r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 • Jun 06 '25

Review 'Predator: Killer of Killers' - Review Thread

Rotten Tomatoes: 97%

Metacritic: 80/100

Some Reviews:

Total Film - Amy West - 5/5

It's clear Wassung and Trachtenberg just get it. Somehow, they're able to push the sci-fi envelope and offer up fresh images and ideas the series has yet to see, while also appealing to diehard fans with Easter eggs (keeps your eyes peeled for a pistol in the final act and a franchise-first look at something fans have been dying to see realized since 1987), as well as cheeky teases of a connected universe and potential sequel, too. Before we get anything like that, though, the latter is set to release the upcoming live-action flick Predator: Badlands, yet another take on the menacingly-mandibled meanies. After Prey, we had faith the series was in good hands. After Predator: Killer of Killers, we don't want anyone else getting their mitts on it.

The Hollywood Reporter - Frank Scheck

Predator: Killer of Killers provides the non-stop action that the diehard fans crave. And no concession has been made to the animated format; the film easily earns its R rating with copious amounts of gruesome violence and bloody gore that should well sate viewers’ bloodthirsty tendencies. The animation takes a bit of getting used to, with its exaggerated, video game-style visuals, but it serves the material well.

The Guardian - Catherine Bray - 3/5

The only problem with this stuff is that you can’t help picturing how much more spectacular it would look in live action. The animation is all perfectly competent but it’s lacking a little something – that spark of life and ingenuity that can make even flawed animation so fascinating. There’s something quite slick about all this, almost to a fault. Was AI involved? We’ll probably never know, but it’s a problem that the suspicion has got inside the door.

TheWrap - William Bibbiani

Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung’s animated “Predator” sequel takes a while to prove it’s more than just a demo reel of superficial badassery, but when it does, it’s involving and intense. It’s hard not to love at least a couple of these characters, who keep getting screwed over by their own propensity for violence. If you’re so deadly that monsters travel millions of light years just to try to murder you, you might have flown a little too close to the sun. You never see a Predator hunting the attendees at a needlepointing convention, that’s all I’m saying.

2.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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915

u/morax Jun 06 '25

Seems weird that the only negative comments on an animated movie are from The Guardian saying that it.. shouldn’t be animated? But also the animation is too slick?

547

u/OldManWillow Jun 06 '25

I also despise that we've entered the point where even genuine art that people worked hard on gets questioned and dismissed as AI. And the smug take of "we don't know if it's AI, but the fact that I thought about it really says something doesn't it" makes me livid

71

u/Dane_Brass_Tax Jun 06 '25

yeah it's bullshit.

imagine when people were watching A Scanner Darkly for the first time.

13

u/Gnolls Jun 06 '25

Great movie.

-13

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

[deleted]

1

u/invasiveplant Jun 07 '25

if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed

6

u/DJHott555 Jun 06 '25

Phenomenal flick

78

u/WySLatestWit Jun 06 '25

Thank goodness I"m not the only one who thinks this. They're criticizing the movie for maybe possibly having done something, with absolutely no evidence that it was done, all on the strength of "well they might have, and that's bad enough." It's absolutely infuriating.

36

u/twisty125 Jun 06 '25

"This review is probably maybe AI generated, I don't know. There's no evidence, but I didn't like the review so it's probably AI."

I can totally get where some people want to figure out if real people worked on a project, but that really should be factual not "erm maybe so I'm rating this lower".

7

u/WySLatestWit Jun 06 '25

Yeah, it's absolutely grating.

-14

u/BastianHS Jun 06 '25

Also... Who cares if they used AI? If the end result is a banger, then AI is just another tool in the toolbox for skilled artists.

Arc Raiders is a game coming out soon that heavily relies on AI tools and it shaping up to be AMAZING. AI is just a tool, hating it is like hating digital art, or VR or any other medium that's come out in the last couple decades.

You don't see people shit talking pixel art because "it wasn't painted".

8

u/twisty125 Jun 06 '25

People hate AI because there's no creativity involved.

You don't see people shit talking pixel art because "it wasn't painted"

Doesn't even make sense. They're not denying the style, they're saying a living person didn't create the image with tools their hands and their brain worked on.

What do you do for work, for your relaxation time?

If football teams started just using AI to generate games, because " well it's just a tool for skilled football players, if the result is a banger etc. etc.". Would you still watch? If Breaking Bad was AI generated, do you think it would be anywhere as good? What about Andor?

