At one point in Kraven the Hunter, Sony’s latest Marvel villain spin-off, someone asks Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) what he hunts. “People,” Kraven smirks, exemplifying the basic level of dialogue this film has to offer. And yet, somehow, Kraven the Hunter is one of the better efforts in this ongoing saga of Spider-Man antagonists who are untethered from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s far superior to the limp Madame Web and to the overwrought Morbius, perhaps because Taylor-Johnson manages a precise middle-ground between Dakota Johnson’s complete apathy in the former and Jared Leto’s cringe-inducing Method acting in the latter. And, in fact, Taylor-Johnson is the most grounded part of a film that is ostensibly about a guy enhanced with the power of wild animals.
|
KRAVEN THE HUNTER ★★ (2/4 stars) |
The film opens in Russia, where Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven is part of a group of prisoners being transported to a remote, Arctic compound. He informs his threatening cellmate, in Russian of course, that he will be out of there in less than three days. He is—Kraven infiltrates a known criminal’s cell and viciously murders him with a sabretooth tiger’s tusk to the neck before leaping hand over foot out of the prison walls. Once he escapes, on a plane that happens to be waiting for him in a nearby blizzard, Kraven tears off his sweat-soaked shirt, forcing the audience to appreciate all of the physical work that went into the character. The script may be a mess, but Taylor-Johnson’s rippled abs are not.
Because this is an origin story, director J. C. Chandor quickly shifts back in time to Kraven’s childhood, when he was growing up as a rich kid named Sergei Kravinoff alongside his half brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger, always sight for sore eyes). Two young actors play the teen versions of the characters, who are forced to accompany their Russian criminal father Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe, with an accent) on a hunting trip to Ghana. Also there: a young Calypso, whose grandmother’s special portion saves Sergei after he’s brutally attacked by a legendary lion, whose blood drips into his wounds. Basically, Sergei ends up superhuman powers from a vial of liquid and some lion blood, resulting in him abandoning his brother and father and decamping to the far outskirts of eastern Russia, the home of his dead mother.
But wait—there’s more. On the same eventful hunting trip, Nikolai refuses a partnership with Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola, unnecessarily milking it), resulting in a hatred of the Kravinoff dynasty that continues into present day. Aleksei, now boasting special powers himself that involve growing a rhino-like skin, attempts a takeover of the Kravinoff business with the help of super-powered assassin the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott, who seems to know his role is superfluous). Once he figures out that Sergei is actually the infamous hunter, who is taking down criminals around the world, Aleksei kidnaps Dmitri and entices Kraven to follow. Kraven, meanwhile, has reunited with Calypso (Ariana DeBose, doing some of the most stilted line readings of her career), who is now a lawyer and seemingly enmeshed in the criminal underworld of London.
It’s a lot of expository set-up for what is being billed as the most violent Marvel movie to date. And it is pretty violent, especially when Kraven gets to hunting, which involves everything from shooting poison darts to clamping men’s faces in metal traps. Blood gushes frequently, so we know Kraven is more brutal than Venom, even if the alien does frequently bite the heads off his enemies. Chandor, a good director who seems bogged down by an overly-complicated, sometimes nonsensical script, does his best work during the action sequences. A chase scene across London, which sees Taylor-Johnson paying a barefoot homage to Bruce Willis, is thrilling and well-executed. The fight scenes between Kraven and the many people he wants to kill/want to kill him are dynamic, with great stunts from Taylor-Johnson, who takes the film as seriously as he can without going full Leto. And he even seems to know it’s a bit ridiculous, particularly once he dons a midriff-baring costume that pays homage to the comics.
The main problem with Sony’s Spider-Man spin-offs is that there’s no Spider-Man, hence there’s no endgame. The films have introduced members of the beloved Sinister Six, but without a friendly neighborhood hero to fight there’s no point in teaming them up onscreen. Tom Hardy’s Venom trilogy came to an end earlier this year and Sony has yet to announce any further Marvel films, which suggests that the success or failure of Kraven the Hunter might be a pivotal moment for the studio. And despite a lot of silliness, primarily thanks to Nivola’s absurdist performance as the Rhino, Kraven the Hunter is entertaining—far more so than expected based on Morbius and Madame Web. If only it wasn’t so convoluted or dragged down by extraneous characters. If only the CGI was better. And if only Taylor-Johnson weren’t given lines that sound like they were written by AI. Still, he’s a genuine star, perhaps using the opportunity to display his action skills to the producers who are still deciding on the next James Bond.
