Hulu and Disney Plus should give Dan Trachtenberg a raise. In their desperate attempts to use old IP for seemingly endless nostalgic cash grabs, Trachtenberg is the only one who’s given me hope that this can be an artistic endeavor as well. He’s a rousing 2 for 2, with Predator: Killer of Killers surprising just as much as his first film Prey did. I wasn’t exactly stoked for Predator: Badlands, but knowing that Trachtenberg is at the helm? Get ready for the year of the Predator.
Killer of Killers is an animated tale, building upon what Trachtenberg did for his 2022 Prey. We get three other times Predators showed up in human history. Tale 1 is a viking revenge tale where Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) hopes to take revenge on the man that killed her father. Tale 2 is a story of Kenji (Louis Ozawa), the banished brother who refused to fight older brother Kiyoshi for their father’s kingdom. Tale 3 is set during WWII, where drafted car mechanic Torres (Rick Gonzalez) has to learn the ropes quickly before he enters a fight in the Pacific…which may or may not include a strange aircraft with a lot of advanced weaponry.
And that’s the magic sauce of Dan Trachtenberg’s idea. For a movie titled Predator, it’s basically a plot device. His series should be called “and there’s a Predator” instead, using this tactical loner killer as a vehicle to tell interesting human stories. Trachtenberg’s 3 tales here are wonderful summaries of the type of action/fighting tales that are simple, but also go right to the core of the human condition. All 3 are tales are as old as time: generational revenge, feuding with family, and the unsure novice thrust into battle. The talented storyteller builds each tale around a specific lead and how they feel going through these epic moments in their lives. And just when you think things get darkest, a predator shows up, and the story transforms into something else. Deep down, Trachtenberg believes that at those moments the true self emerges, and in these stories case, time is frozen in this one moment, where nothing else matters except this life and death altering decision you’re about to make right now. The third act maybe teases what’s in store for us with Predator Badlands later in 2025, and puts enough of a bow on this anthology series to have you ready to jump out of your own couch and go to battle like Ursa, Kenji, and Torres did.
It was a bold swing, making Predator: Killer of Killers animated. You never know if live action translates to animation, and vice versa. This is one of those happy instances where it not only works, but blows the top off what a Predator movie can be. Gone are those abrasive 80s action heatmaps for an incredibly stylish, modern animation style I haven’t quite seen before. Trachtenberg makes us feel like we’re in a manga fused with a video game, built upon the Spiderverse style. It leads to incredible action sequences that sizzle and pop, and made me go “Holy Sh*t” more than a few times. I know we’re on the kiddy streaming service, but this is an R rated animated film forewarning to parents out there. These battles have lots of blood, gore, and death, and give the film real stakes along with its visual panache. And the 3 stories mean that the fights are all different: the viking one is bloody and visceral, the Japanese story is a majestic ballet of bloodlust, and WWII means we get aerial dazzling. Plus the big third act is shot to be as epic as possible, merging the 3 battles before into an unholy fusion of mayhem.
This is maybe the best IP idea out there. Dan Trachtenberg, keep making the “and there’s a Predator” tales please. I love em. Each country can get one: the French Revolution, Roman Colosseum battles, or my personal dream: the RRR/Predator crossover we didn’t know we wanted but can maybe get. Did someone day Predator dance off with animal stampedes? I know what I’m dreaming about tonight!