Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
If you told me back in 2018 that the Predator franchise would not only recover from the ridiculousness that was Shane Black’s The Predator, bur that it would excel, I would’ve laughed. But fast forward to 2022 and Prey delivered one of the finest stories we’ve seen since Arnie yelled “get to the chopper!”. It made my excitement for Predator: Killer of Killers — the first official animated outing in the franchise — palpable. And I’m over the moon happy to report the sci-fi action world of alien hunters versus human prey is better than ever!
An anthology in structure, Predator: Killer of Killers brilliantly leans into the lore of the Yautja (Predators) using Earth as their hunting grounds for centuries. Starting in the era of Norsemen we get a tale of vengeance through Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) then of brothers Kenji and Kiyoshi (Louis Ozawa) in feudal Japan and another set during 1941 as young Torres (Rick Gonzalez) is drafted into World War II.
The brilliance of animating these tales is we get to see the Predators like never before. With a variety of looks and weaponry suited to their tasks and timelines, I was blown away by how fluid the action sequences were. Coupled with a gorgeous shell shaded animation style (think Arcane), each action sequence outshines the last. Then again what else would you expect from visual effects and creative supervisor Joshua Wassung (Wassung also worked on Prey) and director Dan Trachtenberg (The Boys, Black Mirror and of course, Prey).
While some anthologies struggle to come up with one cohesive thread, these three tales combine effortlessly into the main story delivering a heart stopper of a finale that draws from 2010’s Predators (another favourite of mine) and with a final shot giving fans a HUGE reveal that had me cheering like the nerd that I am, Predator: Killer of Killers is an absolute banger of an animated movie that delivers some of the best world-building of the franchise to date.
Sommer’s Score: 8 out of 10
Have you seen Predator: Killer of Killers? What did you think of it? And you can check out more sci-fi action below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More