Three years ago, director Dan Trachtenberg brought the “Predator” franchise roaring back with “Prey.” Sure, it was just another movie about aliens hunting humans for sport, but “Prey” wisely set the action in an earlier era: hundreds of years ago, before sci-fi was a concept any character could reference, and when weapons were of comparatively mild destruction. The protagonist of “Prey,” a Comanche woman named Naru, was at a bigger disadvantage than any other protagonist in the series by default. The same old premise suddenly felt fresh again. The “Predator” formula got a much needed shot of caffeine.
“Prey” was such a great idea that it was bound to be copied. More monster movie prequels should take place in the past! “Predators fighting vikings,” that sounds like a cool movie. “Predators fighting samurai” sounds awesome as hell. “Predators in World War II?” Bring it on. There are so many great historical ideas for a “Predator” movie that Dan Trachtenberg could have easily mined this one conceptual pool for decades.
Or, he could do them all at once in an animated straight-to-streaming Hulu anthology movie called “Predator: Killer of Killers.” Which is, of course, exactly what he has done. He’s taking his cinematic ball and he’s taking it home so nobody else will get to play with it. The film is a fast-paced, violent blend of sci-fi monster madness and historical slightly-less-madness. That it works is no great surprise, since by its very construction, “Killer of Killers” is a glorified pitch reel, submitting for our approval a few nifty movie ideas and wrapping it all up in a tidy bow. All action, no filler.
On the other hand, “Killer of Killers” also proves that setting all the Predator movies in the past would get really repetitive, really quickly. The viking and samurai installments of this animated film, co-directed by Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung, are simple variations on the very same theme. You can get away with that when each movie is just 15 minutes long. As feature films, the problem would be harder to overlook.
The first chapter of “Killer of Killers” tells the story of a viking woman on a quest for revenge, which gets interrupted by a Predator, who decides she’ll make a great opponent. The second chapter tells the story of a samurai on a quest for revenge, which gets interrupted by a different Predator, who decides he’ll make a great opponent. Trachtenberg and Wassung do a fine job of making these installments fit each time period and the fighting styles of their subgenres, but if that’s all there was to this animated “Predator” movie, it would barely be worth recommending.
The third storyline, set during WWII, tells the story of a mechanic who wants to be a fighter pilot, who finally climbs into the cockpit after a Yautja (that’s what the Predator’s species is called, look it up if you don’t believe me) starts harpooning American fighters in the sky like the Red Baron and Captain Ahab pooled their resources and bought a UFO. The aerial tricks that get pulled in this “Killer of Killers” storyline strain credulity, even by this franchise’s standards, but it’s a welcome change of pace, befitting the themes of the series while also approaching a familiar premise from a fresh, thrilling angle.
There’s more to “Predator: Killer of Killers,” a final chapter where all the pieces we’ve seen so far fall into place. It gives the film a satisfying, if frustratingly sequel-teasing, conclusion. The movie does reveal a little more about the Yautja than we’d previously known before, although we still know very little. All we ever see is these guys hunting humans and fighting like gladiators. Who’s maintaining all their computer systems? Who’s sweeping the floors? Is there a Yautja in a chef’s hat grilling all their cheese? They have a highly intricate infrastructure and elaborate technology, so are some of them trophy hunters all of the time and the rest are just working dead-end jobs in middle management, or are all of these unstoppable badasses just weekend warriors who go back to the daily grind after they mount Arnold Schwarzenegger’s skull on the mantel in their pool room?
“Predator: Killer of Killers” has an animation style that’s increasingly popular, a CGI approach that evokes video game cut scenes. Your mileage might vary on how immersive that is for you — it either comes across like a game your older brother never lets you play, or like a little brother to the more elaborate and expensive computer-generated productions. The animation gets the job done, but it may take some people a while to get used to, unless they’re already growing up with this as their industry standard.
Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung’s animated “Predator” sequel takes a while to prove it’s more than just a demo reel of superficial badassery, but when it does, it’s involving and intense. It’s hard not to love at least a couple of these characters, who keep getting screwed over by their own propensity for violence. If you’re so deadly that monsters travel millions of light years just to try to murder you, you might have flown a little too close to the sun. You never see a Predator hunting the attendees at a needlepointing convention, that’s all I’m saying.
“Predator: Killer of Killers” is now streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally.
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