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Update: December 12, 2024
Dragonlord’s Review of KRAVEN THE HUNTER
Bottom Line: Plagued with a half-witted story, dreadful dialogue and a moronic character assassination direction, Kraven the Hunter is the latest, and hopefully last, craptastic offering by Sony in their idiotic live-action Spider-Man spinoff universe.
[Warning: Spoilers but this movie is not worth the watch, so you might as well read the review.]
Doomed from the very start with the imbecilic choice of making one of Spider-Man’s greatest villain into a hero, Sony Pictures continues their embarrassing streak of milking the Spider-Man brand by foolishly giving side characters and villains their own solo movies. Kraven the Hunter is Sony’s latest offering in their Spider-Man Spinoff Universe without Spider-Man in it.
In Marvel Comics, Kraven is a dangerous big-game hunter renowned for his exceptional hunting skills and is obsessed with killing Spider-Man to prove he is the best hunter in the world. The character gained massive popularity in the seminal and critically-acclaimed Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline. There are so many cool ways to adapt Kraven to the big screen but Sony chose the lamest option and have this character turn into an animal lover and a conservationist who hunts poachers and other bad guys.
Although not as dumb as the origin story of Sony’s Madame Web, Kraven’s origin story on how he gets his powers is still ridiculous and so contrived that involves a magic potion from a voodoo mystic, fortune telling from some form of tarot cards and a drop of lion’s blood. We also are (mis)treated to an almost 30 minutes flashback of teen Kraven to show the convoluted process on how he got his powers and to explain his family dynamics. Sometimes less is more.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a. Kraven the Hunter. Sporting a beard, long locks and ripped physique, the English actor looks good as a young Kraven but his weak, boyish voice just throws me off and is just unfit for the character. It’s so funny that teen Kraven has a deeper voice than the full adult Kraven. Despite his puny voice for the role, Taylor-Johnson is generally a terrific actor and he gives an adequate performance taking into consideration the shoddy script he has to work with. He also looked good in his action scenes especially in the extended chase scene in the city streets of London (the best part of the movie) which gave off that bad-ass Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier vibes.
Jason Momoa on the other hand was born to play Kraven (and Lobo). So hopefully Momoa will be available in the future when they finally do a reboot of the character where Kraven finally hunts down Spider-Man. Pablo Schreiber and Gerard Butler would be great choices also for the Kraven role.
It was weird seeing Fred Hechinger again after just seeing him a few days ago in Gladiator II where he played a demented Ed Sheeran. In here, Hechinger plays Dmitri Smerdyakov, Kraven’s cowardly half-brother who would become the Spider-Man villain Chameleon at the end of the movie. His transformation into Chameleon is so abrupt and absurd. He looked especially silly when he transformed into Kraven because Dmitri’s so strikingly short in height. Does this mean Chameleon in the future can only impersonate Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo?
Alessandro Nivola on the other hand would have been a great Chameleon. Unfortunately he plays Rhino in this movie. I didn’t mind Nivola’s performance as the mercenary and main antagonist Aleksei Sytsevich, it had a certain charm and his mannerisms had a beguiling effect. His transformation into full Rhino mode was not that flattering and the CGI was not convincing but I appreciated its character design more compared to the mech Rhino suit in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Russell Crowe was surprisingly great as Kraven’s estranged father and the ruthless gangster, Nikolai Kravinoff. The pieces are already set up. The actors gathered here are impressive. They already have a good director in J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year, All is Lost). If they tweaked the script, didn’t force a link to the Spider-Man world and just made an original action movie, this would have some potential.
The silliest character in here is the assassin known as the Foreigner played by Christopher Abbott. He has the ability to instantly hypnotize a person in a trance for a few seconds if they look into his eyes. This comic book character is an obscure one but I do remember him being a cool, skillful mercenary. This movie version is just corny as hell.
At some point, Dmitri is kidnapped and is ransomed for $20 million. This just bugs me up to now. It feels like this script was written in the early 2000s where $20 million would be a suitable demand. But in 2024 and considering the kidnapped person is the son of a very successful international crime lord, $20 million is too low.
The R-rating helped in showcasing some of the brutality in the action scenes but wished they gave it more thought to come up with some truly creative kills. The film’s use of Basil Poledouris’ “Hymn to Red October” at the beginning bugged me also, felt like they don’t deserve to touch this classic orchestral piece. There is no post-credits scene which is a blessing because Sony’s Spider-Man Spinoff Universe sucks so badly at it.
At the very end, Kraven finally wears his signature lion mane vest and do a forced cringy pose to recreate his famous comic book posture sitting down. With only one begrudgingly passable movie (2018’s Venom) and the rest are varying degrees of trash (Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance, Kraven the Hunter), Sony’s Spider-Man Spinoff Universe is hands-down the worst shared cinematic universe ever, worse than the DCEU and Fox’s X-Men universe. Mercifully, Sony has no movie projects on the horizon for their Spider-Man Spinoff Universe... for now.
RATING: 3.5/10
(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.
