Kraven the Hunter (2024)
Directed by: J.C. Chandor
Premise: Based on the comic book. The son of a gangster (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) imbibes a potion that gives him superhuman strength and agility. He travels the world as a vigilante, killing bad people while supervillain The Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) goes after his family.
What Works: Kraven the Hunter is the latest (and presumably the last) film in Sony’s subfranchise of comic book adaptations based on villains from Spider-Man comics. The movie is competently made, which is much more than can be said of many other films in this franchise. The whole point of centering these films on villains was the opportunity to explore morally ambiguous territory that other superhero films tend to avoid. Kraven the Hunter is the only title in this series to really do that and although it’s not particularly deep it does acknowledge the character’s moral problems. Kraven is a murderer who works outside the law; in the opening sequence he infiltrates a Russian prison and kills an incarcerated gangster. Kraven is rebelling against his crime lord father (Russell Crowe) but Kraven’s methods look a lot like the people he hunts. The film also has an effective relationship between Kraven and his younger brother Dimitri (Fred Hechinger). They have a brotherly fondness for each other but Dimitri lives in fear of their father. The family portrait is the best part of the movie and that subplot has an emotional impact.
What Doesn’t: There are a lot of details in Kraven the Hunter that don’t make much sense. Kraven acts on his own. He has abandoned his family to work as a solitary vigilante but he’s also got a cache of elaborate weapons and jets over the world; in at least one scene Kraven is assisted by military aircraft. It’s unclear if Kraven is being financed by someone else but if he is, that entity and their agenda are not addressed. Ariana DeBose is wasted in the role of a lawyer who feeds Kraven intelligence. DeBose has nothing to do and no story of her own. Kraven the Hunter lacks a sense of urgency. There’s no strategy to Kraven’s hit list. He’s not working toward anything and even though the movie is full of violence, there is little sense that anything is at stake. It’s just not very dramatically engaging. The action sequences are done well enough but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. The digital effects are uneven. The animals often look like cartoons.
Bottom Line: Kraven the Hunter is one of the better of Sony’s supervillain films but that’s not saying much. This might have been an interesting first chapter in a series that will never happen. Kraven the Hunter isn’t bad, just mediocre and forgettable.
Episode: #1029 (December 29, 2024)