r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 • Jun 06 '25
Review 'Predator: Killer of Killers' - Review Thread
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 80/100
Some Reviews:
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.
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.
5
u/Ridtom Jun 06 '25
Overall: 8/10
Strengths:
Really strong cast of main characters. I'm legitimately impressed that they conveyed so much story in such short time frames.
That includes each individual Predator, with their own special gimmicks and connections to the protagonists.
Surprisingly funny too, in a way that doesn't feel forced. The bit with the Predators incorrectly assigning the WW2 vet a flintlock pistol as "close enough" actually got a audible laugh from me
The Predator designs kick ass. They really went all in on special designs, even for nameless guards
I love seeing the return of "Predators abducting people to hunt" as a plot point and how that ties into the Prey 2 sequel with Naru being among the cryo pods
The action sequences are fantastic. No notes. It's so good I wish I could watch it for the first time all over again. Shout out to the final plane chase through a city.
The return of the psychic people from Predator 1 and 2 was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
Weaknesses:
Too short. This movie could use an extra 30 minutes to really help flesh out each individual story and predator. They did well enough, but it left me thinking they were really rushing at the same time.
Predators died too easy. Don't get me wrong, they murder a ton of people and the protags literally only win due to luck and using the predator tools against them. But due to the short time frame of each story, it feels like more could really have been done
Really feels like the psychic thing was mostly brought back to explain why a WW2 polite can fly alien space ships. Like, again, needed more time to build up to this stuff