Predator: Killer of Killers Boasts Bloody Action but Iffy Animation

Ever since John McTiernan’s Predator bowled its way into cinemas in 1987 and established its cult-classic action sci-fi credentials against the backdrop of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rippling musculature, fans of the series have more or less waited for a future entry to deliver on the implication of its simple premise: That the intergalactic species of big game-hunting aliens known as the Yautja–or simply as “predators”–have hunted the most deadly human warriors throughout our entire existence. It’s odd, in retrospect, how loathe future entries in the series have been to touch upon this canon: Instead, we’ve had other Predator entries set in the present day (or future), as the series likewise crossed over with Alien and grew increasingly muddy. It wasn’t until 2022’s Prey, 35 years after the original, that the story of a young Comanche woman finally extrapolated upon the idea, and that film’s critical and fan acclaim must have been all director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) needed to hear in order to push forward on an entire animated anthology expounding upon that particular strain of fandom wish fulfillment. That film is Hulu’s newly debuted Predator: Killer of Killers, and it both lays the foundation for Trachtenberg’s upcoming live-action Predator: Badlands and provides bloody, balletic action at the same time. Visually, the film can be a bit rough around the edges, but at its heart it is built from the kind of pulpy sci-fi goodness that longtime series fans have likely been craving.

Taking place in three distinct timelines, and featuring predator confrontations with Viking (841 A.D.), ninja (1609 A.D.) and American fighter pilots (1941), Killer of Killers initially appears to be a classical, conventional anthology of animated segments, with each encounter being self-contained. The conclusion to each, however, eventually makes it clear that they are building to a union: Multiple warriors pitted against each other in a grand confrontation. This ultimately proves gratifying and effective for the film as a whole, allowing what is arguably the weakest of the segments (opener “The Shield,” featuring viking warrior Ursa) to be propped up more effectively by its eventual inclusion in the two superior followers, “The Sword” and “The Bullet.” Kudos to the application of advanced Yautja technology that allows for these characters, naturally separated by the gulf of centuries, to eventually encounter each other. Sci-fi tech is nothing if not liberating for screenwriters.

The big plus is that each of the segments features some appreciably gonzo, brutal action, none of which skimp on the gore and comic ultraviolence. The Viking combat of “The Shield” prior to the predator’s arrival plays something like a Nordic precursor to The Raid, while the aerial combat of “The Bullet” places an air squadron into a pitched battle against a predator spacecraft wielding hilariously advanced, lurid weaponry–at one point the ship fires what appears to be a net of white hot plasma that vivisects a plane (and its unfortunate pilot) into about 100 neat little cubes of steel and flesh. It should go without saying that we’re playing fast and loose with physics, most of the time.

Killer of Killers reaches its apex, meanwhile, in “The Sword,” its second, almost entirely wordless segment set in feudal Japan. It’s a story about two sons of the local daimyo, raised by their harsh warlord father to compete with bloodthirsty fervor as children–but when one refuses, he is banished to the countryside, where he becomes a ninja determined to seek justice on his more duplicitous brother. This segment delivers the film’s most thematically satisfying and narratively rich combat, which is actually between humans rather than aliens, as the ninja brother infiltrates a fortress to finally have it out with his sibling. Their sparring is interrupted, naturally, by the arrival of the predator, forcing an on-the-spot patchwork repair of their broken fraternal bond. To watch them team up on the brutal alien killer–who gruesomely slaughters the guards to get to them–is Killer of Killers’ highlight.