Predator: Killer of Killers

I am not particularly fond of anthologies. It is not because I feel they lack value or unique narrative characteristics, and films such as The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Sin City, Magnolia, and Traffic prove that there are elegant ways to weave a narrative out of separate stories.

But for me, the lack of actual continuity is so distracting that it becomes harder to follow, harder to empathise, harder to invest in. Predator: Killer of Killers, a new animated film from the creator of Prey, Dan Trachtenberg, is just such an anthology, where actual storytelling is abandoned in favour of a series of separate vignettes that really just serve to show cool fights between badass human warriors throughout the ages and the iconic Predators.

It's a pretty simple premise when it comes down to it: you follow three separate warriors for a good 30 minutes at a time, a Viking, a ninja, and a pilot during World War II, who are each selected and challenged by a Predator and must prove their worth as warriors and as prey. Therefore, this is still an anthology, but at the same time also a kind of collection of three distinct, relatively long and in-depth short films, which are concluded quite definitively before we move on to the next one. There is no real connection between these stories other than a natural aesthetic and thematic dimension, and it seems that all three are primarily designed to let you revel in the Predator premise when it is at its coolest without challenging that very premise particularly, just as Prey did.

The animation style is somewhat similar to what we have seen a few times before, reminiscent of Blue Eyed Samurai on Netflix a few years ago. There is an intentional slowness in the animation speed and an angular line that makes it all feel more analogue, and at the same time, there is no shortage of detail or ultra-violence. Together, this makes for a pretty strong whole that can easily compete with the other animation heavyweights in this field. This is a beautiful film, and no expense has been spared. Joshua Wassung helped make Prey, and it is his animation studio, Third Floor, that is behind it. It is actually the studio's debut film, and what a debut it is.

Narratively, it was wise of Trachtenberg and Wassung to let the Predators be a kind of annoying, frustrating distraction in the midst of crucial battles for each of the three main characters, so that there is already pre-existing motivation and instinct. It's not that any of these feelings or motivations run particularly deep, and if there is one central criticism that can be levelled at Killer of Killers, it is that the film never attempts to dig deeper than the immediate labels we can slap on each of the three main characters: "revenge", "ambition" - and so on.

But this also means that Killer of Killers has an immediacy, a light-heartedness, which means that, despite endless violence and tough characters who feel tough things, it's pretty easy to throw yourself on the sofa and just enjoy it without too many frills. Only time will tell whether the more ambitious Predator: Badlands will be any good, but this is good Predator entertainment that manages to avoid the obvious anthology pitfall by knowing exactly what its mission is.