The Predator franchise is the platonic ideal of an action horror franchise.  There are highly skilled people in the world, and there’s a whole race of monsters that hunts those people for sport. The setup is simple, allowing it to serve as a framework for various kinds of stories.  At their worst, films in the franchise are dumb-but-fun action movies; at their best, they’re character-focused stories that illuminate deeper truths about humanity.  The latest entry in the franchise, Predator: Killer of Killers,  is an animated anthology that lands somewhere in the middle of that.  

Telling four stories -three set in various periods in our past and one with a distinct science fiction bend to it- Killer of Killers examines themes of family, the cost of revenge, the importance of knowing oneself, and more.  Writer Micho Robert Rutare, director Dan Trachtenberg, and co-director Joshua Wassung, take us back to a Viking tribe attacking a local warlord, a feuding pair of brothers in Edo period Japan, and an eager young pilot at the height of World War II.

Each of them illuminates something different, and each lead character has something unique to offer.  The Viking shieldmaiden Ursa leads her clan on a blood-soaked raid, only to be confronted with the true cost of vengeance, but in the process, she does some of the best shield-fighting outside of a Captain America film.  In Japanese brothers Kenji and Kiyoshi, one a ninja and the other a samurai, both sons of a feudal lord, fight over succession.  This story is by far the most impactful, playing out nearly entirely wordlessly but never leaving any doubt over what is being communicated between them.  For contrast, John Torres, the star of the third story, never shuts up.  His story takes the longest to get moving, but once he’s airborne in a rickety F4F Wildcat, it becomes the most thrilling as John must learn to slow down and think in moments of immense pressure. 

The vastly differing periods also lend themselves well to the animation employed.  It is highly stylised, looking like a cross between images that jumped out of a comic book page and claymation.  The whole thing is gorgeous, offering highly detailed imagery when needed and simpler shapes when you’re focus is elsewhere, and also allows for the creation of some breathtaking landscapes (a Japanese forest and a frozen Nordic lake stand out, in particular). 

All three end in the same way: a predator has been watching the goings on, and when there is one or a few warriors left, it attacks.  In each case, the hero of the story does what heroes in Predator movies always do: they realise they can’t win in a straight fight, so they use their wits and their knowledge of their surroundings and turn the tables on the sport hunter who is after them. 

The Predators in these stories are all unique as well, each with its look, persona, and otherworldly weapons. The fourth story that ties everything together introduces some interesting additions to the Predator universe, but these additions feel organic and make sense.  The filmmakers also do something refreshing: they essentially, outside of two tiny, blink-and-you-miss-them moments, never look back.  There’s little in the way of characters or locations we’ve seen before.  This might be the greatest strength of the film: while it touches on greater themes, it also never strives to be anything more than what it is at its core – badass human warriors outmatched against an alien monster and managing to win.  

Dan Trachtenberg is now two for two with this franchise and has proven he gets what makes that formula work.  That he has a third Predator film coming out this year was already genuinely exciting; now it’s something to look forward to. 

Killer of Killers is the kind of movie that lands on streaming and makes you wish you could have seen it in a cinema, much like the last entry in the franchise was just 3 years ago. The action is excellent, the storytelling is tight, and the animation is beautiful. It might be a little formulaic, but the formula works when the right people are behind it, and the right people are behind this one.