Review: PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS

 by Rob DiCristino

If they bleed, he can kill them.

One of the few bright spots scattered amongst our corporate-minded, algo-driven, multimedia hellscape might be the rise of filmmakers like Dan Trachtenberg, who has more or less taken creative ownership of the Predator franchise since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. While he never quite fit the “indie breakout-turned-studio operative” label we’ve slapped on the likes of Chloé Zhao and Jon Watts — his first feature was 10 Cloverfield Lane, and even one of his early short films was set in the Portal universe — Trachtenberg’s work has consistently prioritized innovation and creativity over callbacks and fanservice. His down-and-dirty Prey (2022) was exactly the kick in the ass the thirty-five-year-old series needed, a “what if?” scenario that pits Amber Midthunder’s Comanche warrior against one of the galaxy’s fiercest killers. Prey — and, we hope, the upcoming Predator: Badlands — reflects not just love for a franchise, but the ability to tell interesting stories within it, a key factor missing from so many spin-offs and lega-sequels.

That schoolyard imagineering continues with this week’s Predator: Killer of Killers, an animated anthology adventure in which three heroes — a Viking raider (Lindsay LaVanchy), a Japanese samurai (Louis Ozawa), and a WWII-era (era) pilot (Rick Gonzalez) — must join forces to survive a battle to the death on the Predator homeworld. Like Prey, Killer of Killers takes the “Predator in a _____” premise to new and exciting places without losing sight of what makes these big, dreadlocked chunguses so interesting in the first place. While so much modern franchise fare stumbles all over itself designing convoluted backstories for characters that were never intended to carry that much narrative weight — see John Wick, Michael Myers, and the Jedi Order — Trachtenberg and co-writer Micho Robert Rutare know that the essential quality of the Predator is his name. We don’t need to know how his society is governed or what trauma inspired his brutality. All we need to know is his driving purpose: Hunt down the best fighters and either kill them or die trying.

We begin with “The Shield,” in which the ruthless Ursa (LaVanchy) — known to those she conquers as “Valkyrie of the Northern Seas” — pillages her way across 9th century Scandinavia in search of the man who dishonored her father years before. When a Predator interrupts her quest and kills her son, however, Ursa finds herself locked in mortal combat on — and beneath — those frozen seas. Next is “The Sword,” the story of two brothers (Ozawa as Kenji and Kiyashi) in feudal Japan whose warlord father forces a decades-long rift between them that is only healed when — you guessed it — a Predator comes to call. Finally, “The Bullet” introduces grounded WWII pilot Torres (Gonzalez) who uses a Predator airship attack on the Atlantic fleet as an opportunity to get back in the sky. Once they — spoilers — vanquish their foes, these three warriors are brought before the Big Boss Predator (Britton Watkins) for a battle royale that only one can survive. Who will reign supreme? Will they work together? Will Jesse Ventura make an appearance?

Killer of Killers keeps the Predator franchise rolling with crisp and vibrant animation from The Third Floor — whose founder, Josh Wassung, serves as the film’s co-director — and stories that maintain the alluring threat of the Predators without shoe-horning in too many new laser-powered gizmos for their arsenals. Each story is built around the setting, resources, and fighting style of its characters, with even Torres’ chapter culminating in a gritty dogfight that foregrounds the pilot’s guile and resourcefulness in the face of the Predator’s superior technology. But is it violent enough? Bloody enough? Will it turn me into a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus? It may be impossible to replicate the brawny, bro-fiving madness of John McTiernan’s original film, but Trachtenberg certainly isn’t afraid of the ultra-violence, and viewers expecting a cartoon Predator to come with a cartoon rating should be pleasantly surprised by the truly incredible — and frankly alarming — amount of decapitations, eviscerations, and general carnage on display here.

So while Predator: Killer of Killers is ultimately about as groundbreaking and memorable as its quiet Hulu release might suggest, it nevertheless earns a place among the top tier Predator rankings by focusing on the series’ strengths and not biting off more worldbuilding gobbledygook than it can chew. That isn’t to say there aren't Easter eggs, of course — look for a Prey shout-out and a pretty funny gag with a familiar weapon — but the most prominent of them work because they serve the story before anything else. Even the film’s open-ended conclusion feels satisfying because it actually bothers to close its character arcs and finish telling one story before shifting to whatever adventures come next. In short, Dan Trachtenberg is the rare franchise custodian who seems capable of more than just a blue-sky elevator pitch — I’m looking at you, David Gordon Green — or a deck of concept art covered in memberberry stains. He’s keeping Predator innovative, and more of these would-be Kevin Feiges should be following suit.

Predator: Killer of Killers hits Hulu on Friday, June 6th.