After “Venom”, “Madame Web” and “Morbius”, Sony Pictures will now try again without Spider-Man with the film “Kraven the Hunter” – and it fails resoundingly…
Spoiler warning – This message may contain hints about the continuation of the plot!
Anyone who cares a little about the film business and especially superhero films should know that Sony pictures Since 2018, it has been releasing strips with peripheral characters from the “Spider-Man” collection at regular intervals.
The failure of Sony's Spider-Man universe
It started with “Venom,” which became a trilogy, then followed Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024). None of these films were well received by critics and only the “Venom” films were able to deliver at the box office.
The requirement had already been revealed that films based on the character “Spider-Man” had to be shown in cinemas at a certain distance in order to retain the rights, so since 2000 there have been the actors Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Finally, Tom Holland can be seen in the role of Peter Parker. “Kraven the Hunter” may now be the last film from Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), as The Wrap recently reported on the discontinuation of this film division. After watching the film and all the other “Spider-Man”-less spin-offs, this is certainly not the worst decision…
Mind you, this is written by someone for whom “Kraven’s Last Hunt” is one of their favorite “Spider-Man” stories and who really enjoyed playing “Spider-Man 2” on the PlayStation 5, in which the hunter was very well portrayed .
Even if I repeat myself: I can't believe that the same studio that is involved in the normal “Spider-Man” films and that releases the “Into-the-Spider-Verse” films is releasing these films, because they too The character Kraven is hardly recognizable in this uninspired creation…
This is what the movie “Kraven the Hunter” is about
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Kick-Ass,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron”) plays the title character in “Kraven the Hunter,” who was born into a gangster family. Father Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe; “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Gladiator”) raises his two sons Sergei and Dimitri (Fred Hechinger, “The Woman in the Window”) with a stronger hand and takes them on hunting trips.
In one of them, Sergei is seriously injured, but is saved by a serum from his grandmother – the only (!) noteworthy female character Calysto (Ariana DeBose; “Wish”, “West Side Story”) – and given superhuman powers. Kraven distances himself from his father and becomes a hunter, targeting a list of bad people. This part is definitely reminiscent of that Direct current-Arrow series. Meanwhile, Dimitri becomes a singer who can copy the sounds of the big stars – almost like a chameleon…
Years later, their paths cross again when Aleksei Sytsevich aka Rhino (Alessandro Nivola, “The Many Saints of Newark”), a former business partner of Nikolai, sets his sights on the family. Another killer involved is The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott, Girls). Kraven has his hands full when his brother is kidnapped. With the help of Calysto, he begins the hunt for the kidnappers.
By the way, Taylor-Johnson is playing a comic character with Eastern European origins for the second time after Quicksilver, and Crowe can be seen in his third superhero project after “Man of Steel” and “Thor: Love and Thunder”.
The film was directed by JC Chandor (“Triple Frontier”). The story, based on the Marvel Comics, was written by Richard Wenk, with Richard Wenk and Art Marcum as well as Matt Holloway responsible for the script. The film was produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and David Householter.
No last hope for Sony's Marvel corner
Even if past viewing experiences have taught me otherwise, I go into every Sony Marvel film in which “Spider-Man” doesn’t play a role with my eyes wide open. But relatively quickly you have to face the facts… None of them are even close to being a good superhero film. Kraven is mostly a villain anyway, so you have to bend him to implement the plans of the top management.
There's a lot to read right from the start, because some of the dialogue is in Russian, where the character also has his origins in the comics. That wouldn't be a bad thing in and of itself, it's just that the filmmakers deliver a simple, annoyingly boring and, to make matters worse, really poorly acted flick with an R rating, which can hardly save anything. The dialogue and the art in which it is presented is laughably bad and once again one has to wonder how such a cinematic product could be waved through. One could cite a long list of scenes that make no sense, lead nowhere and/or are simply generally unnecessary.
Kraven the C movie?
Shortly after the introduction of the main character in a Russian prison, the audience has to endure a flashback sequence that is far too long Origin story with uninspired young actors who leave no positive impression and rather involuntarily invite laughter. Unfortunately, the rest of the film never gets any better…
Taylor-Johnson is at least okay in the role. But total failures like the villains of Nivola (Rhino) and Abbott (Foreigner), which will certainly make the audience wonder what it's all about, and other mediocre performances will bore you or make you feel embarrassed when going to the cinema. Unfortunately, this also applies to the only female character in the film, who is played by Ariana DeBose and, in the English original, in a film with strange accents and dialogues, she is often made worse by the way she performs her parts and has to act shoots down.
The action scenes are also disappointing due to their interchangeability and unconvincing computer-generated animals and therefore do not lighten the running time of two hours and seven minutes, but rather turn it into torture. As a result, Kraven the Hunter often feels like a big-budget B or C movie that came out in the wrong decade. The script and the dialogues in particular are a complete disaster.
As with “Madame Web,” there are a few more towards the end Easter eggs and comic references regarding the costumes and looks of various characters, which look nice but probably won't be of any use. At least this time the post-credits scenes were given away.
Conclusion
“Kraven the Hunter” is – despite lower expectations – quite a disappointment. Sony Pictures has learned nothing from past flops and is once again delivering a film based on a similar formula that is unlikely to impress very few viewers. Dialogue, performances and action are all weak and there are actually few reasons to even watch the film.
Two out of five wonderful healing streams are therefore available for “Kraven the Hunter”.
