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Sometimes I write things, but mostly I watch movies.
“Do I really want to spend my time doing this?” I asked myself about thirty minutes in Kraven The Hunter. Look, normally I can find some enjoyment in these SSU (Sony’s Spider-Man Universe) films, whether it be the intentional absurdity of Venom: The Last Dance or the disastrous and unintentional hilarity of Madame Web, or… just Matt Smith’s performance in Morbius. However, Kraven has none of those. It brings me no pleasure to tell you that Kraven The Hunter is plain flat-out boring.
Kraven the Hunter, directed by J.C. Chandor, follows Sergei “Kraven” Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor Johnson) as he attempts to rescue his half-brother Dmitri Smerdyakov (Fred Hechinger) from the grasp of his father’s rival, Aleksei “Rhino” Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola). Along the way, Kraven gets help from Calypso Ezili (Ariana DeBose), a lawyer who saved Kraven as a kid. He also contends with his father Nikolai Kravinoff’s (Russell Crowe) seeming indifference towards Dmitri and the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), a hitman with unclear powers hired by the Rhino to stop Kraven.
No Cast Can Save This Mess
Reading that cast list might get you excited for Kraven The Hunter, it’s a good mix of talent both new and old. However, nobody here is trying. Every single person in this cast has phoned it in; and who can blame them? The script is so bland there’s nothing to latch onto. Everything is taken so seriously and done in the most generic way possible.
Johnson is doing what might be his audition to portray the next Bond. He’s calm, reserved, and surprisingly suave and attempts at humor, but again, it’s just so bland. Any of the charms he had in David Leitch and Zak Olkewicz’s Bullet Train, the film that got him this role, is gone. Johnson is just going through the motions; Kraven is a disappointing return to superhero fare for him.
DeBose, who has become a promising talent following her stint and Oscar win for West Side Story, is woefully underused. Her character motivations are unclear and she is mostly present to react to Kraven and occasionally provide him with information. She clearly does the bare minimum and regrets her choice to sign on for this film.
A Dim Highlight
Nivola is perhaps the only person having a little bit of fun adding some energy to the mix. Still, even the moments where he gets to let loose a little are not exciting thanks to the dialogue he has to deliver. How everyone else sharing the screen with him seems uninterested in being there. His character truly takes a nose dive once he fully transforms into the Rhino, losing any sense of fun and just becoming another bland final computer-generated (CG) monster for the hero beat up. This is a tired trope that is more tired than ever here.
As for the rest of the supporting cast, there is not much to say. Abbott is passably menacing as the Foreigner. However, this antagonist is so ill-defined in what he does and lacks any real character traits that it’s hard to imagine any actor being able to elevate the role. Crowe has a mildly entertaining Russian accent, especially as he talks about “a real man must have strength and not fear death,” all while wearing an ascot. Hechinger gets nothing to do except act scared and confused for the majority of the runtime. His character becomes interesting in the final ten minutes of the movie.
Why Is It Like This?
Speaking of which, Kraven the Hunter‘s final ten minutes is the only intriguing part. It’s when the film finally begins to resemble the comics in the loosest manner. The movie commits the cardinal sin of essentially being a prequel to the movie they actually want to make. The character dynamics between Dmitri and Kraven shift in a way that seemingly makes a potential sequel. However, after sitting through two hours of Kraven The Hunter, I was just thankful for anything that was dreadfully boring. Because after a decent enough opening action sequence, the film grinds to an immediate halt giving backstories for all the characters, and it just never gains that momentum back.
Despite reportedly being shot almost entirely on location, the movie looks so fake so much of the time. This is in due part to all the CGI looking as if it was pulled from a mid-budget film released in 2010. It also does not help that there are a lot of awkward cuts and insert shots—obviously from reshoots. Also, making a return from Madame Web are the strange ADR choices. The ADR isn’t as extensive as it was in Madame Web, but are still very noticeable. At several points, a character’s mouth is not moving yet the dialogue is being delivered, or dialogue is delivered off-screen as the character verbally reacts to something that they have already physically reacted to.
Not even the R-rating is used to its full potential. If it wasn’t for the handful of F-bombs and one or two gruesome kills, there is no real reason this film needs to be rated R. The other technical elements are largely fine, I suppose. There are a handful of above-average shots, including a riff on Mad Max: Fury Road. However, they are so far and few between that they are easily forgotten.
The Verdict on Kraven the Hunter (and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe)
Kraven The Hunter is reportedly the final installment of the ill-advised SSU. It marks not only the end of the SSU but the end of 2024. The film, like the SSU and this year, is full of disappointment, regret, and confusing choices. I am not sure what they could have done differently, or why Sony Pictures decided to make Kraven a full-blown hero. Morbius and Venom both have more moral ambiguity, and those two films barely even touch on that theme. Kraven the Hunter is a movie that you forget as it happens. As I write this I struggle to remember anything that stands out, and well… the only other “blockbuster” this year that compares is Borderlands.
Instead of watching Kraven The Hunter, go watch one of the countless other films in cinemas this month. Better yet, spend some time with your loved ones this holiday season. Just don’t go watch Kraven The Hunter, there is no joy to be found here. It’s an uninteresting film with nothing to offer you that you can’t find done better elsewhere.
Score: 1/5
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Sometimes I write things, but mostly I watch movies.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.