I Don't Understand the Aliens from the 'Predator' Series and That's Okay
Some musings on the recent 'Predator: Killer of Killers.'
The Predator alien (or “Predalien” for short), first introduced in 1987’s Predator, is a curious beast. For those who haven’t seen John McTiernan’s classic action movie, it’s about a team of elite paramilitary soldiers tasked with a rescue mission in Central America, only to encounter an alien creature with advanced technology who hunts them for sport. It’s a neat idea: take a band of super-macho tough guys who say things like, “I ain’t got time to bleed,” and then set them against a species with superior technology. However, where do you go from there?
In the years between the original, the franchise struggled with the reactionary Predator 2 (people freaking out about the protests in L.A. right now look at Predator 2 and think they’re watching a documentary), the underrated Predators (Adrien Brody as action movie star is a surprising turn, but one he plays well alongside a top-notch cast), and the disappointing The Predator, which feels like director Shane Black in a losing battle against studio notes (the less said on the misbegotten Alien vs. Predator movies the better). But then along came Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) and he gave the series a shot in the arm with Prey and now Predator: Killer of Killers, which takes the series back to its most feasible idea: one Predator vs. warriors. Prey sets the Predator against a young Comanche warrior (Amber Midthunder), and Killer of Killers is an animated feature that uses an anthology format to pit the Predator against a Viking, a Ronin, and a WWII fighter pilot.
What’s funny about these latest movies is that the more Predator you get (as opposed to being a one-off Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle like the first movie), the more questions arise about what exactly they’re up to. They’re a technologically advanced society. They’re not the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, which are, for all intents and purposes, space monsters. The xenomorphs don’t want anything beyond killing the thing in front of them as quickly as possible. Predaliens have cloaking technology, heat vision, and lasers. They hang out in trees waiting for the right moment to strike. They collect trophies, and then they leave the hunting grounds.
There is a significant gap between what the Predaliens are supposed to be and what their behavior reveals. The Predaliens are probably supposed to be a race of proud warriors who have built their species around feats of strength, where they go out, trophy hunt, and come back victorious by showing off their kills. That’s the implication of a film like Predators, where various killers are gathered up and sent to an alien planet so they can be hunted by Predaliens, or in Killer of Killers, where the big bad Predalien wears a bunch of spines like a cloak. Everything is built around the hunt.
But because the series created tension with these guys severely outmatching their human prey, the Predaliens never seem strong so much as they’re imposing as guys who go big game hunting with a rocket launcher. Yes, a rhino or a lion is pretty scary if you’re unarmed, but if you can immediately blow it up with a piece of technology, then I’m not sure you’re the most fearsome hunter around, since most people can point a rocket launcher and pull a trigger. Killer of Killers implies that these humans have unknowingly passed a test of some kind by besting a Predalien, but from the Predalien’s perspective, aren’t these dudes bored? You can turn invisible and wear rocket boosters on your shoes. Are you threatened because a creature half your size has an axe?
This leads to other questions about Predaliens. Are they adrenaline junkies who have hunted so much that they’re now trying to find anything that could endanger them? Is there a Predalien society that functions unremarkably, and the Predaliens we’ve seen so far are like the losers of their society who want to seem tough, but no one is impressed because they’re bringing heavy artillery against a technologically inferior species? They’re not colonizer aliens; they seem to be only motivated by space tourism and finding fun things to kill. That’s so weird! It’s a species that only does one thing!
But that one thing is fun to watch. Killer of Killers isn’t a particularly deep movie, but it’s got great animation, neat action scenes, and repeats the hook of Prey where you pluck humans from various points in history and set them against a Predalien. As long as you never try to figure out a Predalien’s motivation beyond “DURRRR HUNTING,” you’ll have a good time.
Predator: Killer of Killers is now streaming on Hulu.
