Kraven the Hunter review: Better than Morbius and Madame Web at least
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is in muscular form but a leaden script keeps things underwhelming.
The first live-action appearance of the longtime Spider-Man foe, who made his comic-book bow in 1964, marks the sixth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe franchise following Morbius (2022), Madame Web (2024) and the recently completed Venom trilogy (2018-2024).
In his original Marvel Comics iteration, Sergei Kravinoff is a formidable, potion-powered big-game hunter sporting a jet-black moustache and beard, who’s determined to make Peter Parker’s webslinger the ultimate trophy on his wall.
This globe-trotting origin tale from director JC Chandor, better known for more grounded dramatic fare like A Most Violent Year, Margin Call and All Is Lost, begins with Kraven (played by a physically imposing Aaron Taylor-Johnson) taking no prisoners in a remote Russian penitentiary before flashbacking to his teenage past as Sergei, the eldest son of ruthless Russian gangster Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe, complete with ripe accent and no little menace).
But when an African lion hunt goes awry and Sergei suffers a Revenant-style ravaging, it is only the timely administration of a powerful herbal pick-me-up that saves his life, bestowing the super-strength, speed, agility and heightened senses to transform him into The Hunter.
Fast-forward 16 years to the present and Kraven has achieved mythic status as the scourge of the criminal underworld, working out of a secret Siberian base – the Dacha-cave, perchance? – and estranged from his cruel dad and callow but beloved half-brother Dimitri (Gladiator II’s Fred Hechinger).
However, after teaming up with his potion-providing saviour-turned-crusading lawyer, Calypso (Ariana DeBose), the predator finds himself the prey of Alessandro Nivola’s up-and-coming crime boss, who has his own hardcore chemical enhancement with which to even the super-powered odds, and an eerily lethal assassin called The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).
Taylor-Johnson taps into the swagger and muscular charisma that made his Quicksilver so impressive in Avengers: Age of Ultron but the leaden script lacks zing and zingers, while the action only really dazzles halfway through the movie, during Kraven’s Mission: Impossible-like sprint pursuit of baddies across London streets and waterways, topped off by a tug of war with a helicopter. Mind you, the 15-certificate means there is a grislier element to the fight scenes, especially during the climactic siege of Kraven’s forest bolthole.
Maybe the fact the film’s release was delayed by over a year and the now-familiar rumours of reshoots may explain why yet another Sony superhero spin-off is so sadly underwhelming, although Kraven still has more going for it than Morbius and Madame Web, not least with Taylor-Johnson. His brooding and intense take on the antihero is definitely worth a reprise and if nothing else, it provides ample evidence that the 34-year-old British actor could have the action chops to be a new James Bond.
As with the rest of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, the missing elephant in the film is Spidey himself, since the character is still contracted to appear in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tom Holland returning to shoot Spider-Man 4 in 2025. Meanwhile, the future of the spin-off Spiderverse is uncertain, writ large by the absence of any kind of post-credits clue to what comes next.
Kraven the Hunter will be released in cinemas on 13th December 2024.
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