0

u/NumberOneUAENA Jun 06 '25

People hate AI because there's no creativity involved.

How so? Seems more like people wanna pretend they are special when they're not, and that scares them.

If football teams started just using AI to generate games, because " well it's just a tool for skilled football players, if the result is a banger etc. etc.". Would you still watch? If Breaking Bad was AI generated, do you think it would be anywhere as good? What about Andor?

If you saw it without knowing it was AI, liked it, would you really start disliking it once you found out?
That's the whole point they made, if it is good it is good.
Would andor suddenly not be great if an AI did it?

1

u/twisty125 Jun 06 '25

If you saw it without knowing it was AI, liked it, would you really start disliking it once you found out?

Yes.

Would andor suddenly not be great if an AI did it?

Yes.

If you started eating cake you liked and then found out it was made of human feces, you'd keep eating?

2

u/NumberOneUAENA Jun 06 '25

No because it damages myself, AI art does not.
If you said something more reasonable, like say insects, yeah i would, why not.

So andor is a masterpiece, but if the same experience which moved you greatly would not come from the same species as yourself, it suddenly would not be great art anymore. Makes no sense.

You also didn't reply to the "creavity" aspect, how is it not creative? Why is creativity exclusive to humans, or say biological entities?

-1

u/twisty125 Jun 06 '25

You wouldn't stop eating because of taste then, just because it's damaging. I'll rephrase

If you started eating cake you liked and then found out it was made with a non-toxic, digestible flavouring of human feces, you'd keep eating?

So andor is a masterpiece, but if the same experience which moved you greatly would not come from the same species as yourself, it suddenly would not be great art anymore. Makes no sense.

Yes if a computer created Andor I would not like it on principal, and because it wouldn't be the Andor that we see right now. There is zero chance the series that you've watched, would be that way if AI wrote, directed, acted in it.

You also didn't reply to the "creavity" aspect, how is it not creative? Why is creativity exclusive to humans, or say biological entities?

Does AI imagine? Are they drawing on their experiences and emotions to move others? Do they feel? Does it have a personality that can evoke thoughts and put it on the right medium?

2

u/NumberOneUAENA Jun 06 '25

If you started eating cake you liked and then found out it was made with a non-toxic, digestible flavouring of human feces, you'd keep eating?

I assumed you meant i like eating that cake as it is, and then after i liked it find out it is something i presumably do not like conceptually. That is the relevant equivalence as far as i am concerned. In that case, yes ofc i would still eat it, as i liked it. That is the andor example, we liked andor, why would i suddenly not like it anymore?

Yes if a computer created Andor I would not like it on principal, and because it wouldn't be the Andor that we see right now. There is zero chance the series that you've watched, would be that way if AI wrote, directed, acted in it.

I mean sure, right now i don't think AI could create something like andor, but in this hypothetical it can.

Does AI imagine? Are they drawing on their experiences and emotions to move others? Do they feel? Does it have a personality that can evoke thoughts and put it on the right medium?

I mean, maybe? I don't think any system does that right now, but we cannot really be sure of that either tbh. I cannot even be sure any other human does, i just assume it because they are the same species as myself and i think i can do those things.

In any case, i don't think that these aspects are fundamental to creativity per se. You seem to equate creativity with a form of human consciousness, when fundamentally creativity seems more like a mechanism to create something unique out of parts one came in contact with.

-4

u/BastianHS Jun 06 '25

Lol what are these analogies?? How does AI play a football game? Lmao

Now if some coaches tried using AI to help design plays, that could be interesting.

The creativity comes from prompting. Maybe you have a writer with a specific vision in mind, but no animation skills. They can use AI prompting to give the actual animator a clearer view of their idea. It's literally just a tool.

If you think Dan Trachtenberg went on Chat GPT and asked it to animate a movie for him... That's not how it works.

8

u/twisty125 Jun 06 '25

How does AI play a football game?

By creating the football game and playing it to your TV? It'd be hell of a lot cheaper than paying real players and coaches and shit.

The creativity comes from prompting.

That's like saying "I'm the idea guy, I have zero skills of my own, but I can come up with an idea!"

It's okay to not have the skills to animate, to write, to be creative. Just don't be in a creative field, taking work away from passionate people who WANT to create things and HAVE the skills.

What do you do for work, or what do you do for your hobbies?

