Film Review — Kraven the Hunter

Another desperate bid by Sony to hold onto Spider-Man extended universe rights, but Russell Crowe chews scenery to enjoyable effect

Credit: Sony

The best thing about Kraven the Hunter is Russell Crowe. His physique here, playing the titular hunter’s estranged father, reminded me of his alarming presence in the enjoyably over-the-top Unhinged (2020). As for his performance, Crowe chews the scenery to within an inch of its life, dialling the criminal Russian oligarch stereotypes up to eleven, spouting absurd clichés about manliness, hunting, and so forth, in between swills of vodka. This entertainment value almost makes Kraven the Hunter worth a watch.

However, it’s not worth a watch unless you’re a fanatical Sony Spider-Man expanded universe completist (and if you’re one of those, please seek medical help). What I will concede is that of the various wretched we’re-desperately-trying-to-hang-onto-rights excuses for filmmaking that have recently leaked out of that particular sewer — Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024) being particularly odious cases in point — Kraven the Hunter is the least egregious. It’s nothing special either, but at its lowest points, I was only modestly fed up.

The film opens with Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) breaking into a remote Russian prison to snuff out some suitably unpleasant criminal mastermind. Via flashbacks, we see his origin story, with Levi Miller playing his younger self, Sergei Kravinoff, alongside his beloved brother Dmitri (Billy Barratt playing the younger version, Fred Hechinger playing the older version). After the death of their mother, their wealthy criminal father Nikolai (Crowe) pulls them out of school mid-term so that they can bond on an African hunting safari. