December 16, 2024 · Watch the official trailer
When people talk about having comic book movie fatigue, they're probably talking about something like “Kraven The Hunter.”
It's a studio cash grab sourced from intellectual property that takes minor secondary characters from much larger films and/or comics and pushes them beyond their means into something intended to impress teenage boys and those seeking to turn off their brains for a couple hours at the movies.
But what makes these films so cinematically reprehensible is the ludicrously sophomoric nature of their development and the completely unintentional bad humor that comes out in these films.
“Kraven The Hunter” seeks a violence on par with the “John Wick” franchise while using a character that's more in tune with “Aquaman” than anything else, despite being one of many classic Spider-Man archvillains.
The origin story directed by J.C. Chandor does not include the famed web crawler at all nor are there really any overt references to him as Sony flounders its way through making films for all the secondary characters in the Spider-Man web of comic books without actually including Peter Parker in any way.
The result is significantly less than ideal for moviegoers as these often overstuffed yet underbaked movies don't have any real purpose beyond a few action set pieces. And it's clear whatever meandering direction the studio is aiming for has been thoroughly rejected by audiences given how this is shockingly the third installment in a series of underwhelming comic book movies Sony put out this year with the disastrous “Madame Web” this spring and final “Venom” film in its trilogy both tanking critically and commercially.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, perhaps better known for playing superheroes like the foul-mouthed teen “Kick-Ass” and an one film Marvel Cinematic Universe run as Quicksilver portrays the title character here with a mildly stoic distance and it's clear that Taylor-Johnson is seeking to find something from the familial drama at the heart of the narrative to give his character some weight and gravitas.
But the dopey comic book nature of “Kraven The Hunter” does not lend itself to be mined in such an altruistic way. And while retrofitting classic villains into heroes has worked recently for the wicked witch of the West with box office smash “Wicked” and even “Venom” to a certain extent, there's really no desire to see this translate much further into the comic book level.
For some inexplicable reason, Russell Crowe dons oversize suits with broad shoulder pads and a laughably goofy Russian accent to play Kraven’s mafioso father Nikolai. While the film doesn't really truly make clear where his character stands until the final moments, there isn't really a enough of a connection between Crowe and Taylor-Johnson to provide any substance to their secondary familial storyline and even the inclusion of Fred Hechinger’s well-acted turn as a chameleon doesn't elevate the material beyond the mildly superficial.
The almost laughable ways in which Oscar winner Ariana DeBose is thrust into “Kraven” as a pseudo love interest with the potential of powers of her own continues the film's almost circular logic in perplexing ways.
Ultimately, “Kraven” is a movie meant to showcase the character’s physical capabilities and somewhat reluctant lust for violence. making him the less humorous, less or less engaging version of Deadpool, whose code is to only kill bad guys and blends John Wick’s stealth with comic book violence.
Yet these scenes are done in such a bombastic way that it's clear that “Kraven” isn't worth something worth audiences’ hard-earned time and money. In fact, the film's best cinematic sequence, the opening eight to 10 minutes introducing the character as he infiltrates a Russian prison to kill a mafia boss, was released by the studio onto social media and YouTube platforms in an effort to entice viewers to head to theaters and yet somehow even this isn't engaging enough of a promise to build a foundation of a movie around.
Part of an overly forgettable year in comic book films outside of the “Deadpool and Wolverine” film officially produced by Marvel earlier this summer, “Kraven The Hunter” is something that audiences should actively avoid this holiday season and only watch at home on a streaming service as a last resort.
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