The old adage about London buses is that you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once. That’s certainly true about Predator films as this year sees two of them released. One of them is an animation and the other is real-action but what is perhaps surprising is that they both have the same director.

‘Predator: Badlands‘ is released in November (a much later release date is expected in Japan as is often the case) but ‘Predator: Killer of Killers‘ came out recently on Hulu. Personally, I had no particular interest in catching either of these Predator buses passing through 2025 as I’m not really a fan of the franchise.

Even though it was very much of my generation, I didn’t grow up watching the original 1987 movie. In fact I only watched that and the 1990 sequel for the first time a few years ago in anticapation of ‘Prey‘ (2022). The man responsible for directing that was Dan Trachtenberg who is back in the hotseat for the two releases this year. Mind you, Josh Wassung did squeeze into the directors chair alongside him for this animated effort.

To be honest I only chose to watch it because I saw the running time was short at just 84 minutes. Furthermore, I had no idea it was even in animation form until a couple of characters appeared on screen! The film is basically split into four fairly equal parts with the first three focusing on the back story of three of the fiercest warriors in human history: a Viking raider, a ninja in feudal Japan, and a WWII pilot who are all killers in their own right.

Warning: Contains spoilers!

Admittedly, it is only the middle story which is actually set in Japan but if it was ok for ‘Babel‘ (2006) to merit inclusion in this long-running review series then it’s alright for this one too. Known as ‘The Sword‘, this story takes place in feudal Japan in 1609 which is also the time period for the 1993 film ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III‘. It is no surprise that this Predator story is superior but how much better?

Brothers Kenji and Kiyoshi are the sons of a samurai warlord, and are ordered to duel to determine who will suceed their father. One of them refuses to fight but is still attacked by the other before fleeing. He returns 20 years later to confront his brother unaware that a Predator is hunting him. It’a a lovely story about two brothers torn apart by their rivalry and it’s almost completely dialogue-free during this segment other than a few moans and groans.

This review may be Japan-focused but the other stories should not be ignored and deserve brief mention. The first one features a Viking raider called Ursa in Scandinavia in 841 and the final story involves a WWII fighter pilot named Torres. Family relationships are explored with feelings of bond, love, sacrifice, loss and emotion rife throughout.

The animation style is fresh and stylish, and all three stories are fairly interesting if not too original. There’s no messing around due to time constraints. It’s a brutal all-action blood and gore-fest along the way but my main problem with the shorts is that the Predators come across as being too weak when they should rarely ever be defeated is killed all too easily.

The final quarter has the one family survivor from each of the stories all waking up together in a cell having been placed in suspended animation by the Predtators. The trio are transported to a huge gladiatorial arena to fight each other to the death in front of a big crowd with the winner facing off against their strongest warrior; the Grendel King.

It’s all a bit cliché driven but entertaining enough and pleasing for those fans who love to debate who would win a fight between X and Y. A language barrier exists but they somehow manage to convey their intentions to each other in order to join forces and escape. With the clock running down on the movie the threat or tension is sadly rather lacking but there’s always time to blatantly set up a sequel!

The ending is all a little unbelievable, and that’s saying something for such a franchise! Predators hunt their prey so to turn it all into some sporting contest where their strongest warrior does battle with someone who just fought with others doesn’t really make much sense. Once you kill a Predator they respect you and leave you alone as was the case in Predator 2 but that is seemingly ignored here thus resulting in the Marvel-like assembling of characters.

Tokyo Fox Rating 6/10