Personally I don’t see them as bad films – more so films that were released at a time when comic book fans were ‘filmed out’ due to the number of films being released in the genre. Well that influx is about to drop dramatically with the release of Kraven: The Hunter.
Directed by J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year), the film tells the ‘hero’ story of a character that is a villain in the Spider-Man comics. Here Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson – Kick-Ass) becomes Kraven the Hunter, a man who lives in the wild and hunts down criminals, after escaping the clutches of his abusive, bullying crime Lord father, Nikolai (Russell Crowe – Gladiator).
His super-human strength comes from the fact that when he was a teenager (then played by Levi Miller – Pan) he was mauled by a lion whose blood dripped into one of his wounds just as a young witch doctor’s granddaughter, named Calypso (Diaana Babnicova – Don’t Breathe 2), also gives him a strong revival potion.
Now years later Kraven teams up with Calypso (now played by Ariana DeBose – West Side Story) to help find his brother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger – Gladiator II), who has been kidnapped as an act of revenge on Nikolai.
However, as Kraven starts to hunt down those who have his brother he soon finds himself the prey as Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola – The Brutalist), aka The Rhino, and a mystical assassin by the name of The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott – Poor Things) team up to kill him.
At its heart Kraven: The Hunter isn’t a bad film. Yes it is clichéd but it does more than enough to be a good comic book origins film. The frustrating thing about the film is that its issues are all things that could have been easily fixed.
The first issue with Kraven is the same that many of the modern-day comic book movies suffer from, and that is that the screenwriters have introduced way too many villains into the film. The film already has the dangerous Aleksei/The Rhino, it doesn’t need The Foreigner plus another hitman added to the mix.
Rather than waste scenes on The Foreigner, who is never probably set-up or explained, the film would have been better served by giving Aleksei a decent backstory. After all, the reason for his revenge on the Kravinoff family is well set-up and he could have been an interesting enough character to carry the villain side of the film without his poorly explained ‘allies’.
The second big issue is the accents. No disrespect to Russell Crowe, who is one of the best actors of our generation, but it is obvious throughout the film that this is an actor putting on an accent – it never seems to naturally fit him. Then there is Alessandro Nivola’s accent, which seems to change throughout the film – even at times making him laughably sound like Borat.
On the positive side, Sergei/Kraven is set up as a character that the audience will want to see more of. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is perfect for the role and it seems a bit of a shame that we might not get to see the character grow further in the Marvel Universe.
Likewise, the character of Calypso is intriguing and given her own fight against evil could lend herself well to a television series that could incorporate some other Marvel characters along the way.
What movie-lovers won’t be disappointed with are the action sequences. Not surprising given the fact that J.C. Chandor has always worked with serious films previously. He brings a real natural feel to the action here – sometimes it almost feels like you are watching a war film.
Kraven: The Hunter has its ups and downs. Sadly, the downs are things that could have been easily fixed but seemed to be overlooked. Still the film holds up a good origins story and hopefully we see more of Kraven in the years to come.
Kraven: The Hunter is now showing in Phuket and is rated ‘18’.
2.5/5 Stars
David Griffiths has been working as a film journalist for over 25 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. He currently hosts a film podcast called The Popcorn Conspiracy. He is also a Rotten Tomatoes accredited reviewer and is an alternate judge for the Golden Globes Awards. You can follow him at Facebook: SubcultureEntertainmentAus