Predator: Killer of Killers

Get ready for buckets of green blood, superb animation and a lethal atmosphere that seethes through PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, from the Director of 2022's excellent entry, "Prey".

Nirvana for fans of the series (like me) this new film is a beautifully rendered take on three different eras (hunting seasons for our ugly aliens) on Earth.

The film opens with "The Shield" in 841 AD, with a brutal Viking raider, Ursa, guiding her teenage son on a quest for revenge against the giant King responsible for her Father's death.

The animation is stunning as the Viking ships approach a fortress and Ursa's army squares off against the King's forces. The violence and bloodletting is graphic, R rated and sounds amazing, thanks to a superb sound design by Justin M. Davey (A Quiet Place, SpiderMan: No Way Home) and his team.

Each of the three chapters hold secrets among the characters and, of course, a square off with a Predator warrior looking to fight the greatest warriors in the universe.

The second chapter, "The Sword" is my favorite, immersing us into Japan in 1609, where we meet two young brothers at a critical point in their Samurai training by their powerful father. It then flashes forward twenty years to the day their Father dies and the brothers begin a battle for control of Japan.

The animation and character design is so good in this sequence that you feel the two brother personalities and conflict in a long hand-to-hand battle. And then our alien hunter, who's been watching from the rooftops, shimmering in invisibility, arrives to join the battle.

What follows is a terrific fight sequence that seems perfectly suited for animation. I have no idea how you'd stage in practically, but its stunning here. We watched in in Dolby Atmos 4K and the resolution blows your eyes out the entire chapter. This entire chapter is far more beautiful and poetic than I expected.

Writer/Director Dan Trachtenberg ("Prey", the upcoming "Predator: Badlands") is the perfect guiding hand for this series. After wallowing in trash like "Predator 2" and failed cash grabs like "AVP", this series has found its hero in Trachtenberg.

By the end of the second chapter, I was all in. He and co-Director Joshua Wassung have found the perfect tone.

Our final chapter, "The Bullet" drops us into America, 1941, as WW2 explodes into the USA. We meet Torres (Rick Gonzalez), a young WWII pilot who discovers there's a lot more flying through the Pacific and battling Allied forces than the Japanese fighters. The dogfights are fantastic, with the sound mix surrounding you with bullets, fighters coming from every direction and one hell of a surprise in the skies.

It's fascinating to watch how brains and feel count as much in the air battle as fire power. An interesting spin, layered in non-stop WWII action.

All three chapters come together in a spirited finale that I won't talk about in these pages. It's an absolute blast. It's amazing how much human drama & personality the animation team infuses in these characters. They may be drawn, but they're the most interesting lot of predator targets since the original film nearly 40 years ago.

Benjamin Wallfisch (Twisters, Alien:Romulus) creates another brilliant action score, wholly original save those six notes of Alan Silvestri's original theme that land perfectly throughout. It's a beast of a score that pounds home the action while deftly evoking each era depicted.

Turn down the lights, turn up the sound and settle in for the most fun you've had battling these ugly monsters for a very long time.

PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLER exceeds all expectations, battling its way to an A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbddYji1F8s