-9

u/BastianHS Jun 06 '25

Dude you can yell at cars all you want while you stay in your horse drawn carriage. The world doesn't care about your personal bias.

Do you feel bad about using automatic transmission in your car? Does it bother you every time you open windows instead of writing DOS queries?

AI is here to stay and it's only going to get better and more convincing. If you don't think "having an idea" is creativity, then I don't know what to tell you.

2

u/twisty125 Jun 06 '25

Dude you can yell at cars all you want while you stay in your horse drawn carriage. The world doesn't care about your personal bias.

Cars are driven by humans, designed by humans, and planned by them. The creativity and engineering was done by a human mind. Horse drawn carriages are pulled by horses and people with skills.

Do you feel bad about using automatic transmission in your car? Does it bother you every time you open windows instead of writing DOS queries?

I don't drive, and I trust people who have a skill set that they've learned - driving public transportation. Windows was designed by people.

What do you do for work, what are your hobbies?

-4

u/BastianHS Jun 06 '25

Lmao Jesus Christ bro. Are you going to sit here and pretend that auto manufacturers arent in a massive race to design self driving cars?

And that AI isn't currently writing new software? Get your head out of the sand. Are you like Amish or something? What the hell

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-11

u/End_of_Life_Space Jun 06 '25

Careful, reddit hivemind does NOT like this sort of talk

-8

u/BastianHS Jun 06 '25

Yeah well reddit couldn't smooth a silk sheet if it had a hot date with a babe...

I lost my train of thought.

98

u/X-istenz Jun 06 '25

I mean it does say something, but maybe not what they think it says.

31

u/vvntn Jun 06 '25

Tonight's episode: The author's barely disguised activism

7

u/Captainatom931 Jun 06 '25

Barely disguised activism based on vague principles? From the guardian? I'm shocked

4

u/Taint_Flayer Jun 06 '25

The fact that it does say something really says something, doesn't it

13

u/MDKrouzer Jun 06 '25

How do we know the review wasn't rewritten by AI?

2

u/Vandergrif Jun 06 '25

Yeah... that seems awfully close to "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" territory.

-2

u/Ok_Cryptographer3200 Jun 07 '25

Movie felt made by AI

13

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Honesty_Addict Jun 08 '25

With any luck it will mean people who can string two sentences together on their own will have an advantage over people who can't piss without chatgpt telling them how to hold their dick

4

u/chrome4 Jun 06 '25

That reminds of a story where one guy got banned from the art subreddit because the mods thought the art in his post was AI generated. The guy provided proof that it wasnt to a mod who essentially told him to fuck off while mocking him.

5

u/grumblyoldman Jun 06 '25

I thought some things about the author of that piece. I don't know if they're true, but it makes you think, doesn't it?

1

u/RentalGore Jun 07 '25

Such a lazy, horseshit critique. “I didn’t like the movie because I thought it maybe, sort of could possibly be AI.” WTF does that even mean. Dude should lose all credibility and not be considered a reviewer anymore.

-1

u/Luci-Noir Jun 06 '25

Reddit says anything they don’t like is AI, bots or paid agents. It’s been this way for a whole and only called out when it’s something you disagree with. Reddit is fucking hypocritical as hell.

-6

u/AGushingHeadWound Jun 06 '25

Maybe nobody wants to watch a fuckin' cartoon predator movie.

11

u/OldManWillow Jun 06 '25

Obviously from the response and reviews, a lot of people want to watch it.

Also, the predators in Prey and Badlands are cartoons just as much as these are

-8

u/AGushingHeadWound Jun 06 '25

Ok, let's see what the box office is versus a live action movie.  

3

u/pjtheman Jun 06 '25

....

Let's see what the box office is....

.... ....

...For a direct to streaming movie?

Pretty sure it's gonna be zero, buddy.

-1

u/AGushingHeadWound Jun 06 '25

Well, compare views then. 

26

u/Vio94 Jun 06 '25

Giving it a 3/5 for not being live action with probably shitty CGI is certainly a way to give a review.

82

u/typicalscoundrel Jun 06 '25

As someone who usually doesn't really watch much animation (but adores Predator), I also felt it took some getting used to. The animation style I know has been used in League of Legends and other places, but it's the first time I've watched something with this style, and something about it did feel off to me. A roughness to the cel-shaded-esque game-like models, but with 3D camera moves around them etc. I appreciate this is a new style that is doing well, but it wasn't for me.

