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Today marks the end of an era, albeit an epic fail of an era, as Sony has officially put out what will be their last Marvel spin-off film. Aside from focusing on Tom Holland’s Spider-Man who merged with Marvel Studios and Disney, Sony is accepting defeat with the disasters that are Morbius and Madame Web. It doesn’t bode well for Kraven: The Hunter as Sony announced all this just days before the movie hit today and when you line everything up, that just reeks of Sony not putting any faith into the Aaron Taylor-Johnson led comic book vehicle. The film has also been delayed numerous times to the point where I think everyone in the movie is five years older since they filmed this thing. The trailers that Sony unleashed upon fanboys looked promising enough with Taylor-Johnson looking sensational as Kraven and the movie containing some pretty rad hard R rated action sequences. Plus, Hollywood icon Russell Crowe also stars as Kraven’s villainous father Nikolai so that was a strong selling point as well.
With all the issues with this one during production and the massive misfires of the last two movies (not including Venom: The Last Dance which is a moderate hit for that franchise), I still remained cautiously optimistic as the footage I had seen looked savage, raw and fierce with our anti-hero slicing and dicing his way through some clever kills. I have been keeping track of the horrendous reviews sort of and even with that, my only opinion I listen to is, well, my own for obvious reasons. I never let anyone sway what I thought of a movie or TV show in my forty plus years of watching all things action and I’m sure as hell not going to start now. it’s also important to note that I love bad movies so this one sounds like it will be in my wheelhouse.
With all that being said, how is Kraven: the Hunter? Is it the colossal train wreck that many reviewers are stating (after all, it stands at a whopping 15% on Rotten Tomatoes as I write this and it’ll probably gonfown), or is it passable for genre and comic book fans to partake in. Let me also say that I’m a casual fan of this Marvel character so with that, did I enjoy the film Worts and all? The answer, simply put, is yes I did enjoy it for the positives I’ll mention. Don’t get me wrong. There are some massive issues with the movie like failure to explain, overstuffed flashbacks and disjointed plotlines. The dialogue is silly and rather cringy at times as well, but I never had that deter me from liking a movie. Sometimes, a well placed clunker of dialogue can be endearing but here it’s evident that there were more hands in the cookie jar once again.
It’s not the epic I was hoping for, but I loved Taylor-Johnson’s performance, and I do believe that he has finally reached some sort of action street cred with this movie and the action sequences are simply bad ass with a few highlights I will mention. Don’t go in expecting anything and you might take something away from it. I know it’s not a glowing recommendation but it’s not worse than Madame Web, so that’s saying something. Having this film have a lower score on RT is ridiculous.
The plot for Kraven, which has difficulty finding its identity concerns a young boy named Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who is mauled by a massively large and ferocious lion. He is also the son of a ruthless underworld criminal named Nikolai, played with scene chewing intensity by Russell Crowe and his younger brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger, who puts in a truly sympathetic performance) is weaker of the two which angers Nikolai. Sergei is his true and most loved son, and he views his “bastard son” and Sergei’s half-brother as a disappointment. Upon being mauled, Sergei is saved by a young girl named Calypso (an underused Ariana DeBose) who gives him a mysterious family serum that empowers Sergei with some unusual and amazing physical and mental powers that are almost animal like. Sergei denounces his father when the latter executes the lion that attacked him and his father’s criminal empire and escapes to take on the persona of Kraven, AKA the Hunter, who makes it his ultimate mission to hunt down evildoers everywhere like game poachers who prey on wildlife. Things get complicated though when Kraven is sucked back into his father’s ruthless world when his brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) is kidnapped.
That’s as involved in the plot as I will get as you will need to see the film to discover other things like all the easter eggs involving Spider-Man without actually mentioning him, but Kraven fails in many areas but also succeeds in others making this an enjoyable viewing experience for me. I’ll poke at the negatives first as the pacing is severely affected by a long and overbearing flashback sequence showing the origin of how Sergei becomes Kraven. It goes on for over 20 minutes and it demolishes an otherwise solid action opening showcasing Taylor-Johnson and the violent action design to behold. I felt that cutting down that section and showing us faster glimpses of his younger years would have served better for the audience.
The movie also suffers from lack of explanation as we just have to accept things the way they are without reasons and meaning. For instance, why does Kraven make it his life’s work to hunt poachers and save the wildlife? In the comics, he’s more of an alpha predator who doesn’t really seek to protect anything but I assume this is out in to humanize him to the audience. Does he make a great living from it? Well, I guess so as he has a pretty sweet lair that used to belong to his late mother that he fixes up real solid and a personal pilot and plane available at his beck and call. The tone of the film is uneven as well as it’s equal parts savage action and tedious melodrama making it like there was a committee behind all this and this is another film that suffers from re-shoots and editing issues. Just as things are ramping up, director J.C. Chandor slams on the breaks and we are forced to watch some overstuffed sequences that kill any momentum that was starting to thrive.
Kraven’s universe of villains is hit and miss with Crowe’s Nikolai being the best draw but unfortunately Crowe isn’t seen as much as I would have hoped, and I would have preferred him to be the main villain. That dynamic, while it still is there, is a missed opportunity and a father/son showdown and battle would have brought this movie a lot more substance. Instead, we are treated to another Rhino character misfire with Alessandro Nivola delivering a campy performance of the iconic villain. His arc isn’t fleshed out as much as it should have been too and he delivers a questionable performance ripe with a few weird moments.
Christopher Abbott does an admiral job as an assassin which stems from the Marvel comic’s character of The Foreigner. Again, Abbot’s involvement comes too little too late to make any huge impact and he’s dealt with rather easily. Crowe’s evil father should have been the main focus, but that subplot is mis mashed and wedged into all the other villain storylines.
