The Venom movies did pretty good for Sony, but Morbius and Madame Web were embarrassing failures. That didn’t bode well for Kraven the Hunter, the long-delayed cinematic debut of one of Spidey’s earliest foes. J.C. Chandor makes for a welcome choice as director in this installment of "Sony's Spider-Man Universe." It's one of the better films in the "franchise," even if it has a few glaring flaws.
Sergei Kravinoff (Levi Miller) and his half-brother, Dmitri (Billy Barratt) are the sons of a big Russian Mobster, Nikolai (Russell Crowe). The boys head on an impromptu safari after the death of Sergei’s mom. There, Sergei is mauled by a lion but is saved by the world’s best Good Samaritan and her magic potion. Sergei ends up with animalistic abilities, cuts ties with Nikolai and travels the world looking for bad guys to kill. All in that order.
Sergei, now Kraven (now Aaron Taylor-Johnson), opens the film by killing a bad guy in prison. He reunites with Nikolai and Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) in London just in time for the plot. Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), an aspiring bad guy, wants to move into Nikolai’s territory. For that end, he abducts Dmitri and sends “The Foreigner” (Christopher Abbott) after Kraven. Kraven reunites with his Good Samaritan, a lawyer named Calypso Ezili (Ariana DeBose), to help him track down the bad guys. His hunt is further complicated by Aleksei’s ability to become a rhino-man. That’s pretty much it.
Let me tell you about a few quibbles. We're told that Nikolai, as a big crime boss, puts evil into the world, but we rarely see his line of work. Now, if he had been just a big game hunter and an abusive dad, which we see him as, then we'd be going somewhere good. Aleksei's rise to power is mostly handled off-screen, perhaps helped by the frequently referred to Dr. Miles Warren (better known as The Jackal, a significant Spidey villain). It would have helped if we saw how he went from aspiring lackey to big bad. The Foreigner actually has a grudge against Kraven, but it's exposited in an off-hand newspaper way. The film's finale, where Aleksei goes full Rhino, is so abruptly edited together it's hard to follow.
So, why did I say that it's one of the better films? Well, part of the reason is Kraven himself. He stalks his prey with darkly amusing casualness before he brutally dispatches them. That's especially highlighted when he tracks one poacher to his London office. He's humanized by his sympathetic backstory, his affinity for animals, and especially by his relationship with Dmitri. All of which contribute to his palpable animosity with his dad, and the cold way he dispatches him in the end. You'll just have to see it for yourself, if you want to see it at all.
Which brings me to the villains. Nikolai, as I said, won't win father of the year anytime soon. He's particularly heartless over his wife's death, but we do see some depth later on about that. Keyword: some. Aleksei has a decent enough motive in that he wants to be the top crime boss; it's not much, but it is a motive. His partial rhino transformation is pretty creepy, while his full Rhino form is a decent CGI-aided approximation of his comic book counterpart. The Foreigner, with better expansion, would have been an excellent Big Bad. He's still creepy when he utilizes his super speed on his own prey.
The animals here are mostly obviously CGI wildlife. Surprisingly, a few moments, like young Sergei listening to a dying gazelle's heartbeat, and later staring down a buffalo stampede, feel real. The lion attack is sufficiently brutal, even if it doesn't match something like the bear attack in The Revenant. Dmitri, with some excellent sound editors, can mimic other peoples' voices. His comic book counterpart is The Chameleon, Spidey's very first supervillain, but the reveal of this power is still a great surprise. He can later shapeshift, which he uses to great effect in the end, even if his new base form looks too cartoony.
A few other highlights include Eve Stewart's production design, which gives us a neat lair for Kraven. His various outfits designed by Sammy Sheldon are sufficient approximations of his comic book counterpart. That's before he gets his actual superhero look, which is saved for the last scene. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch and the Galperine Brothers (Evgueni & Sacha) is pretty good, but the most memorable track is Basil Poledouris's opening theme from The Hunt for Red October. That's the very first thing we hear in the movie!
This is apparently supposed to be the last film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe; either that, or it's the last one that doesn't involve Spidey himself. In either case, Kraven the Hunter makes for a decently bloody superhero matinee. The screenplay could have been a lot better, but it still has a pretty good anti-hero, is tonally consistent, and has a committed bad guy. Spider-Man's next MCU adventure is supposed to be in a few years, but I'm still waiting for Beyond the Spider-Verse. You can spend some time before then watching this film, or not. I'll leave it to you.
Onwards to my next packed weekend!
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