Kraven: The Hunter (2024) | Film Review

To say Sony’s Spider-verse has never really found its footing would be an understatement. Aside from the stellar animated films and the Venom trilogy, films like Morbius and Madame Web lacked enough creative love to ever truly thrive as independent entities. Much of the reason for this is the substantial lack of Spider-Man in films revolving around villains or threats DIRECTLY related to Spider-Man. C’mon, we know there is a rights situation, but couldn’t you even get Andrew Garfield to throw on the tights and wrestle with Venom at any point? He even wanted to fight an alien! Well, we are at it again with the latest Spidey nightmare to garner his own film, Kraven: The Hunter.
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Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the titular character who is not only Russell Crowe’s Russian gangster Nikolai Kravinoff’s son, but also the most badass, vicious hunter of men the world has never actually seen. Things go sideways when a menacing foe known as Rhino (a delightfully unhinged Alessandro Nivola) decides it’s time to join in on the hunt and uses fellow baddie The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott) to lure Kraven’s sniveling brother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) into the mix. Ariana DeBose – a bit underserved for an Oscar winner – co-stars as Calypso, Kraven’s unwitting accomplice with connections to help Kraven take care of those he deems worthy of sport killing.

As a HUGE Spider-Man fan, I too am sick of the Sony Spider-Verse reputation of trying to make Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man. Kraven is one of the BIGGEST villains of that world (he definitely deserves to fight the web-head). So, if you’re looking for the Kraven from the comics, there are fleeting sights of him here and there, but this ain’t the evil bastard that sporadically mauls animals and demands Spidey’s head on a wall from the pages.

Well, all the wannabe haters can shut it. Including myself. Because Kraven: The Hunter was a rousingly fun flick.

Instead of the Kraven you know and loathe, you get the swaggering pelvic thrusts of Aaron Taylor-Johnson posing as every mammal in the animal kingdom as he sadistically and gratuitously murders enemies while chewing up scenery like it’s his job, which it absolutely is, and this is a compliment. Does his backstory take far too long? Definitely. But whenever Taylor-Johnson is onscreen, it is painfully obvious he commands it. Kraven is all bluster and cockiness; an aspect Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays with relative ease. If only we had more shared scenes with Russell Crowe’s scene-eater father to further extend the insane confidence members of this family have, this could have been magical.

Yes, the eventual Rhino effects could use a bit of refinement and there are a handful of spotty story leaps and rough ADR, but overall, this was a wild ride. Plus, several intensely riveting and thrilling action sequences make this the kind of movie you’ll definitely have as repeat background noise in 5 years and wish it had become a franchise.

I made a trademark critical mistake and walked into a film expecting not to like it. It should never happen, but occasionally it does, and this Spider-verse has unfortunately earned that mentality and frustration. But ultimately, as critics, we must review the film based on what the filmmakers delivered, not what we necessarily wanted or expected.

Dammit. I almost hate to say it, but even as a die-hard Spider-Man fan, Kraven: The Hunter is a great time at the movies.