REVIEW: ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Deserved Better

Sony Pictures is back with the next movie in their Spidey Universe, Kraven the Hunter. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven, this movie is potentially Sony’s last go at attempting to create a Spidey world without Spider-man.  And, unfortunately, it felt like the team behind the movie gave up before they even started. Kraven the Hunter follows Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a man who sets out to rid the world of those who seek to hurt it. Using his animal heightened senses, Kraven follows a code of honor, a much different approach than his ruthless crime lord father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), who thrives on being the top predator. When Kraven’s brother, Dmitri Smerdyakov (Fred Hechinger) is kidnapped by Russian mercenary, Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino (Alessandro Nivola), Kraven teams up with a magical lawyer, Calypso Ezili (Ariana DeBose), whose seems to have some interesting connections for someone who claims to be on the side of good, to save him before it is too late.

After the failure of Morbius and Madame Web, expectations were pretty low with this movie. Directed by J. C. Chandor, the movie isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either. Written by Richard Wenk, the story doesn’t exactly follow the lore of Kraven. In the comics, Kraven is portrayed as a big-game hunter who is constantly looking for the next big hunt. Fleeing to the United States with his family from Russia, Kraven lands in New York City where he eventually sets his sights on who will become his biggest hunt, Spider-Man. This version of Kraven has always been considered a villain in the Spidey world. In this movie, Kraven is portrayed as someone who is destined to become an anti-hero rather than someone who is destined to become a villain. It felt as if they gave parts of his lore to other characters in the story. The love of the hunt fell under his father, Nikolai, while the idea of always searching for the next big hunt went to Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino. This idea could have worked in the movie’s favor if the dialogue been better.

The writers behind this movie had a great story idea, but executed it poorly. The dialogue didn’t help better explain the characters nor did it help the audience connect with any of the characters. There were brief moments of promise in certain one-liners from Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven and DeBose’s Calypso, but the writers never fully lean into these moments. It was as if they couldn’t decide if they wanted the movie to be funny or dramatic, so they went with what ended up on the screen. Also, because of their half-hearted attempt, certain characters felt useless. Take Calypso for example. Instead of focusing on Calypso’s original origin story, they introduce her as a lawyer who carries around a life-changing potion. This could have worked if they had actually intertwined her comic lore with this new take, but they opted not to. Or the introduction of The Foreigner. Another Spider-Man foe, this character could have been left out of the movie entirely and nothing would have changed. The choice to have him in the movie made absolutely no sense.

With all that being said, the acting is good, but with lacking dialogue and sloppy scene work, the actors didn’t have much to work with. Taylor-Johnson nailed the look of Kraven, but could have done so much more with the character if the dialogue had been better. The same with DeBose as Calypso and Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon. Both of these characters could have added so much more to story if the writers had given their all to the story.

Kraven the Hunter deserved more than what this writing team gave it. They had a great leading man in Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the potential for pretty interesting sequel, but they didn’t give their all to this movie. It is going to be hard for Sony to continue pushing these non-Spider-Man movies out if they don’t believe in them. If you want to see this movie, I highly recommend waiting for it to be released to streaming. It’s not worth the ticket, which is unfortunate.

Grade: C-