouldn't be surprised if, even with all its flaws, this ends up being the finest "Predator" film we see this year.

"Predator: Killer of Killers" lands on Hulu on June 6.