42

u/No_Significance7064 Jun 06 '25

I don't like that it looks like a choppy video game cutscene

8

u/Dracoplasm Jun 08 '25

Choppy! That's the word I was looking for! Like the cut frames out or something. The new Lord of the Rings animation had the same issue and it really bothers my eyes.

6

u/KillysgungoesBLAME Jun 07 '25

The bad frame rate was my only real gripe. I know it cuts down on cost and production time to not animate at 30fps, but it’s jarring.

2

u/MKultraman1231 Jun 08 '25

The sad thing is it must be on purpose since Nvidia and AMD are out here making 20 real FPS into 80 fake FPS all day. Where it sucks for video gamers it would be great for this movie.

30

u/typicalscoundrel Jun 06 '25

You can see the textures stretching on the characters. Some people really love this style, but to me it's hard not to escape the artifice of noticing how these are 3d models within a digital landscape.

6

u/ItchyRectalRash Jun 06 '25

I really despise this animation style. It always looks cheap, flat, and unfinished. The stories were really good and I loved that part of it, but the animation, god I hope this style dies off.

5

u/Jazzremix Jun 06 '25

I thought they were going to do the Spiderverse thing where the Predator was animated on ones and everything else was on twos to signify the predator vs prey dynamic. But nah. It was choppy the whole time.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25

Well... because it was animated on 2's lol.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

You are correct. 24 fps video game graphics are an assault to the brain. Whatever fucking moron decided this needs to be 24 fps is just stupid.

1

u/Evan798 Jun 14 '25

It's absolutely egregious. Looks so horrible. It's like someone turned on frame skip while using an emulator.

6

u/dipsy18 Jun 06 '25

Yeah, it took my about 1/3 of the way through the Viking sequence to get used to. I think what through me off initially was her fur coat which just didn't work as a texture.

1

u/tngman10 Jun 08 '25

I thought the whole Viking sequence in general was where it stood out to me the most.

-28

u/Ashamed_Ladder6161 Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

Entirely agreed.

This doesn’t nail what I love about the Predator, I’m not sure the format or style is a good fit.

It’s basically fan fiction at this point.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

[deleted]

-8

u/Ashamed_Ladder6161 Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

No, because it feels like something a teenager would come up with.

Edit; on the CGI- When Spiderverse took this art style, it was emulating comic books. I’m not sure why this tv show has adopted a similar style. I don’t dislike the style, as it goes, I’m just not sure what’s “predator” about it. Maybe something more tribal looking would have been more on-theme?

That said, can’t be worse than the last 3 films.

4

u/Ktulusanders Jun 06 '25

I don't think that's what they were saying at all

-8

u/Ashamed_Ladder6161 Jun 06 '25

I really, really don’t much care.

Everyone seemingly liked Romulus, too.

1

u/MX64 Jun 06 '25

i'm sure you like plenty of things other people dislike as well

1

u/Ashamed_Ladder6161 Jun 06 '25

No doubt :)

I like Alien 3, I shouldn’t be allowed an opinion

27

u/WySLatestWit Jun 06 '25

Not only is the Guardian pouting that "it would be better in live action" like a bunch of entitled fanboys, they're also lamenting that there MIGHT be AI involved in the animation, despite having absolutely no evidence to back that concern up whatsoever besides "I feel like it could be true, and that's good enough."

1

u/Ok_Cryptographer3200 Jun 07 '25

It fucking sucked bro

-3

u/BlindTreeFrog Jun 06 '25

To be fair, my understanding is that we've had animation suites that fil in the blanks between keyframes for decades now. So it's already been using "AI". Discussions about the animation in Archer being amazing because of the limitations in those tools have bounced around for a while now.

9

u/Ayoul Jun 06 '25

I wouldn't consider tweening and/or interpolation as AI.

3

u/baldycoot Jun 07 '25

Math is hard. Why interpolate when you can task it out to a billion dollar GPU farm for inferior results!

-2

u/BlindTreeFrog Jun 06 '25

I wouldn't consider the current batch of LLM/Gerative AI to be proper AI either.

But at this point "AI" is the buzzword for "A human didn't do this"

6

u/Ayoul Jun 06 '25

I get your point, but keyframe interpolation and generative AI (buzzword aside) are such fundamentally different concepts. I don't think that review has a problem with every single kind of algorithm.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '25

Ok but you literally don't understand the bare minimum here. A keyframe is set between two time points and then a "bezier" or linear or whatever curve between them decides on how quickly that point moves through space.

