In the realm of movie trivia for geeks, I wonder how this period of superhero films under Sony’s watch will be looked back on decades from now. Kraven the Hunter is said to be the final film in this Spider-Man villain universe that has also given us Morbius, Madame Web, and, of course, a trilogy of Venom films. Despite the mild pass I gave to Venom: The Last Dance, none of these films have been particularly good, suggesting the obvious fact that Spider-Man villains are much better served when their web-slinging counterpart is actually around as an adversary. Instead, we have a series of disposable comic book movies featuring good actors and accomplished filmmakers delivering underwhelming work. Sadly, Kraven is no different, despite a first-rate cast of movie stars, character actors, and a promising director. I guess they were no match for the Unhuntable Sergei.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as Sergei Kravinoff, the kind of guy who is all upper-body strength yet moves like a cat. He’s shredded, of course, has probably trained his beard to stay its exact shape and length, and despite his Russian father and, I believe, having schooled in England, the man has the British Taylor-Johnson’s American accent. Whatever the case, we meet Sergei, who goes by Kraven to his friends (he has no friends), while he’s infiltrating a Siberian prison, and goes through elaborate measures to kill one of the many evil men on his list, only to escape by running headlong into a blizzard.
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In case you were wondering how a guy like Kraven ended up in a place like that, well, this movie is sure to provide that answer via a cutaway to 16 years earlier for a lengthy, plodding backstory. Here, we learn that young Sergei is the son of Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), a ruthless crime lord. Sergei also has a half-brother, Dmitri (played as an adult by Fred Hechinger), who is an incredible mimic (Chameleon-like, some would and do say). During one of the annual trips where “father show sons how to be men by hunt with big gun,” Sergei is attacked by a lion. During this time, he swaps a little bit of blood, and the young daughter of a voodoo priestess, Calypso (played as an adult by Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose), also gives him some sacred herbal juice to help keep him alive. This results in the super-strong master tactician we deal with back in the present day.
When looking at the comics, Kraven is the greatest hunter in the world who initially wants to take down Spider-Man basically to satisfy his own ego. Since Sony can’t give Tom Holland enough money to actually appear in any of these wacky spin-off movies, and the MCU’s godfather Kevin Feige is watching them like Thanos to make sure they don’t go too crazy, it means Kraven has to have some whole other story to justify why he does the things he does. As a result, he’s basically Jungle Punisher who can talk to animals. That should mean we get a fairly straightforward plot about Kraven knocking off bad guys who deserve it, only to uncover some environmental conspiracy that threatens wildlife and probably connects to his dad in some way. If only it were so simple…
I have my issues with the Venom films, but at least they get to the point. For whatever reason, Kraven has a wildly convoluted story that involves his father’s criminal activities, a kidnapped brother, an assassin with hypnotic powers and a grudge, adult Calypso who now runs a multi-million-dollar company, and a human-rhino hybrid mercenary who once worked with Kraven’s father and wants revenge (I know, another one of those). You could, at best, say there’s enough material here for a multi-issue comic book saga, but director J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, All is Lost) stacks too many different tones and ideas against each other for the film to embrace the pulpy aspect of it to its fullest or have the audience feel for the dramatic stakes involved. Oh, and it’s also often quite dull to watch and look at.
There’s some merit in having a movie about a violent hunter engage in very R-rated brutality when it comes to the action sequences. We watch Kraven break bones, snap necks, insert sharp objects into soft places, and find creative uses for bear traps and other spikey things. It all looks very digitally achieved (doubly so whenever animals are involved, which is A LOT), but at least this supposed final non-Spider-Man film realized there’s something to gain from letting Kraven get truly primal with his rage.
Other highlights include the cast, some of whom work better than others. I’ve been mixed on Taylor-Johnson in the past, but he’s well-placed here. He pulls off the sort of swagger needed for Kraven, though there’s room for a more seasoned version of the character to embrace the sense of humor that would come from his awareness of how much better he is at everything than anyone around him. Alessandro Nivola plays Aleksei Sytsevich (aka The Rhino), and while the script fails him at every opportunity, Nivola adds enough quirk to help stand out. The same can be said for Christopher Abbott, who plays the Foreigner, a minor but deadly villain whose main goal seems to be rivaling DeBose’s Calypso as the best-dressed in the film.
Do I need to save a space for Russell Crowe? Looking like he stripped off his Pope’s Exorcist costume, put on some hunting gear, and wandered into the Sony soundstage one door over, we once again get a great look at how a movie star can just own a role, no matter how ridiculous. I’m not even saying Crowe is doing great work or that his character is all that memorable. There’s just so much more energy in the film when he interacts with the rest of the cast. This reason alone propels Kraven well above whatever Jared Leto and Dakota Johnson were doing in their films, with only Tom Hardy being entirely game to sink into his symbiote character and deliver something compelling enough to appreciate multiple times over.
As far as the rest of Kraven is concerned, at just over two hours, a long time is spent achieving very little. The backstory is bland and familiar. Watching the present-day journey unfold reveals very little, as the evil guys were never a mystery, and nothing really happens to Kraven that allows him to evolve as a character. Sure, we can talk about the friends and foes he made along the way, but it’s more like a film about a guy who prides himself on being incredibly skilled when it comes to preserving his identity and being a loner, only to have his identity exposed over and over, with very little danger presenting a true challenge.
Kraven the Hunter seems to want to get by on being a trashy action flick, but the action isn’t good or frequent enough to scratch that itch. Plus, while there are plenty of laughable moments, the film isn’t inept enough to stand out as an entertaining mess. Instead, it has actors doing what they can in a movie assembled from a poor script. It makes for a bland experience from a genre that could and has delivered more compelling features, be they about villains, heroes, or otherwise. He may be an amazing Lion-Man hunter, but his movie missed the target.
Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13, 2024.
