Kraven the Hunter Review

“You're just another man, hunting for a trophy.” - Dmitri Smerdyakov

One last trip to the multiplex for 2024 results in one last film review for 2024. And it feels like I’m limping home, instead of doing a victory lap. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, because despite my misgivings this isn’t the worst film I’ve seen this year. (It sure ain’t the best, though.)

Kraven the Hunter is a character from the Spider-Man universe. He was never my favourite villain when I was growing up, but for some reason – he WAS the villain in one of my most fondly remembered issues (See below)

And he was a member of the Sinister Six in my favourite story of that swinging sixties era.

Basically, he was a big game hunter paid to track Spider-Man down. That was his whole thing. Spider-Man became the elusive most dangerous game, and Kraven had a bag of tricks, including native African potions and powders to dull the hero’s spider sense and so on.

But he wasn’t ever (in my opinion) in the league of Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Electro or Mysterio in grabbing my attention to make me part with my pennies for an issue with him on the cover (except for the above.)

A few years ago, Sony/Columbia announced a Kraven movie. Of course they did, they’d bought the rights to Spider-Man and his universe several years ago, hence the Venom & Madame Web films BUT and here’s a big damn but, Sony made a deal with Marvel Films that allows Marvel to feature Spider-Man in their ongoing (and tragically off-course at the moment) movie universe. So, what they have left is to make films giving centre stage to the villains with no reference to the main Marvel Universe (other than Spider-Man: No Way Home). This is why we have misguided misfires that don’t really go anywhere like Madame Web and Morbius. The characters aren’t strong enough to carry a movie because they’re secondary characters in an ongoing narrative in the source material.

Kraven the Hunter is an origin story that sets up the character and fleshes him out. Oddly, it also portrays Kraven as an anti-hero. He has a dysfunctional relationship with his Russian crime-boss father Nikolai Kravinoff (Russel Crowe) and is protective of his weaker half sibling Dmitri (Fred Hechinger). After an incident on safari where Kraven, actually Sergei Kravinoff to give him his full name is attacked by a lion, a young girl tends to his wounds by administering a potion that increases his strength, senses and abilities to a superhuman level.

Growing up, Kraven rebels against his father’s crime empire, hunting down various gangsters and so on. You get the drift.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson to give him his full credit is pretty good as Kraven, given the limitations of the script. There are some outstanding action sequences, especially a chase through London when Kraven is in pursuit of the bag guys who’ve just kidnapped his brother. That, to be honest, is a Mission: Impossible worthy action sequence.

Two other Spider-Man villains appear, Rhino, though a different one to the one we saw in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This one has been genetically tempered with, so he’s not wearing an impenetrable armoured suit, he has the ability to change his skin to Rhino hide, and grows a horn out of his forehead. The second is better executed – Chameleon. The face changing supervillain that debuted way back in Spider-Man’s first issue in 1962. (I liked this because back in that 34th issue of Amazing Spider-Man illustrated above, Chameleon teamed up with Kraven. Seeing him here made my nostalgic old heart happy.)

But ultimately, despite the odd standout sequence, and a curious attempt to make Kraven almost a sympathetic character, the whole film is pointless. The only reason for Kraven to exist on film would be so he could travel to New York and hunt Spider-Man for the bounty placed on his head by J. Jonah Jameson. But despite it being what all we Spider-Man fans want to see, that’s not going to happen. I understand that Sony/Columbia have announced that this is the last film in their spinoff universe. They’re finally calling it a day.

Despite my initial misgivings, it’s not as bad as Venom: The Last Dance was, it’s better than Madame Web, and it’s nowhere near the level of sheer awfulness I endured with Joker: Folie a Deux.

Rob Rating = 5