With Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg revitalized the Predator franchise and confirmed us all how wildly thrilling its central conceit may nonetheless be with just a bit bit of transforming. Prey took the traditional Predator story and made it really feel new by specializing in the previous and framing its alien characters’ excursions to Earth as a part of a a lot older lethal custom. Increasing the Predator collection with much more Prey-like narratives appeared like a no brainer for twentieth Century Studios.
Although it’s a leaner, meaner characteristic, Hulu’s Predator: Killer of Killers takes every little thing that labored about Prey and condenses it into brief and candy exploration of different chapters from the franchise’s previous. The animated anthology’s Arcane-impressed visuals are gorgeously gory, and its motion set items are extremely sharp. Killer of Killers isn’t precisely attempting to reinvent the wheel, and for those who’ve seen a Predator film earlier than, little of it’ll take you without warning. However as a bloody amuse-bouche meant to whet our appetites earlier than Predator: Badlands hits theaters later this yr, Killer of Killers completely will get the job finished.
Set at three totally different factors in human historical past, Killer of Killers tells the acquainted story of how unsuspecting warriors from Earth discover themselves being hunted by members of the alien Yautja race. Viking warrior Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy), twin Japanese samurai Kenji and Kiyoshi Kamakami (Louis Ozawa), and American World Battle II pilot Torres (Rick Gonzalez) have little or no in frequent. However in every of them, totally different Yautja see embodiments of humanity’s technological prowess and combating spirit. The aliens have respect for his or her prey, and so they make a degree of learning the varied methods by which people have realized to wage battle with each other. However the Yautja nonetheless see people as animals meant to be killed for sport, and their targets do not know what they’re up towards when the 2 species first make contact.
Whereas every of Killer of Killers‘ three chapters — “The Defend,” “The Sword,” and “The Bullet” — have their very own narrative arcs, all of them comply with the identical normal beats that served Prey and different Predator films nicely. After introducing their human heroes and displaying us what they’re able to in battle, Killer of Killers’ tales flip the tables in bloody, hyper-violent showcases of the Yautja’s brutal energy. It’s not precisely a knock towards screenwriter Micho Robert Rutare, however there’s an plain formulaic high quality to Killers of Killers that’s rooted in the truth that there are solely so many ways in which Predator options can logically play out. Characters are all the time shocked when the Yautja flip off their cloaking expertise as a result of they’ve by no means seen something prefer it earlier than. They usually’re understandably scared shitless when the aliens begin dog-walking (learn: eviscerating) them with weapons that appear virtually like magic.
Although its tales aren’t precisely groundbreaking, Killer of Killers presents them fantastically and with a form of heightened motion that merely wouldn’t be as efficient if this have been a live-action challenge. These closely stylized Yautja are greater, stranger, and extra monstrous than any of their silver-screen cousins. They usually transfer with a sickening swiftness that makes you are feeling how terrifying it could be to see one materialize out of skinny air. It’s additionally very nifty however unnerving to see how the aliens have adopted sure human folkways (one of many cooler Yautja principally kinds itself as a shinobi). However as alarming because the monsters are, Killer of Killers does a stellar job of presenting its human characters as uniquely succesful fighters that may handle to carry their very own and win optimistically and fast pondering.
If Killer of Killers have been longer, its similarities to previous Predator options would in all probability be a bit extra of an annoyance. However Rutare’s script retains issues shifting in a method that makes the film’s hour-and-a-half runtime really feel like a breeze. Proper when issues begin getting full-on batshit (in an excellent method), Killer of Killers tidily wraps issues up and closes out with a swiftness that’s meant to depart you wanting extra. It’s simple to think about twentieth Century greenlighting one other anthology like this to maintain Killer of Killers’ bigger story about what the Yautja yearn for going. However whether or not we get a sequel might be going to rely upon how Predator: Badlands does when it hits theaters this fall.
Predator: Killer of Killers additionally stars Michael Biehn, Doug Cockle, Damien Haas, Lauren Holt, Jeff Leach, Piotr Michael, Andrew Morgado, Felix Solis, Britton Watkins. The film is now streaming on Hulu.