'Kraven The Hunter': Review

Dir: JC Chandor. US. 2024. 127mins 

Superhero fatigue reaches a new level of creative exhaustion with Kraven The Hunter, a lacklustre introduction to the Spider-Man villain who, despite harnessing the power of wild animals, comes across as rather tame. A noticeably buff Aaron Taylor-Johnson brings raw intensity to his role as a man escaping a traumatic childhood, using his talents as a world-class tracker to hunt down those who despoil the planet. Unfortunately, this oft-delayed film loses the scent pretty quickly, with audiences left to appreciate how the supporting cast attempt to enliven their quirky characters.

Neither the character nor his dark past are compelling

Shot in 2022 but only now being released, Kraven The Hunter arrives in UK and US theatres on December 13. This is the sixth instalment of Sony’s so-called Spider-Man Universe, a collection of films revolving around characters associated with the famed web-slinger. The three Venom pictures have been successful (approximately $1.8 billion worldwide cumulatively), whereas Morbius ($167 million) and Madame Web ($100 million) were critical and commercial disappointments. Kraven The Hunter looks to be another box-office misfire at a moment when superhero cinema’s cultural dominance is clearly in decline. 

Taylor-Johnson plays Sergei Kravinoff, the son of a merciless gangster, Nikolai (Russell Crowe), who has instilled in his children — including Sergei’s cowardly brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) — the kill-or-be-killed attitude of the animal kingdom. Flashbacks show him taking his sons on a big-game hunting expedition when they were boys, during which Sergei is attacked by a lion and left for dead. Rescued by a young woman, who gives him a mysterious potion (which becomes mixed with lion’s blood in his wounds), Sergei roars back to life. To his shock, he’s now able to scale buildings, run fast and lift massive amounts. 

That backstory explains how Sergei became Kraven, who vows not to be like his greedy, cruel father and, instead, only inflict harm on those who exploit the less fortunate. Like Venom in the Tom Hardy pictures, Taylor-Johnson’s character in Kraven The Hunter is the hero fighting against evil — despite the fact that, in the Spider-Man world, both characters are considered bad guys. Indeed, Kraven will battle Alessandro Nivola’s nerdy, sinister Aleksei —  whose alter ego is another Spider-Man nemesis, Rhino — as well as The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), a hitman who can distort time to disorient his targets.

With his body chiseled and his expression perpetually dour, Taylor-Johnson has the appropriate brawny swagger but. at this late date, a comic-book character who is strong and swift is not particularly revelatory. (Not helping matters, the actor has played other superhero roles in films as varied as the indie action-comedy Kick-Ass and the blockbuster Avengers: Age Of Ultron.) It can be satisfying to watch Kraven dispatch arrogant poachers in brutal, bloody fashion (and animal lovers may have found their new favorite action hero) but neither the character nor his dark past are compelling.

Director JC Chandor, whose debut was the smart 2011 indie drama Margin Call and, more recently, directed the 2019 action film Triple Frontier, does serviceable work staging fight sequences and framing the occasional arresting image. But Kraven The Hunter’s dramatisation of the guilt Kraven feels for not supporting his timid brother falls flat. Plus, the plot feels rushed, largely due to choppy editing that suggests that parts of the narrative have been excised to shorten the runtime. Kraven The Hunter is, by far, the most graphic and violent of the Spider-Man Universe pictures, but that extra bloodshed does little to quicken the pulse.

Thankfully, the actors around Taylor-Johnson add some spark, investing their parts with a B-movie colourfulness. Crowe’s Russian accent is Nikolai’s most entertaining element, the veteran actor able to mix menace with a bit of a knowing wink. Ariana DeBose gets stranded as Calypso, a respected but dull attorney who, as a girl, saved Sergei after that lion attack, reuniting with him in adulthood to stop evildoers. But especially fun are Nivola, who plays the villainous Aleksei as amusingly socially awkward, and Abbott, who radiates hipster cool portraying an assassin whose suave demeanour is as lethal as his hitman skills. Unfortunately, those signs of life are not enough to compensate for what is otherwise a lethargic superhero saga.