Sony’s latest attempts to mine the Spider-Man rights for all its worth have been a disaster, can we agree on that? Don’t give me any nonsense about Venom, either, because those films have been pretty bad and dwindling in box office since the first one. The less said about the humiliating Morbius and Madame Web, the better. And while rumors are swirling that Sony is finally giving up on this failed experiment, here comes Kraven the Hunter. With genuinely awesome action from skilled director JC Chandor, plus a swaggering Aaron Taylor-Johnson at his most charismatic, it clears the admittedly low bar of being the best of Sony’s Marvel spinoffs.
To be clear, Kraven the Hunter ain’t great. It’s got horrendous dialogue penned by the oft-terrible trio of Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, who somehow forget to give the movie a plot for about 85% of it. It’s got actors who appear to have downed a bottle of NyQuil before walking on set they’re so checked-out. It’s a film that is frequently so bad it’s kind of a blast to watch Taylor-Johnson and Chandor attempt to salvage it.
Sony released online the first eight minutes of Kraven the Hunter a few days ago, and it’s easy to see why. It’s arguably the best sequence of the entire movie, as Sergei Kravinoff is a prisoner on a train headed to a Russian jail in the frigid middle of nowhere. Once inside, others try to push him around but Sergei is too much of a badass for that. The whole thing was a ploy to infiltrate the prison and kill a powerful Russian crimelord. Sergei, putting his cat-like reflexes and animal strength to good use, escapes like he was never really there.
Because there’s no actual story at this point, the film spends a significant time in flashbacks. It’s there we see young Sergei (Levi Miller) and his timid younger brother Dimitri (Fred Hechinger, having quite a year with Gladiator II and Thelma in his backpocket) are pushed around by their father Nikolai (Russell Crowe, who at least bothers with a decent Russian accent), a big game hunter and crime kingpin who believes the strong should trample the weak. With their mother dead by suicide, the boys are left completely in their father’s care and he’s determined to make them as cruel as he is.
At least Kraven the Hunter embraces its silly comic book roots by giving our “hero” a ridiculous origin story. While hunting a legendary cat in Africa, Sergei is nearly mauled to death by the massive lion. However, he’s rescued by Calypso, a young girl and the mysterious voodoo potion she was just given by her mystic grandmother. Mixed with the lion’s blood, the potion gives Sergi superhuman strength, speed, and agility; all the qualities of whatever animal he needs in the moment. Finally strong enough to break free of his father’s grip, Sergei flees home, leaving Dimitri behind to fend for himself.
Now an adult who has given himself the name Kraven, he’s like a super-powered hitman working for the Humane Society. He viciously murders poachers, arms dealers, drug kingpins, profiteers, and anyone who dares trespass on his land. Just don’t get on his “list” because they say you’ll never get off it alive! It’s all pretty ridiculous, this peace-loving conservationist who murders people in cold blood. And it’s not just that he kills folks, he really enjoys it and the more cruel the death the better, it seems. Some of Kraven’s kills are truly gnarly, pulled right out of horror movies that would make audiences squeamish. The only one who seems to question Kraven’s contradictory existence is the grown-up Calypso (Ariana DeBose), a do-gooder attorney who spends more time giving Kraven the side eye than she spends in a courtroom.
These are all just details, but there’s still no plot to speak of and won’t be for some time. Even when Alessandro Nivola is introduced as Aleksei aka the Rhino, the story isn’t headed anywhere any time soon. Aleksei was some dweeb businessman who got butt hurt when Nikolai publicly dissed him. Now seeking revenge, he targets Nikolai’s sons and that includes Kraven who is hardly an easy target to take down. He enlists the help of The Foreigner, a ridiculous character in the Marvel Comics who is considerably worse in live-action. Played by Christopher Abbott as a pompous assassin jealous of Kraven’s reputation, he kills people by putting them in a deadly trance and counting aloud like he’s learning numbers on Sesame Street.
With acclaimed films such as Margin Call, All is Lost, and A Most Violent Year to his credit, JC Chandor definitely doesn’t need Kraven the Hunter. He doesn’t let anything stop him from making it as good as possible. Looking beyond the horrible screenplay, lousy story, and a few lazy performances (pretty sure Crowe and Abbott were sleepwalking and they used bad ADR to hide it), Chandor rolls with the punches in crafting the best Kraven movie he can. The action setpieces are impressive, whether it’s the prison breakout under a snowy night sky, or a jungle chase with wild animals, stampedes, and missile strikes. Chandor has a lot working against him, including Sony’s unfathomable decision to load every one of their movies with villain/antihero characters. Kraven the Hunter has no purely good heroes anywhere, so who are audiences expected to root for? The film itself makes the case that Kraven is the bad guy, and we’d be hard-pressed to argue the point.
Taylor-Johnson makes cheering on Kraven pretty easy, though. I’ve never been a huge fan going back to Kick-Ass, but he is jacked and commands the screen like he’s never done before. He’s got jock energy and rich guy attitude, and it makes me want James Gunn to cast him as Batman right now. Today. The offer should already be on the table. Kevin Feige should be figuring out ways to bring Quicksilver back from the dead so Taylor-Johnson can rejoin the MCU.
Taylor-Johnson and Chandor make one Hell of a combo, and hopefully, this isn’t the last we see of them working together. Kraven the Hunter is a much better movie because of them, and while it crosses into unintentional hilarity, at least it doesn’t make me want to step into a bear trap which is more than can be said for Sony’s many failures. If you’re willing to hunt for the good bits, Kraven the Hunter manages to be pretty entertaining. The irony is that it actually has franchise potential at a time when Sony is ready to call it quits.
Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13th.
