Predator: Killer of Killers

 

The titular predators of the Predator franchise are pretty tough cookies. They’ve taken on some of the best warriors the galaxy has to offer-- Comanche hunters, Schwarzeneggers, and even the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise once or twice. But could they totally beat up a Viking or a samurai or an Ace pilot from WWII? The answer is yes, yes they can, and this glorious action figure mashing happens in Predator: Killer of Killers, much to the delight of my inner twelve-year-old.  

Killer of Killers is animated much like the Spider-Verse films, as it has a purposefully low frame-rate that takes some getting used to at first. This sometimes makes the action look a little choppy and hard to follow, but it also gives the film a unique personality that is hard to deny. And if one of the action sequences is a bit indecipherable, don’t you worry... Killer of Killers has a whooooooooooooole lot of them that work amazingly. You could say, in fact, that it doesn’t offer much more besides these extended scenes of grizzly carnage. But what carnage it is! 

An anthology film of sorts, Predator: Killer of Killers visits three distinct vignettes based on three different earthly warriors from three different time periods. There is the revenge-obsessed Viking warrior, the samurai-turned-ninja outcast (this one was my favorite), and the plucky Floridian soldier who takes on one of the predators in the skies of World War II. These stories all get woven together in the final act, and the brutal action rarely pauses for any of it, despite a token attempt at character development or two.  

So did I like Killer of Killers despite the fact that it’s not exactly a cerebral work of art? Heck yes, I did. The action is what I came for and, my occasional gripes with the animation style aside, it did not disappoint. There’s stuff in Killers of Killers that you just couldn’t do in a live-action film, at least not without a budget that would rival the GDP of a small nation. Despite the low frames, the action is fluid and well-choreographed, and the predator species sure brought their a-game when it comes to fun new murder toys. It’s a shame that some people will undoubtedly sleep on this latest Predator film simply because it is animation, but it’s their loss. Because let me reiterate: In Predator: Killer of Killers some alien warriors fight a Viking, a ninja, and get into a dogfight with a WWII airplane. That’s cinema, baby!  

Predator: Killer of Killers is now available on Hulu.