- Director: J.C. Chandor
- Screenplay: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
- Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe
- Cinematography: Ben Davis
- Editing: Chris Lebenzon, Craig Wood
- Score: Benjamin Wallfisch, Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
- Genre: Superhero
- Runtime: 127 minutes
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (the SSU for short) has paled in comparison to Marvel’s MCU and even DC’s DCEU (which had its fair share of duds). With only six films in its catalog, ‘Kraven the Hunter‘ is the final nail in the coffin, following on from the disastrous ‘Madame Web‘ earlier this year, which left the SSU on life support, and while the ‘Venom‘ series was popular, each entry was noticeably weaker than the previous.
‘Kraven‘ was actually filmed in 2022, and now released after multiple delays. There’s an air of doom hanging over this movie; as if it’s an imperilled afterthought – the makers didn’t really care about it to put any actual effort in. And it shows; a half-baked plot, underdeveloped characters and underutilised superpowers (the ability to slow down time, chameleon-like mimicry).
Our titular hero (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the son of a Russian gangster (Russell Crowe, playing the epitome of toxic masculinity), learns of his mother’s suicide in his teenagehood. His way of grieving: running away from home and spending 16 years in the Siberian wilderness, seemingly able to fend for himself. Another inexplicable thing to happen to him: he was mauled by a lion and resurrected with voodoo. Okay then. In the present day, he spends his days hunting poachers and other threats to nature, he’s something of an animal lover. He has a list of targets – the one way to get off it…is death.
Mr. Taylor-Johnson (a future James Bond?) has rarely taken the lead in the latter half of his career, not since his ‘Kick-Ass‘ era; he’s more of a supporting actor in films (‘Tenet‘, ‘Bullet Train‘, ‘The Fall Guy‘). This being his moment to shine in a leading capacity – and he’s wasted. I’m sure he was ‘kraven’ a project worth his energy.
Once the big bad has inevitably been dispatched, there’s a little bit at the end setting up a sequel…which is obviously not going ahead. Just a squandering of resources from everyone involved. Usually with these superhero blockbusters, there’s a post-credits scene to decipher. With ‘Kraven‘, none exist, probably because the writers thought nobody would stick around long enough to find out.
My rating: 4 / 10
SilverScreen 