Film Review - Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

It hasn’t always been easy being a lifelong Predator fan.

John McTiernan’s Arnie-starring classic came out in 1987, when I was ten, but it wasn’t until the following year (1988 aka the year I got into horror and action movies) that I first saw it on VHS and it quickly became one of my favourite movies alongside Aliens, The Blob and Nightmare on Elm St 3.

Since then we’ve had a pretty good sequel in Predator 2 (I love it but I get why people are mixed on it), then a 14 year long wait for the fairly abysmal AVP and its sequel Requiem, which I have never been able to finish, despite trying at least four times in the intervening years.

2010’s Robert Rodriguez produced Predators was a step in the right direction in that it got the tone right—deadly serious with real stakes—but felt small-scale and kind of cheap compared to the other films. The less said about Shane Black’s misguided The Predator, the better, although I still maintain there could have been a fun action comedy with that cast that didn’t include a Predator. After that misfire, it seemed like the spine (and skull) had been ripped out of the franchise.

Then, in 2022, director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) made a semi-secret Predator film called Prey that took inspiration from the musket given to Danny Glover at the end of Predator 2 and reinvigorated the franchise. This year, he’s at it again with two new films, the just-released animated film Predator: Killer of Killers and the live-action Predator: Badlands coming later in the year.

Killer of Killers takes an anthology format with a trio of tales set in different time periods, starting with The Shield, which takes place in 841 AD, where Viking leader Ursa leads an assault on their enemy in a wintry Scandinavian landscape. Of course, a Yautja arrives to watch the warriors in action to see if they are worthy opponents.

The Shield is a great opener to the film—bloody, brutal and action-packed. Ursa is a badass Viking warrior and goes into battle wielding a jagged shield, quite handy for decapitating her foes. The Yautja is a hulking beast, equal parts Hulk and Predator, with a sonic punch weapon that Ursa cleverly uses to her advantage.

The Sword is set in 1600’s feudal Japan, where two brothers are pitted against each other in a battle at their father’s behest. Years later, one of the brothers returns to face the victor, and now warlord in place of their father. Lo and behold, a Yautja takes the opportunity to take on some samurai and bag some trophies - more graphic violence ensues. Starting to see a pattern here?

But just when that template might start to feel stale, we cut to The Bullet, set in WW2 and get some over-the-top but kickass aerial combat between US planes and a Yautja spaceship. Torres, the young irrepressible mechanic slash pilot, is a fun protagonist - basically a MacGuyver of aircraft who has an endless supply of tricks up his sleeve to try and best his technologically advanced adversary.

If you’ve seen the film, then you know what comes next - if you haven’t, then go watch it and come back after. The final stretch on the Predator planet wasn’t completely unexpected - the finale of each story showed the hero seemingly imprisoned on a Predator ship or planet, hinting at what was to come. But it was still a nice surprise to get a Yautja Gladiator battle pitting our three survivors against each other, and then against some sort of Yautja Rancor creature.

Although this whole Gladiator idea does make the Yautja seem pretty damn dishonourable and petty by kidnapping the human survivors and making them fight each other to the death. I’m no expert on Yautja lore (as expanded upon in the comics and books) but we do know there are different races of Yautja so maybe this is just a particularly cunty one? But still, it was a blast and also hints that a few more of the heroes from the cinematic universe may also be stored away in Yautja Cryo to be defrosted for battle in a later film?

I have seen complaints online about the animation style, and I’m not sure why - it looks great, with that new school painterly style that gained popularity with the Spider-verse films and extends to the last Ninja Turtles and The Wild Robot. While not quite as well realised as all those, the look of the film is exaggerated to an almost anime style, which works especially well in The Sword.

Another complaint was that each story should’ve been a full-length live-action film, and while I do understand this desire, as full features, they would have felt like rehashes of Prey - drop a Predator into a different time zone. By doing it this way, Trachtenberg gives us what we want while also clearing the way to tell a different story altogether in Predator: Badlands, which also seems to be teeing up another go at Alien Versus Predator. Either way, it feels damn good to have the Predator back in good hands.

4.5 human skulls out of 5.