Predator: Killer of Killers

4 outta 5

Predator: Killer of Killers is an awesomely gnarly addition to the Predator franchise. As an animated film, it allows for extreme camera angles and action that wouldn’t necessarily work in live action but looks dang cool in animation. As an anthology film, each story skips across the centuries of Predators enacting carnage upon some very dangerous humans. Everything comes together in a finale that owes a lot to 2010’s Predators, but the humans in an interdimensional death battle combat arena is a sci-fi story staple. Overall, if one wants to see lots of scenes of humans battling each other and Predators with lots of twists along the way, Killer of Killers slays. Literally.

The deadliest of species, the Predators, have hunted humanity across the eras. In the ancient Viking era, a Viking warrior, Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) is trying to raise her son in the ways of bloody battle, but an already messy battle gets even messier when a Predator shows up. In feudal Japan, two warrior brothers combat each other for supremacy, but an already messy battle gets even messier when a Predator shows up. In World War II, fighter pilot Johnny Torres (Rick Gonzalez) is battling a strange spaceship that shoots spears and chains to destroy fighters, making an already messy conflict even messier. All three warriors are captured by the Predators and are forced to fight each other and a giant leader Predator, becoming pawns in the Predator’s eternal game of hunting for the most dangerous prey.

The vocal performance by LaVanchy as the Norse warrior and Louis Ozawa Changchien as both the warrior brothers are completely in a different language (leading to some fun misunderstandings when all three try to communicate) with subtitles, but basically the emotional delivery and the animation is what sells it. Ursa keeps calling the lead Predator “Grendel King” which is ripped from her mythology.  Changchien is already a veteran of the franchise having played a Yakuza killer in Predators (there’s that movie again!). Gonzalez is the only English speaker and he has a lot of fast-talking funny moments. Also in Torres’ story, his fighter pilot captain voiced by Michael Biehn and Biehn has a very impressive growl.

Moving the franchise to animation works well, as the action and kills in the series have already been extreme, but animation allows things to be pushed more. Crazy things like a long take from the POV of Ursa’s shield, severing multiple heads and crashing through a door or the way various extremely pointy Predator weapons dismember folk. Torres climbs out onto his plane wing and jumps on a bomb on fire, which would look ridiculous in live action but works really cool in animation. The Predator designs are tweaked slightly (as they have in every movie) so each Predator here has some uniquely different stylistic flair to the signature Predator look.

The whole set-up of Predators-capture-deadly-fighters-to-hunt was already used in Predators; this shows how these people got here as opposed to Predators opening with characters literally falling out of the sky. Each of the stories in Killer of Killers has its own vibe. The Viking story is incredibly gory, as the Viking gal revels in carnage which makes her a good opponent for a Predator. There is an oddly sweet, if very dark, story where she is trying to make her son become a fierce warrior, like a loving parent story except with more decapitations. The battle with the Predator is fierce and messy, making Ursa more unhinged and dangerous in the finale. The Feudal Japan story is a samurai sword epic and without a lot of dialogue as the two brothers are in combat over the years, but the arrival of a Predator forces them to put their differences aside. Their final scene is dramatic with very nice character grace notes in between all the Predator dismemberment. Torres’ WWII Fighter pilot story is an interesting twist upon a fighting ace film, as we never really see the Predator ships in action. It is very on-point for the Predators that their ship would actually fire chains. They have the technology for lasers, but it is nastier that the Predator ship stabs and tears planes apart. Torres must do several unbelievable maneuvers to win which is impressive.

All these main characters are rounded up for gladiator combat on an alien world. Yes, they are from different centuries but that’s nothing cryogenic freezing can’t fix. The confrontation between the Norse warrior and the feudal Japanese warrior has the guy trying to de-escalate the situation as she continues to rage about what was taken from here, as a very large and very nasty Predator watches the battle like the embodiment of death. Torres tries to figure out alien technology, gets swallowed by a giant monster, and he is given a very familiar musket to battle with (a musket that has popped up three times in the series so far). The mid-credits scene even features a fun callback to Prey that answers a cliffhanger from that movie.

Predator: Killer of Killers is an appropriately messy entry in the series, and the animated format opens it up for inventive and crazy moments. By pulling together three different stories, it gives the film an epic and bloody scale that hops centuries.