Kraven's complex relationship with his ruthless father starts him down a path of vengeance, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
Director: J. C. Chandor
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe
Release Date: December 13, 2024
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rated R for strong bloody violence, and language.
Runtime: 2h 7m
Review:
Kraven The Hunter manages to be a halfway decent crime drama until it remembers it also must be a comic book story which drags down the whole experience. J. C. Chandor does his best to deliver an engaging story highlighted by some decent action sequences. Unfortunately, he's fighting some terrible headwinds with a terrible script, shoddy CGI and a goofy collection of characters that he must wrangle together. The fact that he manages to deliver something more coherent and watchable than Madame Web or Morbius is something of a small moral victory for him and his cast. That being said, there's so much clunky dialogue and bad accents thrown onscreen that you are left with a decision to either check out or just go with it. The incredibly talented cast does the best they can with what they are given and occasionally manage to find some depth in their characters. Aaron Taylor-Johnson makes great use of his good looks and chiseled frame in the central role. He is solid enough to make it all watchable, the script doesn't really ask much from him, even though his accent rotates between bad Russian, non-descript and his native British. Russell Crowe, sporting an equally bad Russian accent, chews up every bit of scenery as Kraven's gangster father. Crowe and Taylor-Johnson have some fun chemistry together which the film would have been wise to focus on instead of Alessandro Nivola's Rhino. Christopher Abbott shows up as supporting villain who’s also more interesting than The Rhino which makes you wonder why the latter is the main villain in the first place. Ariana DeBose, whose name is Calypso as the film reminds us of every five minutes, is given the thankless supporting role that doesn't give her much to do outside of randomly giving Kraven his powers and shell out some exposition. Ultimately, Kraven the Hunter isn't laughably bad like some of the other entries in this strange Sony spinoff universe but inherently forgettable.
C