Recommendations
As ICE agents load up around the country to collect the most vulnerable people they can (remember when this was about deporting dangerous criminals? If you ever believed that, I have a bridge to sell you), it’s important to remember that these people are cowards. Hamilton Nolan puts it best about serving the racist whims of a goblin like Stephen Miller:
Now, Stephen Miller is a little rat-faced Nazi bitch. Since his youth just about everyone around him has despised him because he has always been a miserable racist little shit whose evil heart is manifested in his detestable rodent-like visage. Knowing that, I like to imagine all those big, bad, ICE agents, manly men, so macho, shifting uncomfortably around a conference room table as they are harangued by that psychotic little bureaucrat, and then rushing out to kidnap working men from a Home Depot parking lot in order to demonstrate to their master, Stephen Bitch Ass Miller, how good they are at being America’s new gestapo.
“Oh, Mister Miller, sir! I put on 40 pounds of tactical gear and tackled a 55-year-old partially disabled day laborer! I prevented him from doing some drywall work and feeding his family, for you, sir! I yearn for your approval!”
The whole article is great, and while the Trump administration seeks to meet protests with overwhelming force, I think it’s going to backfire horribly for them. People voted for Trump because they wanted it to be 2019 again, with an economy that was humming along. Instead, they’re going to get 2020 with protests and plague.
What I’m Watching
Kevin Smith’s Dogma is back in theaters with a 4K restoration. I used to be a die-hard Smith fan when I was in high school and college, but I haven’t gone back to his earlier films in over a decade. I was surprised that Dogma held up so well because Smith’s stuff leans sophmoric and juvenile. However, even though Smith isn’t the world’s greatest writer or director, the movie is a prime example of how far you can go if you have a clear voice and something you want to say. Smith’s thoughts on religion and Catholicism come from someone who grew up in the church, understands its humorous hypocrisies, and wrote a funny little story about it. Worth checking out if you haven’t seen it (and don’t mind some raunchy humor).
What I’m Reading
I finished Ed Zwick’s memoir Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions, and mostly dug it. Zwick approaches his career with humility and admits that he’s had a successful run as a filmmaker, but he’s not on the level of the luminaries he admired growing up. It’s a valuable resource for anyone who’s thinking about becoming a director (for me, it only confirms my decision to drop that career path), but also illuminating about Hollywood works for someone who never got the name recognition of a Steven Spielberg or Christopher Nolan. The book also made me want to revisit Zwick’s movies like Glory and The Last Samurai, as well as check out the ones I’ve never seen before, like About Last Night and The Siege.
I’ve now moved on to Nick de Semlyen’s The Last Action Heroes, which chronicles the action stars of the 1980s, such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc. My whole summer reading list is books about movies, and if you want to see where I’m at, you can follow me on Goodreads.
What I’m Hearing
I was never a big Linkin Park guy, but the band has a new lead singer, Emily Armstrong, and I’m an absolute sucker for a rock band with female lead vocalist. The sound is still immediately recognizable as Linkin Park, but feminine fury in the vocals typically works so much better than masculine rage. Unless you’re Zack de la Rocha shouting down systemic ills like in Rage Against the Machine, I’m not exactly sure what a guy like Fred Durst had to be so mad about for Limp Bizkit. Armstrong’s fire is a good shot in the arm for Linkin Park, and I particularly like the track “Heavy Is the Crown.”
I also decided to give Ben Folds Five’s debut album a listen because some friends were talking it up, but I don’t know if it’s ever going to click for me the same way as their follow-up, Whatever and Ever Amen. There are some great tracks on their debut like “Jackson Cannery” and “Underground,” but there’s also stuff that doesn’t work for me at all like “Julianne.”
Finally, if you’ve been lured in by “Lab Leak Theory,” I encourage you to listen to the latest If Books Could Kill, which is a thorough debunking of the conspiracy theory. Listening to the episode, one could argue, “Well, whether COVID-19 was a lab leak or zoonotic, does it really make a difference?” and I would argue that the problem is it’s a juicy conspiracy theory that allows people go down a rabbit hole and forget that the Trump Administration’s response to COVID-19 was an utter disaster.
What I’m Playing
I keep thinking I’m going to pick up some AAA game that will push my PS5 to the limits (something like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle), and then I keep picking up indie games like Coffee Talk or A Short Hike. I’m currently playing the 2019 game Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night because A) I’m a sucker for its inspiration, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night; and B) a sequel is on the way. So maybe Indiana Jones will cycle in at some point, but it’s just as likely I’ll keep playing indies and older games until the upcoming re-release of Final Fantasy Tactics.