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Three separate Predators set out to hunt three different human warriors in 2025's Predator: Killer of Killers, an animated film from directors Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung. Trachtenberg was the mastermind behind the popular Predator movie Prey a couple years ago and the writing on Killer of Killers is just as ridiculous. The animated format may be better suited to cartoonish logic but I found the third segment of the film too vigorously lame.

Like Prey, Killer of Killers features some actors with tenuous connexions to the ethnicities they're portraying. Louis Ozawa, an American actor of Japanese and Chinese descent, plays a pair of samurai brothers, the only voice role in the mostly wordless second and best segment of the film. Set in 1609 in no more specific place than "in Japan", a detail that may be less obtrusive to those of you not living in Japan, the story follows the lives of the two men whose father has pitted against each other for the right of succession to shogun. The two learn the value of working together against the extraterrestrial foe, who in one shot is visually linked to their psychopathic father. It's not a story that fits well in feudal Japan, nor does it seem right for a Predator movie, particular in its posing the Predator as a thematic ghost of the boys' father. But the action sequences are the best of the film.

I preferred the concept of the first story, in which a Viking matriarch is robbed of her moment of glorious revenge but the sudden intrusion of a Predator. I liked the idea of the alien foe also disrupting culture and tradition.

The third segment, about a young fighter pilot in World War II, was just a relentless stream of stupid ideas. On this kid's first flight, he wears no helmet, everyone in the squadron is able to communicate with each other without apparent headsets; at one point the boy crawls out onto the wing of his plane in midflight in order to fix something. He also somehow knows that the Predator's vision is based on heat so he decides to cut his engines, apparently making his aircraft ice cold. Sure, it didn't make a lot of sense when Schwarzenegger was able to hide behind cold mud but at least he felt constrained to also be still when the Predator was looking directly at him.

It's not a very satisfying film but it's a good accomplishment for animation studio Third Floor.

Predator: Killer of Killers is available on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ elsewhere in the world.

I finally managed to get through 2011's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides last night. Every time I'd tried to watch it before, all the cgi slapstick and lousy writing stopped me cold. But somehow I kind of enjoyed it this time.

Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz are both fine in it. Depp really disappears into the Jack Sparrow role and, in spite of everything, I see the character and not the very over-exposed actor. Which certainly says something about said actor's abilities. Penelope Cruz was pregnant during filming which would likely explain the excessive number of close-ups she has. Something about her lacked the flair she has in other roles.

I asked Google's AI why Ian McShane, an Englishman, uses an American accent in his role as the English pirate Blackbeard. I received this answer:

Ian McShane's character, Blackbeard, in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, has an American accent, likely due to the character's portrayal as a "North American pirate" or "colonist pirate". The film draws upon historical depictions of pirates who plundered Caribbean islands and were associated with the Americas. While McShane is British, the film's narrative and Blackbeard's characterization suggest a connection to the American colonists and their language.

The interesting thing about it to me is that it's a rationale and not the obvious, actual reason, that McShane, at the time, was best known for his portrayal of Al Swearengen, an American character on the HBO series Deadwood. If he'd been cast as Blackbeard when he was best known for playing the title character on Lovejoy, who spoke with an English accent, he probably would've also used an English accent for his portrayal of Blackbeard. Why can't the AI think of this? It's like it's afraid of offending someone.

Accents in the 18th century would've been noticeably different than they are to-day, whether you're talking about people in England or in an American colony, so any accent would be an anachronism anyway. There's no reason for Jack Sparrow to have an English accent. The rationale for speaking with a modern English accent is about as valid as speaking with a modern American one.

On Stranger Tides was directed by Rob Marshall who went on to direct the live action Little Mermaid remake. Perhaps it was the use of mermaids in On Stranger Tides that made him seem right for the job. The mermaids in On Stranger Tides, though, were certainly much hotter.

I generally find Marshall to be a bland filmmaker and this is a mostly bland film though mostly due to the poorly considered plot than anything to do with direction. The screenwriters seem to struggle to string thoughts together. When Jack tries to organise a mutiny on Blackbeard's ship, Blackbeard hadn't appeared yet up to that point. Jack asks if any of the crew have ever seen Blackbeard and they all say, no, that the captain never leaves his quarters. From this, Jack, reasonably enough, concludes they've all been deceived, and this isn't Blackbeard's ship at all. But after executing the mutiny, who should emerge from the cabin but none other than Blackbeard himself. Why had he never come out of his cabin before? No explanation is given. Had he truly never been on deck during any previous attack or raid? This is left unaddressed. There's a lot of stuff like that in the movie: scenes that depend on you at least half forgetting previous scenes in order to function.

I was delighted to see an old friend, the Surprise, the ship used by Captain Barbossa in his new position as a Captain in the Royal Navy. The Surprise is a replica 18th century ship that docks at the San Diego Maritime Museum, where I was a volunteer hand for a few years, until six years ago. My first day volunteering at the museum, I spent around three hours sitting on the Surprise's poop deck, learning to splice lines, a skill I sadly did not retain. Though I can't imagine when I might next use it. I was subsequently to spend quite a lot of time on that ship and it was genuinely nice to see her again.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is available on Disney+.