Kraven the Hunter (2024) Columbia/Action-Thriller RT: 127 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence and language) Director: J.C. Chandor Screenplay: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway Music: Benjamin Wallfisch, Evgueni Galperine and Sacha Galperine Cinematography: Ben Davis Release date: December 13, 2024 (US) Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe, Levi Miller, Billy Barratt, Diaana Babnicova, Yuri Kolokolnikov.
Rating: ** ½
It appears as though Kraven the Hunter will be the final film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. That would explain why there are no mid or end credits scenes. Also, I can’t say I’m shocked to hear this news given the failure of other SSU entries like Morbius and Madame Web.
Like the aforementioned SSU titles, Kraven the Hunter jumped around a lot on the release schedule. It was supposed to come out nearly two years ago, but Sony kept pushing it back. During this time, it underwent reshoots which director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) says allowed him extra time to “sharpen” the characters and “tighten” the plot. Any way they spin it, it all comes down to the studio attempting to salvage a disaster in post-production. Haven’t they learned by now that this doesn’t work? On the contrary, it usually makes things worse.
So who is Kraven the Hunter? That’s the question of the lips of people not familiar with the comic book character. I didn’t know myself until I did some research. Here’s what I got. Kraven is NOT a superhero. In the comic book, he’s a supervillain, a member of the Sinister Six, a sextet consisting of Spider-Man’s greatest adversaries. In the movie, he’s a vigilante with super powers. What powers does he have? He has enhanced strength, speed and agility. He’s great at climbing stuff (e.g. trees, tall buildings). He can follow people by scent. How did Kraven come about attaining his powers? As a teenager, he was mauled by a lion while hunting with his father and younger brother. He was a found by a young girl who gave him a dose of a magic potion brewed by her mystic grandmother. He was clinically dead for three minutes before coming back to life a changed person. There, now you’re all caught up.
Just in case there’s any doubt about where the opening sequence of Kraven the Hunter is set, the theme music from The Hunt for Red October plays over the soundtrack. You can’t get more Russian than that. In it, Kraven (Johnson, Bullet Train) manages to get inside a prison where he quickly dispatches a Russian crime boss before escaping with alarming ease. He then has to contend with the frozen wilderness and a wolf before his getaway driver appears and flies him away from there.
The scene then flashes back 16 years to the time his father, ruthless crime lord Nikolai Kravinoff (Crowe, Thor: Love and Thunder), shows up at his private boarding school to inform him and little brother Dmitri of their mother’s suicide. By way of grief therapy, he takes them on a big-game hunting trip to Africa. He’s after this one huge lion for several years. It’s the one that ends up nearly killing older son Sergei (Miller, Pan). His father expresses great disappointment because his son didn’t shoot the beast. Sergei responds by running away and becoming “The Hunter”, a mythical figure who goes around killing criminals.
Chandor brings us back to the present where Sergei comes to London to help brother Dmitri (Hechinger, Gladiator II) celebrate his birthday. Now a club owner and gifted pianist, he’s not exactly his dad’s pride and joy. Neither is Sergei for that matter. He’s the son who was supposed to take over the family business someday. Instead, he chose to leave for parts unknown (to his family).
Despite their complicated relationship, Sergei saves his father from an attempt on his life. The next day, somebody kidnaps Dmitri. Now to answer the next question you probably have about Kraven the Hunter. Who’s the villain? There are two: (1) Rhino (Nivola, The Art of Self-Defense), a Russian mercenary who underwent a medical procedure that causes his skin to become hard and rough like a rhinoceros and (2) a hired assassin known only as “The Foreigner” (Abbott, Poor Things). He has the power to hypnotize people long enough for him to sneak up behind them and kill them.
It also bears mentioning that Sergei/Kraven tracks down the girl who saved his life. The only clues she left were the vial and a tarot card. However, he manages to track her down because that’s what he does. Her name is Calypso (DeBose, West Side Story). She’s all grown now and works as a lawyer at a firm in London. It turns out she hates seeing criminals get away with their evil deeds as much as he does. It doesn’t take much convincing to get her to join his crusade. Oh yeah, she’s also deadly with a crossbow.
I think that about covers all the salient plot points in Kraven the Hunter. Well, it’s as good as you’re likely to get from any other source. Plotwise, this movie is a mess. It’s all over the place. It also feels incomplete like stuff was left on the cutting room floor for the sake of a shorter running time. The CGI is bad, especially when it comes to wildlife. These are clearly computer-generated animals. Post-transformation Rhino looks like he stepped right out of a video game. Chandor’s direction is half-hearted at best. The film has a curiously lazy feel which isn’t good look for an action movie. It’s like his heart wasn’t into it all although I’m sure studio interference played a part as well.
Now for the funny part. I kind of like Kraven the Hunter. It’s entertaining in much the same way as Madame Web. That is to say, it’s entertaining for all the wrong reasons. But right and wrong, that’s a subjective thing, isn’t it? I got a kick out of a few things in Kraven the Hunter, but the one that ranks at the top of the list is Crowe. This guy has become quite the ham in the years since L.A. Confidential, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. He continues down the same path as Olivier in his depiction of a Russian crime lord with a questionable accent. Nivola runs a close second with his crazy overacting as Rhino.
Not all of the acting is like this. Johnson does a pretty good job as the title character. His accent might be shaky, but he makes a decent bad ass. I have to admit, I like the character. He’s an anti-hero with a cause. He keeps a list and once you’re on it, there’s no getting off it. I always had a thing for vigilante characters. DeBose underplays it as Calypso. It doesn’t help that her character is underwritten. I wish Chandor and the writers had given her more to work with.
So it comes down to this. Do I recommend Kraven the Hunter or not? I enjoyed it on the level of a good bad movie, but that’s just me. I have a soft spot for failures like this. At the same time, it has plenty of bloody action. It’s kind of fun to watch Kraven scale buildings and such even if the CGI makes it look completely fake. You know what, I’m just going to say I like Kraven the Hunter. I shouldn’t, but I do. I recommend you see it for yourself and make up your own mind.
