‘Do not avenge me…’
American director Dan Trachtenberg revitalised the Predator franchise with 2022’s Prey, arguably the best film in the series since the original, and so his return to this universe with Predator: Badlands, due out in November, is eagerly anticipated. What wasn’t public knowledge, however, is that Trachtenberg was also secretly developing another project – an animated feature length film that serves as a second prequel to Predator. Let’s dive in…
The plot takes in three stories, all set on Earth, that eventually intertwine at the end. The first story takes place in the Viking era, and concerns Viking warrior Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) and her attempts to avenge the brutal death of her father at the hands of evil Viking overlord, Zoran (Andrew Morgado). The second story sees two brothers fight to death in 17th century Japan, whilst the third tale focuses on budding WWII pilot John J. Torres (Rick Gonzalez) and his ongoing feud with his commanding officer, Vandenberg (Michael Biehn). These stories then overlap at the end when the three protagonists are captured by a predator and forced to fight to death.
What Trachtenberg has essentially done here is to take three story archetypes (a revenge movie, a samurai movie and a war movie), and posed the question, what happens if we add a Predator? The answer is… carnage ensues. While the animation has been praised elsewhere, I found it to be uncomfortably close to a video game cutscene, but if you can put that to one side, the three stories are engaging and well-written, with well-drawn, likeable characters, and consistently compelling dialogue choices. The final showdown is suitably epic, the voice cast are adept at bringing the characters to life, and the plotting very much feels like it is part of the Predator universe, rather than something tagged on as a cash in. I would say that I personally don’t really care for animation that isn’t explicitly comedic or aimed at children, so I’m not the target audience here, but I still found plenty to enjoy, and this film serves as a tasty amuse-bouche before the main course that is Predator: Badlands.
With every recognisable intellectual property being squeezed until they are completely wrung dry, Predator: Killer of Killers is an admirable addition to a franchise that has had an unlikely resurrection in recent years.