)
Dragonlord’s Review of KRAVEN THE HUNTER
Bottom Line: Plagued with a half-witted story, dreadful dialogue and a moronic character assassination direction, Kraven the Hunter is the latest, and hopefully last, craptastic offering by Sony in their idiotic live-action Spider-Man spinoff universe.
[Warning: Spoilers but this movie is not worth the watch, so you might as well read the review.]
Doomed from the very start with the imbecilic choice of making one of Spider-Man’s greatest villain into a hero, Sony Pictures continues their embarrassing streak of milking the Spider-Man brand by foolishly giving side characters and villains their own solo movies. Kraven the Hunter is Sony’s latest offering in their Spider-Man Spinoff Universe without Spider-Man in it.
In Marvel Comics, Kraven is a dangerous big-game hunter renowned for his exceptional hunting skills and is obsessed with killing Spider-Man to prove he is the best hunter in the world. The character gained massive popularity in the seminal and critically-acclaimed Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline. There are so many cool ways to adapt Kraven to the big screen but Sony chose the lamest option and have this character turn into an animal lover and a conservationist who hunts poachers and other bad guys.
Although not as dumb as the origin story of Sony’s Madame Web, Kraven’s origin story on how he gets his powers is still ridiculous and so contrived that involves a magic potion from a voodoo mystic, fortune telling from some form of tarot cards and a drop of lion’s blood. We also are (mis)treated to an almost 30 minutes flashback of teen Kraven to show the convoluted process on how he got his powers and to explain his family dynamics. Sometimes less is more.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a. Kraven the Hunter. Sporting a beard, long locks and ripped physique, the English actor looks good as a young Kraven but his weak, boyish voice just throws me off and is just unfit for the character. It’s so funny that teen Kraven has a deeper voice than the full adult Kraven. Despite his puny voice for the role, Taylor-Johnson is generally a terrific actor and he gives an adequate performance taking into consideration the shoddy script he has to work with. He also looked good in his action scenes especially in the extended chase scene in the city streets of London (the best part of the movie) which gave off that bad-ass Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier vibes.
Jason Momoa on the other hand was born to play Kraven (and Lobo). So hopefully Momoa will be available in the future when they finally do a reboot of the character where Kraven finally hunts down Spider-Man. Pablo Schreiber and Gerard Butler would be great choices also for the Kraven role.
It was weird seeing Fred Hechinger again after just seeing him a few days ago in Gladiator II where he played a demented Ed Sheeran. In here, Hechinger plays Dmitri Smerdyakov, Kraven’s cowardly half-brother who would become the Spider-Man villain Chameleon at the end of the movie. His transformation into Chameleon is so abrupt and absurd. He looked especially silly when he transformed into Kraven because Dmitri’s so strikingly short in height. Does this mean Chameleon in the future can only impersonate Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo?
Alessandro Nivola on the other hand would have been a great Chameleon. Unfortunately he plays Rhino in this movie. I didn’t mind Nivola’s performance as the mercenary and main antagonist Aleksei Sytsevich, it had a certain charm and his mannerisms had a beguiling effect. His transformation into full Rhino mode was not that flattering and the CGI was not convincing but I appreciated its character design more compared to the mech Rhino suit in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Russell Crowe was surprisingly great as Kraven’s estranged father and the ruthless gangster, Nikolai Kravinoff. The pieces are already set up. The actors gathered here are impressive. They already have a good director in J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year, All is Lost). If they tweaked the script, didn’t force a link to the Spider-Man world and just made an original action movie, this would have some potential.
The silliest character in here is the assassin known as the Foreigner played by Christopher Abbott. He has the ability to instantly hypnotize a person in a trance for a few seconds if they look into his eyes. This comic book character is an obscure one but I do remember him being a cool, skillful mercenary. This movie version is just corny as hell.
At some point, Dmitri is kidnapped and is ransomed for $20 million. This just bugs me up to now. It feels like this script was written in the early 2000s where $20 million would be a suitable demand. But in 2024 and considering the kidnapped person is the son of a very successful international crime lord, $20 million is too low.
The R-rating helped in showcasing some of the brutality in the action scenes but wished they gave it more thought to come up with some truly creative kills. The film’s use of Basil Poledouris’ “Hymn to Red October” at the beginning bugged me also, felt like they don’t deserve to touch this classic orchestral piece. There is no post-credits scene which is a blessing because Sony’s Spider-Man Spinoff Universe sucks so badly at it.
At the very end, Kraven finally wears his signature lion mane vest and do a forced cringy pose to recreate his famous comic book posture sitting down. With only one begrudgingly passable movie (2018’s Venom) and the rest are varying degrees of trash (Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance, Kraven the Hunter), Sony’s Spider-Man Spinoff Universe is hands-down the worst shared cinematic universe ever, worse than the DCEU and Fox’s X-Men universe. Mercifully, Sony has no movie projects on the horizon for their Spider-Man Spinoff Universe... for now.
RATING: 3.5/10
(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.
)
