Kill or Be Killed

Film: Predator: Killer of Killers
Format: Streaming video from Hulu+ on Fire!

I went into Predator: Killer of Killers completely cold. How cold, you ask? I didn’t realize it was an animated movie for the first few moments of it. The film opens with a shot of the Earth from the point of view of the Predator and for a moment I thought, “Wow, the CGI on this is really terrible.” And then it became clear that this is an animated film, and I felt a little more prepared for what was going to happen.

There is definitely a sense of fan service of a sort in this film. Ever since the release of Prey, people have talked about the different possibilities of Predator films. How would a Predator fare against a samurai? How would a group of Predators fare against a Roman legion? Predator: Killer of Killers starts to answer some of those questions for us, but by no means all of them.

This is a troika of stories and then a wrap-up that’s actually about a full third of the movie. The first story gives us one of the classic “X vs. Predator” combinations. We are introduced to Ursa (voiced by Lindsay LaVanchy), a Viking warrior traveling with her son Anders (Damien Haas) and a group of men to exact revenge on Zoran (Andrew Morgado), who killed her father years before. We’re going to get a solid battle sequence, and then a Predator is going to show up and start causing mischief, with a lot of that focus coming on Ursa, who is absolutely game for a fight.

The second story gives use two classic matchups, kind of. We’re going to start with a sort of sibling rivalry between Kenji and Kiyoshi (both voiced by Louis Ozawa). The two are practicing but are forced to fight more for real. Kenji is injured and runs off. Twenty years later, Kenji is essentially a ninja and has returned to take some vengeance against this brother, but he’s also being hunted himself, and things take a dire turn.

Our third story is one that I don’t know that anyone really needed or wanted. Aviation mechanic/pilot Torrez (Rick Gonzalez) is stationed on an aircraft carrier in World War II. During a dogfight with some enemy planes, a Predator ship arrives and decides not to necessarily go for trophies, but to collect aircraft kills. And so we get the duel we didn’t know we needed—Predator spacecraft vs. manmade World War II-era plane.

The truth is that the first hour or so of the film really builds up to the last chunk of it. I will not spoil where this is going—you deserve to learn where this film wants to take you in a much more natural way. Just know that after Torres takes on the Predator ship, things are going to change a great deal very quickly in where you think the movie is going and where it’s actually going.

For all that animation nerds get excited about the way a film looks, there’s nothing really egregious with the artwork on this one. In fact, most of it is pretty good. People who are fans of animated film will have a lot to like here. The art is good, if not amazing for the most part.

No, it’s the stories that sell the film. But it’s also the stories that get me to thinking about the reason that Predator films work at all. It’s the inherent unfairness of the situation. It’s bad enough when you look at the original film. Arnie and the boys are highly-trained mercenaries loaded up with the best weaponry the Earth has to offer, and they’re still outclassed by a creature with outer space tech and a personal cloaking device. It’s what makes the story compelling. How much more unfair is it, then, when Ursa is facing off using a shield? Or Kenji (who admittedly has a bunch of cool ninja skills) using a katana? What match is a WWII-era fighter against a heavily-armed ship that crosses hard space?

I have to think there’s a bit of an anti-hunting message with these films. The Predator is to humans as humans are to deer. Puts the whole thing into perspective when you consider that there’s not a great deal that the deer can do except run away and get lucky.

The truth is that if you’re going to do fan service, this is the way to do it. The stories are compelling, and while we don’t spend huge amounts of time with the characters, all of them are pretty interesting and worth spending time with. The end of the film sets up a number of possibilities for not just sequels but ways to connect all of the Predator movies together. It’s very smart writing that genuinely adds to the mythology of a film universe this far into the history of the franchise. Predator: Killer of Killers improves the Predator universe, and if that were all, it would be enough to recommend it. But it’s a lot more than that. This is absolutely worth a free Hulu trial if you don’t already have an account.

Why to watch Predator: Killer of Killers: New Predator movies are great.
Why not to watch: This could be longer. No, wait, this should be longer.