Kraven the Hunter is the latest cinematic offering associated with Marvel Studios, and it’s pretty much a disaster on almost every level. There are a couple of glimmers of something that could be interesting, but they’re pretty hard to detect, and I may just have a hard time admitting that I foolishly wasted my time watching this.
Anyway, J.C. Chandor is the director of this film with three screenwriters bearing the responsibility for this ill-conceived script. Richard Wenk, Art Marcum. and Matt Holloway are the culprits who for some reason sat around and considered this a worthwhile cinematic project to unleash upon the masses.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the pretty boy actor in the lead as the supposed rugged, semi-wild Sergei Kravinoff who becomes better known as Kraven the Hunter. Ariana Debose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, and Russell Crowe are included in the cast.
The film starts off with the two young Kravinoff brothers taken on a hunting trip by their tyrannical father, who is a major crime lord, and played by Russell Crow. Sergei is attacked by a lion and dragged before a young woman who belongs to a family of voodoo practitioners. A girl known as Calypso gives Sergei a serum which not only helps heal his wounds but also provide him with powers similar to the wild predators who he comes to protect from poachers.
Kraven also becomes a vigilante going after arms dealers and other assorted high-powered criminals. He is even more enraged when his younger brother, played by Hechinger, is kidnapped. His estranged father still wants him to take over his empire. in spite of their previous disagreements. Kraven is not without his own allies, and he has a ruthlessness that matches those who cross him and attempt to take one of the few people he actually cares for,
Another Marvel supervillain known as the Rhino also appears and is played by Alessandro Nivola. This version of the Rhino actually undergoes a metamorphosis when he disconnects his IV tube that keeps the beast at bay.
Kraven was one of the rogues’ gallery of criminals who challenged Spider-Man. I found him to one of Spidey’s more interesting foes when I was reading the comics back in the day.
Taylor-Johnson obviously works out and looks great, but he does not have the air of wildness depicted in the source material. His attempts at witty banter with Calypso and his brother fall flat. He just fails to look as terrifying as Kraven would likely be if he was a real person.
Fred Hechinger as the brother, Dmitri Kravinoff, is kind of compelling. Dmitri has quite a talent for mimicry, which becomes rather important toward the end of the film.
Russell Crowe is one of the few bright spots in this film, but even his presence isn’t enough to remove any regret over sitting through this. Crowe has a pretty nice career playing some nasty characters.
The fight scenes were okay at times. The final fight between Kraven and the Rhino seemed rather run-of-the mill.
This may be further proof that movies about the villains are not that interesting unless Spider-Man is directly involved. The writing and plot were still substandard. This film got raked over the coals by the professional critics, and this humble blogger has little reason to disagree.
On the whole, this was a terrible idea, and this film earned every bit of the beating it took in the box office.
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