It’s hard to keep a secret in Hollywood these days. So when it was announced late last year that Dan Trachtenberg had directed not one but two new films in the Predator franchise, one completely hush-hush, the surprise was bigger than getting hit in the face with Old Painless. Trachtenberg was behind 2022’s Prey, arguably the best film in the series since the 1987 Arnie original, and now, it seemed, he was going all in on the demon who makes trophies of men.
Finally, the secret is out. Much like The Animatrix, the 2003 tie-in that the Wachowskis released alongside The Matrix Reloaded, Predator: Killer Of Killers serves as a kind of animated anthology precursor to Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg’s next live-action theatrical film, due later this year. It’s largely comprised of three stories, following three very different human warriors from across history, each with a different skillset and slant. We begin in 841 AD with a chapter titled ‘The Shield’, where a fearsome Viking queen (voiced by Lindsay LaVanchy) is seeking bloody vengeance — before a Predator interrupts her quest. Next, we move to 17th-century Japan (‘The Sword’), where a ninja (Louis Ozawa) takes on his rival samurai brother — and also, a Predator. Then we jump to World War II (‘The Bullet’), where an ace pilot (Rick Gonzalez) battles in the skies with Nazi fighters — and yes, you guessed it, a Predator. Finally, all three converge for an extraterrestrial battle royale.
An amuse-bouche, for a Badlands-shaped main meal yet to come.
Anthology films are not easy to pull off — just ask Four Rooms — and while the visual variety of darting between locales and timelines is fun, each segment earns just 20 minutes of runtime (ahead of a 20-minute finale): not much to establish the characters, their pre-existing conflicts and a Predator-shaped spanner in the works. Best of the three is ‘The Bullet’, depicting thrilling brain-over-brawn aerial battles with the beast. ‘The Sword’ looks beautiful, and there is a certain joy in watching samurai swords thwip against the Predator’s Japanese-style chain weaponry, but the segment is largely dialogue-free, a disappointing trope for ancient-Asia-set stories, leaving it feeling a bit thin. Opener ‘The Shield’ feels appropriately savage for this series, the lashings of gore as chaotic as you’d expect.
It’s all handsomely rendered, the illustrated-but-in-3D approach to the animation clearly influenced by the likes of Arcane, though not always as coherent as you’d hope. The climax is pleasingly hard sci-fi, with bold imagery and some tantalising teases towards the future of the franchise. But that’s all this secret film really amounts to: an amuse-bouche, for a Badlands-shaped main meal yet to come.