Ariana DeBose, who plays a potential love interest for Kraven who is also from the comics, is decent when she’s on as a high-powered lawyer from Kraven’s past but again she is underutilized, and her back story never comes to light. It’s inferred that she had something big go on when she was a child, and she effortlessly just picks up a bow and arrow and kills without a second thought. In the comics, Kraven and Calypso are tight but nothing is really fleshed out. There’s no real chemistry there between the two and more explanation would have done them better justice, especially for viewers not in the know of the comics.
Now on to the positives. Again, I’m a casual fan of this character and haven’t read him in the comics for years but I think that did bode well for me as if I had been more educated on Kraven, I probably would have dismissed this movie all together. Instead, I loved Taylor-Johnson here and thought he was perfect for the role. The actor has taken his lumps in the past as people have dismissed him as uninteresting in his films but here, he sells the character and carries the movie on his shoulders. He also put the work in and is in phenomenal shape and looks deadly and efficient for the film’s many blood tipped action sequences and has many a opportunity to do signature Kraven moves ripped from the comics like the spear throwing stunt. He really does embody the character even though there are liberties taken with it as there always are. It’s rather sad that Sony is abandoning ship at least with Kraven as this could have been a solid franchise for the star to excel in and annihilate more faceless goons on his way to the showdown with your favorite, friendly neighborhood superhero we all know and love. I think seeing them together on screen would be fandom gold.
I heard of many complaints about the CGI animals and how Rhino looked for the finished product, but they are not nearly as disastrous as people are making them out to be. Rhino especially looks pretty damn good when he finally makes his full appearance during the finale, so I don’t really see the hate for all that but that’s my opinion and I’m standing by it. I’ve seen way worse in bigger budgeted films, so this was never a breaking point for me.
The movie’s ferocious and cutthroat action sequences are the clear highlight of the movie and proving once again that hard R rated comic book films look great on the big screen. Again, I heard horror stories of how badly edited and how damaging they were to adding the enjoyment factor of the film but low and behold I ate them all up. I had no problem seeing what was going on and Taylor-Johnson is given ample opportunity to cut loose with the blood splattering choreography with some pretty gnarly kills and violence. Highlights for me were an exceptional hallway battle between Kraven and some mercs and the finale where he carves his way through heavily armed assailants in a convoy with a bevy of bladed weaponry. Blood flows like it’s free here and fans who like their action borderline horror like should approve. Kraven uses traps, blades, spears, his body and more to decapitate a host of faceless goons and I was grinning from ear to ear. The fight choreography courtesy of Mike Lambert is unflinching, barbaric and medieval at times. It might be true that the action sequences along with Taylor-Johnson were the saving graces for me and will factor into my finale verdict with the positives outweighing the negatives.
We all know that Kraven is a super villain to Spider-Man and maybe if Sony’s Marvel villain universe went somewhere, we would have actually seen them on screen together but at the end of the day, fans will have to settle for winks and nods. This movie is filled with slight hints at the wall crawler but nothing will ever come of it which is a shame. Taking certain characters like Calypso and Dmitri who will eventually channel another comic villain is fine and all but none of this going anywhere so this will be just another stand alone origin story with no real pay off. I enjoyed it to a certain extent what Kraven had to offer but knowing that there would be a future to all this would have made me enjoy it a lot more. On its own, it’s an above average B level action flick with some bone cracking, John Wick style action set pieces with feeling glimpses of a solid franchise buried in there somewhere.
At the end of the day, the bad reviews and I say this by mentioning that I think Rotten Tomatoes is garbage and a useless tool, Sony’s elimination of any future spin-offs and negative reception will kill any momentum for future installments of Kraven. The movie ends with the Spider-Man villain coming into his own ending with an iconic shot of a comic book accurate looking Kraven accepting his mantle. There are easter eggs for Spidey fans to partake in, but I was never unsatisfied because there was no Web-Slinger involved with the project. I feel the character of Kraven is interesting and bad ass enough to stand on his own and maybe Marvel Studios will welcome Taylor-Johnson into the Disney family for future MCU entries as I think he would thrive there especially finally linking up with Holland’s Spidey. There are more Spider-man solo films planned with number four in development so Marvel, if you’re listening, include Kraven. Hell, putting him together with Deadpool would make a sensational hard R rated installment of the MCU. One can hope.
Overall, Kraven: The Hunter should have been a hard pass for me, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe and the savage R rated action spectacle won me over. This movie suffers from Sony’s misuse of Marvel properties, but the finished product still gave me what I wanted in terms of seeing Kraven cut loose and take out the bloody trash. Taylor-Johnson sells the role and carries it on his shoulders and even though I noticed all these mishaps, I still was invested in this and would love to see more although done way. Much, much better. The biggest compliment I can give it is that this movie has rejuvenated my interest in Kraven and I’m going to hunt down comics with the character in it.
Sony’s Marvel spin-off universe is dead, and rightfully so, but I’m one that hopes that Kraven manages to pick himself up, dust himself off and decimate more foes onscreen. If this is truly the swan song for Sony/Marvel spin-offs, I believe it’s going out on a more positive note than a bad one and that really is saying a lot in the grand scale of all things Marvel.
VERDICT: 3 Out of 5 Stars
Kraven: The Hunter shouldn’t have been nearly as good as it is, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s performance and the ferocious onscreen combat won me over in the end. By the way, the action enticed me to raise my score a half a point. This movie is still a train wreck, just not a colossal one in my opinion.
