“Kraven” Delivers Some Good Action, Lacks Everything Else

The Sony Spider-Man universe has been a very mixed bag since it began in 2018 with the hit movie “Venom.” Now, while the first two “Venom” movies had not so great reviews, they are actually quite entertaining. The others - “Morbius,” “Madame Web” and “Venom: The Last Dance” - not so much. In fact, while getting this review together, I wouldn’t mind revisiting these Sony/Marvel movies down the road.

Last year, not long before “Kraven the Hunter” was initially released, it was announced that Sony will hold off on this Spider-Man Universe (that doesn’t feature the web-slinger) and primarily focus on the next live-action “Spider-Man” trilogy” and the next animated feature “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.” So, is “Kraven the Hunter” just as bad as “Madame Web”? Well, despite some okay looking action, the answer is “pretty close.”

“Kraven the Hunter” is the R-rated stand-alone story of how one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be.

Kraven is a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.

When I saw that Sony was going to make “Kraven the Hunter” R-rated, my first thought was that the studio is learning their lesson and giving the audience what they wanted - a gritty “Kraven” story. An R-rating worked extremely well for the movie “Logan” and obviously the “Deadpool” movies, so an R-rated “Kraven” would be an easy win. The initial trailers did look okay so I was still on board with giving this a chance. 

Then, I finally had the chance to check out one of 2024s biggest flops to see if it really is that bad. Now, surprisingly, not all of “Kraven the Hunter” is bad. Some of the action that is featured in this movie is actually okay. There is an entire sequence in the movie’s opening where Kraven goes into a prison to take someone out and does what he can do to get out of there.

That entire opening may not be the best, but it wasn’t that bad at all. Quite a few of the

action-packed moments do take advantage of the movie's R-rating, even though a bit of the brutal moments involved some shoddy CGI work. There’s also a chase sequence where Kraven is trying to save his brother Dmitri that can actually be a little tense.

And, before I get into some of the negative stuff, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Russell Crowe both did alright with what they had to work with. Crowe did have a few moments where he can be a little over the top, but at least the over the top performance made his scenes sort of entertaining. So, while “Kraven” did have a couple things going for it, it wasn’t enough to save the movie. Almost like “Madame Web”, this movie didn’t live up to the potential of the main character, a lot of the visual effects looks really bad and there are definitely some moments in the movie that slows things down. Even some of the ADR work (where some of the lines are dubbed) are just as bad as the previous movie “Madame Web.”

Even the final sequence where we see Kraven and Rhino fighting wasn’t that engaging. The whole Kraven vs. Rhino scene should have plenty of excitement (which is really lacking) and the visual effects during that battle didn’t help it either. The portrayal of the Rhino and the character’s design also wasn’t that great and is almost as bad as the characters portrayal in the 2014 movie “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”

Overall, while “Kraven the Hunter” isn’t that great, it does have some alright action and can even be a guilty pleasure down the road.

Trivia: There have been numerous attempts to bring the Kraven the Hunter character to the big screen that didn’t work out well. Sam Raimi wanted to include him in his cancelled “Spider-Man 4” sequel and Kraven’s spear was seen in the final moments of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” as a tease for his planned appearance in a “Sinister Six” movie, which was also canceled.

MPA: Rated R for strong bloody violence, and language  (runtime 127 minutes)

You can currently stream “Kraven the Hunter” on Netflix or rent it via various PVOD rental services.

• Previous attempts to bring Kraven the Hunter to the big screen had failed. Sam Raimi wanted to include him in Spider-Man 4 before it was canceled, and Kraven's spear was seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) as a tease for his planned appearance in the Sinister Six film, which was also canceled. Ryan Coogler wanted to include him in Black Panther (2018), taking inspiration from Christopher Priest's Black Panther comic book, but he couldn't secure the rights. Jon Watts wanted Kraven to be the backup villain for Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) in case the multiverse story didn't pan out.

• Kraven the Hunter was presumably inspired by Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game" about a Russian aristocrat who hunts people for sport. In his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (Aug. 1964), Kraven refers to Spider-Man as "the most dangerous game".

• The first Marvel movie from Sony to be released with an "R" rating.

• The original release date of January 13, 2023 was delayed to October 6, 2023, then to August 30, 2024 due to strikes, then to December 13, 2024.

• The Russian music at the beginning of the movie is "Hymn to Red October (Main Title)" from The Hunt for Red October (1990) composed by Basil Poledouris.

• The sixth and last film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU).

• Sony executives were very impressed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson's scenes in the film Bullet Train (2022), so they reached out to him to play Kraven.