Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa, Rick Gonzalez, Michael Biehn, Doug Cockle, Damien Haas, Lauren Holt, Jeff Leach, Piotr Michael, Andrew Morgado, Felix Solis, Britton Watkins.

Mean, full of rippling muscle, a film that reignites the fear that first came way of the cinema goer almost 40 years ago, Predator: Killer of Killers is a surprise inclusion to the long running franchise, but one like the previous feature of Prey, holds the ethos of the monster up on a pedestal and with the highest of respect.

Like its stablemate of Alien, the makers of the Predator franchise has had to rethink their position if they wanted their creation to stay relevant as one of science fiction’s most enduring and fascinating examples of the genre, and in this visually demanding, in-depth animated anthology, what the viewer and fan alike are treated to is a film of absolute sincerity, chilling sequences of engaging combat that are spectacles worthy of live action, a physicality of suspense that frames the habits of the Predator species with intent, and three human protagonists that the audience immediately admires.

The point of such a film is to have at its heart the understanding that you need the human fighter to overcome the odds, it is why the first Predator worked so well, not only because of the then star demand of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but because you cared about his character Major Alan ‘Dutch’ Schaefer’, even as a leader of a mercenary outfit, the audience rooted for his survival.

So the anthology utilises this effect with homage, and by sending the Predator species to different time periods in Earth’s history, The Viking age, Feudal Japan, and the drama of America’s initial involvement in World War Two, what the audience is once more made aware of is human kind’s almost instinctive desire for violence and combat, and only the cause separating it from noble aggression to downright combative slaughter.

Predator: Killer of Killers ranks highly in the franchise, it has heart, depth, meaning, it frames the struggle between war as an entertainment and a show once lauded by Roman culture and the need for survival, the human ingenuity to find a way to work together when the species is under threat.

A film to admire from start to finish, one dedicated to bridging the gap between the illuminating Prey and the next cinematic instalment due out later this year.

Ian D. Hall