Review: Predator: Killer of Killers

Full disclosure, I don’t give a fuck about comic book movies anymore save for maybe Deadpool. I don’t care about Fantastic Four or Superman or the new Ironheart show I plan to be skipping when it releases on Disney+ (I’ll take me ten more seasons of Daredevil though). No, I only cared about two major non-animation events taking place later this year, the release of Alien: Earth on Hulu and Predator: Badlands in theaters from Dan Trachtenberg (throw in the new Tron while you’re at it). So when Dan surprise revealed earlier this year that my yearning for alien species hoping to wipe us all out would be put into an animated anthology film, I was panting like a dog in heat. And to be released on National Slayer Day, 6/6?

The premise of Killer of Killers is not unlike Marvel’s Contest of Champions. Yautja hosts a gladiator-esque contest back home where they collect warriors who have successfully defeated yautja in their own turf and era and bring them in front of their warrior clans to see who is truly the best of the best. In this case, it’s a Viking, a samurai, and a dumb-luck kid from Florida who seems to have a knack for flying during WW2. That said, the yautja isn’t prepared for the fact that the heroes they have plucked have morals and as such are more human than human.

While being billed as an anthology film, it really is an inter-connected 90-minute feature-length in that we’re simply shown three setups for the prestige that is the aforementioned contest complete with the notion that a number of the heroes featured in this film (and evidently past films) are in fact collected and put on ice until they are needed for the eventual big battle. You’ll notice some past faces when you get to the ending though it’s unclear how, if at all, this film ties into Predator: Badlands. 

At its core, Predator: Killer of Killers is a 90-minute bloodfest of the highest order. Threat Level’s sophistication of being able to take three distinct settings then meld them into a final setting is nothing short of brilliance. Admittedly I was a bit miffed that the film is being advertised as English language audio, when really the majority of the film is, in fact, subtitled. For a super-advanced species to be able to have all sorts of technical proficiency in kills nobody was able to conjure up the magic powers of a Google Translate app during the climax so that everyone involved can speak English is a bit of whiff, but the monster designs and epic action sequences more than make up for what continues to be one hell of a return for the yautja and their Warlords.