Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter
Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola
Directed by J.C. Chandor
When he was a child, Sergei Kravinoff, his half-brother Dmitri and their overbearing crime lord father Nikolai (Russell Crowe) embark on a hunt in Africa where a lion attacks Sergei and leaves him for dead after dropping some of its blood in one of Sergei's wounds. He's found by a young Calypso who saves his life with a serum that gives Sergei superhuman powers - the abilities to hunt like different animals.
Years later, a now-grown Sergei (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a one-man assassin, taking down crime lords and other villains under the name Kraven the Hunter. He returns home to celebrate Dmitri's (Fred Hechinger) birthday and is discovered by Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), who was denied by their father years earlier to work with him. Fueled by revenge, Aleksei kidnaps Dmitri and holds him hostage, leading Kraven to turn to Calypso (Ariana DeBose) to find his brother and rescue him before Aleksei kills him.
While I was sitting through "Kraven" a thought occurred to me: all the SSMU films were lacking the same thing, and it's something I can't quite put my finger on. Each film is totally generic and lacking any sort of passion or desire, but that's not it. Each film doesn't really follow the comics and has nothing to do with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, although we expected in each film to at least see a cameo appearance, but that's not it. Each film feels like a story that could've been told in the 90s, but that's not it either. I can't place it, but there's a hole in each of these films that makes them even less appealing than what people say they are - and no one says they're appealing in the first place.
"Kraven" is one such film, a movie that could've been made in the 90s with its generic story: vigilante hero has daddy issues and has to protect his family because his enemies can't target him specifically because he's too powerful, so they kidnap a weaker family member to draw him to the open. It's something you've seen in countless movies, and while others have done it better, "Kraven" really doesn't fail in that department. It's not a failure along the lines of "Madame Web" or "Morbius," but it's not the lesser-higher tier with the "Venom" movies, but rests comfortably in the middle, not being terrible but not being great either.
"Kraven" also has the distinction of not just being the final nail on the SSMU coffin, but being the franchise's only R-rated film, and even then it doesn't really seem to require it. It's almost an afterthought, as the kills - although inventive and gory - fail to illicit the same kind of excitement as other R-rated action romps. The f-bombs are almost an afterthought, with the director yelling "cut" and telling the actors to include the f-bombs repeatedly because they got the R-rating, so they might as well use it. If anything, it made me wish "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" was R-rated, because with a villain like Carnage you need it to be R-rated...and I realize how many times I just said "R-rated" on one paragraph, so I'll stop...R-rated.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson tries his best to hold the film together, but Kraven isn't a character that has a lot of charisma - he's a cold, calculated killer who utilizes his techniques for hunting the most dangerous game. Much like the SSMU is SMINO (Spider-Man In Name Only), "Kraven" is KINO ("Kraven In Name Only) - in the comics, Kraven is a pure villain who wants to kill Spider-Man because he sees him as the ultimate game, and murders numerous animals and even wears their skin, whereas here Kraven is a vigilante, out to seek his own form of justice, and whom uses animals to his advantage. I'm not one for knocking a film for deviating from its source material, and I don't really care about Kraven in any aspect, but I just wanted to point that out. Aaron Taylor-Johnson tries but the script - and the character itself - doesn't allow him to let loose and have fun. Even when he's making jokes, they fall incredibly flat, but in all honesty he wasn't cast for his ability to crack jokes, but for cracking open those twelve-pack abs.
Ariana DeBose continues her downward spiral from her Oscar-winning debut in "West Side Story" as the lifeless Calypso, who exists sort of as a romantic interest of sorts but also for a real-life Chekov's gun as she showcases her arrow-shooting ability (no chance that'll come back later in the movie...right...). Fred Hechinger has had an amazing year, starring in the independent darling "Thelma" as well as the blockbuster "Gladiator II," so it's forgivable that he phones in his performance here as Dmitri, who's one note is that he's a sniveling coward compared to his half-brother's fearless demeanor. Only Alessandro Nivola and Russell Crowe understood the assignment, playing their characters to cartoonish levels of villainy that make them rather somewhat enjoyable.
While serving as the final film in the much-derived SSMU franchise, "Kraven the Hunter" succeeds in flatlining the franchise by offering a purely middle-of-the-road film that's not hilariously bad, but not better than the others.
The Score: C
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