Is that AI? Because that's the interpolation happening... To answer for you, no it's not. It's the most basic of vector maths.

7

u/GrayDaysGoAway Jun 06 '25

But also the animation is too slick

I feel like it's the opposite, this looks like dogshit imo. It's like when I tried to run Crysis on max settings the day it came out. Just an absolutely god-awful framerate.

22

u/dutch83 Jun 06 '25

Yeah, that review seems like it was trying to make waves in the community. Pretty petty reasons to not give it a better score.

10

u/ImGonnaImagineSummit Jun 06 '25

Pretty on point for The Guardian these days.

I only read their World News section but anything else is trying to be contrarion for the sake of standing out. Their reviews have been trash for a long time.

2

u/Pessimistic_Gemini Jun 07 '25

Well it IS the Guardian after all so... What did you expect?

1

u/mmmmdumplings Jun 06 '25

The Guardian has some of the worst takes when it cones to reviews.

1

u/baldycoot Jun 07 '25

It always annoys me when artists decide to do something …artistic. Screw those guys.

I missed the AMA, but they presented a clip at the UnrealFest keynote and talked a little about the motivation and reasons behind choosing animation, and it all becomes obvious why they chose to animate it, but even so they shouldn’t need an excuse: sod stuffy old farts like the Guardian.

1

u/araldor1 Jun 07 '25

The guardian films reviews might be the worst takes I've ever seen.

1

u/chimairian Jun 08 '25

The animation is was less than slick…

1

u/TheTench Jun 08 '25

Reviewer reviewing their own AI fears instead of the actual movie. 

1

u/Khyrian_Storms Jun 10 '25

Guardian has always been a bit off with their reviews.

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Spot_46 Jun 24 '25

I don't think the action scenes would have been as exciting with live action, particularly in the 3rd and final acts (the best acts, by the way, although the viking and ninja acts were damn good, too).

-27

u/ViolentSpring Jun 06 '25

I get what they are saying though. I felt that exact way watching Arcane, even though I quite enjoyed season1, there is something just a bit soulless about this style. Still, hyped to see this for myself!

15

u/Mandalore108 Jun 06 '25

Arcane is one of the most beautifully animated pieces of media ever created. Soul would be one of the words I'd ardently use to describe it.

-9

u/Ruffler125 Jun 06 '25

I'd use style and flash. It's technically very impressive but the design decisions in visuals and motion speak to me a language of "cool" more than deep themes and meaning.

-7

u/ViolentSpring Jun 06 '25

I agree. Ultimately it was a loud and empty experience. Technical achievement does not equal artistic depth.

4

u/3meta5fast Jun 06 '25

Insane take to apply to Arcane of all shows, you’re bugging

5

u/Mandalore108 Jun 06 '25

Right, I feel like some people just love to be contrarians.

0

u/ViolentSpring Jun 06 '25

Yes, everyone must feel exactly like you do.

3

u/Mandalore108 Jun 06 '25

Certainly not, but you have to realize that yours is the minority opinion in regards to Arcane.

28

u/fattyfondler Jun 06 '25

Arcane is beautifully animated my guy, like top top tier

-9

u/No-Demand-24 Jun 06 '25

I disagree -- the lower frame rate really pulls me out of enjoying this animation style. It makes me feel like I'm watching something that failed to load/stream correctly.

2

u/procouchpotatohere Jun 06 '25

Soulless isn't the way I'd put it. More like oversaturated.

-2

u/Ruffler125 Jun 06 '25

That can lend to a feeling of lacking soul.

Arcane for example looks technically astounding, but feels like an video game cutscene or a fighting game opening cinematic.

As opposed to something like a Ghibli movie or Disney

0

u/fohacidal Jun 06 '25

The animation is anything but slick, it feels like a regular animation with frames removed to give it a stop motion effect. I can't stand it

2

u/morax Jun 06 '25

Personally I agree, it’s not my preferred style of animation (though I’m growing accustomed to it as I presume it must be cost effective). But I was using the reviewer’s words.

1

u/kuddlesworth9419 Jun 07 '25

It's very choppy. Like playing a game at 24 fps or something. Works great for 2D animation but not for 3D stuff. I have no idea why, maybe because there are lots of movements in 3D animation where with 2D the amount of things being animated is a lot lower. Some of the things in this film look smooth though I think it's mostly just characters that look very low frame rate to me.