pray you bloody your spear tonight.” On Earth, 841 A.D., conquering Vikings go ashore to plunder another village. Young Anders, the son of Ursa – a great but merciless leader – isn’t confident in his place among the warriors. He has yet to see the most horrific of the brutality inherent in their culture’s credo. As the group searches for the stronghold of Chief Zoran, who slayed Ursa’s father decades prior, something even more bloodthirsty hunts the hunters … something not of this world.

In the first of three episodes (titled “The Shield”) composing this animated “Predator” anthology (opening with music faintly reminiscent of the soundtrack from the original 1987 film), the violence is on overdrive, with limbs and heads getting sliced and severed with relative ease and plenty of gore. And that’s before the extraterrestrial monster shows up. Clearly, this sharply visualized production is primarily interested in capturing the excessive carnage that the live-action productions previously boasted. It’s fitting and exciting, even if the animation allows for some exaggerations, particularly in the size of the creature, which would certainly be more difficult to accomplish with a man-in-a-suit. Although the Predator is villainous, the main characters are morally conflicted enough that they’re not all that sympathetic, which makes the heroism on display moderately suffer. Still, the battles and the destruction are amusing, especially with new, outlandish technology and inventive methods for combating a monstrous invader.

The second chapter (“The Sword”) is also patterned around two lead roles, this time brothers in Japan in 1609, who train to be samurai, though they’re youthful enough to simultaneously find joy in trivial, childish things. Once again, however, they exist in a cruel period rife with barbaric customs, which finds them pitted against one another for status and honor. And, once again, an invisible intruder plots to attack a collision of soldiers as a squadron of ninjas engage in a nighttime ambush against a palace. Interestingly, the obvious and anticipated duel between the brothers some 20 years later is much more of a focus than the alien observer, who patiently waits for his turn to cause considerable bodily damage to various troops with an assortment of edged weapons. In yet another suitable mirroring, this Predator similarly employs technology previously unseen in the popular sci-fi universe. But unlike in the prior short, this one operates with almost no dialogue, allowing the themes and imagery to tell the story by themselves.

In the third sequence (“The Bullet”), set in Florida in 1941, John Torres gets drafted into the war, where he soon finds himself in the North Atlantic. He wants to be a pilot, but he’s regularly relegated to menial labor instead. As his superiors and venturesome aces engage in heroic dogfights, Torres discovers an unknown device that has pierced the engine block of an aircraft, prompting him to disobey orders, taking to the skies to warn his fellow combatants that they’re not alone up there. This segment introduces original technology like the two preceding it, but it also features a yautja (Predator) that doesn’t fight on land, choosing to stalk his prey while aboard a spaceship; this results in one of the more impressive, unlikely adventures involving the hellish trophy hunters. Plus, this episode has a recognizable voice actor, Michael Biehn, as a senior flyer, which adds a certain interest to the events.

After the champions of the three time periods are collected by the yautja (perhaps comically – and expectedly – the ultimate otherworldly slaughterers can’t seem to beat the measly humans), they’re brought together for a futuristic showdown, an ending sequence that serves as a bookend to the disparate tales. Although the individual animations are quite well done, this finale works on another level, tying human roles into visuals that will be seen in the upcoming “Predator: Badlands,” while even making references to director Dan Trachtenberg’s former endeavor “Prey.” While the three chapters are complete stories, the overarching narrative is more of a tease to further sci-fi contests. Nevertheless, as far as Predator-based pictures go, this one is immensely entertaining.

– Mike Massie