“Let’s go hunting!”

Justin’s rating: Hey, they officially have a species name now — the Yautja!

Justin’s review: While it always seems like its Alien sibling gets all the attention, the Predator series might have a case for being the overall better one. I think there’s a case to be made that all of its installments — AvP flicks aside — are genuinely good in their own right, and director Dan Trachtenberg’s helmed a trio of excellent installments in the past few years for Hulu that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve.

Following Trachtenberg’s Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers is a $50 million animated anthology featuring everyone’s favorite space safari hunters. Apparently, this was created very hush-hush and tossed out to fans as a surprise before the release of Badlands. And what a surprise it turned out to be, because this is an incredible effort that goes above and beyond a mere promotional tie-in.

The first of the four stories is The Shield, which takes place in 841 AD and follows a Viking raid looking for some good old fashioned revenge. But all the slaughter between the two tribes attracts the attention of an absolute unit of a Predator, with expected slasher film results. Our main character, Ursa, is a fearsome valkyrie warrior who’s almost unstoppable with her dual razor-sharp shields, but it’s going to be the fight of her life with this one.

The Sword goes to 1609 Japan, where two brothers take their rivalry to a lethal level. Samurai and ninja swordplay ensues, a Predator jumps into the mix, and no happy ending is readied for this crew.

Then we jump to 1942 for The Bullet, where WWII pilot Torres sees a Predator ship take out his squadron, leaving him and him alone to pit prop fighter against a interstellar gunship. Fun fact: This segment includes Michael Biehn, who became the third person (after Bill Paxton and Lance Henrickson) to act in a Alien/Terminator/Predator trifecta.

In the final segment, The Battle, all three victors from the previous stories are brought together for an epic showdown with the Predators on their home turf. We even get to see some famous characters from previous Predator movies captured in deep freeze.

Don’t hear “animation” and think that this is a Pixar version of Arnold Schwarzenneger’s greatest foe. VFX studio The Third Floor uses a semi-realistic, semi-cel shaded, stylized animation that we’ve been seeing since Into the Spider-Verse, and it works so well for these characters and the battles they endure. Plus, it looks frickin’ gorgeous, bringing art into the struggle for life and death and supremacy.

The music is good enough to make me want to download the soundtrack, and the violent, frequently bloody action is impeccably choreographed. I love how the different time periods offer different combat styles, all juxtaposed against the technologically advanced Predators.

To be fair in reviewing, I have to acknowledge that the short 20-minute segments elect to focus on visuals and action above character dialogue and development, so it can be a little shallow in the narrative department. Then again, if you come to a Predator flick, that’s the ratio you’d want.

Because animation has this weird stigma these days of being seen as somehow less than live-action, it may be easy to dismiss efforts like Killer of Killers as being some non-canon, lesser project. I don’t think I can let such a strawman accusation stand. This is, no doubt, a full-fledged Predator movie, worthy of the title and respect. It’s hot and fierce and imaginative, and the animation pairs well with the scifi-horror elements. As with Prey and Badlands, it’s a true shame that this was dumped straight to Hulu instead of getting the theatrical release that it deserved.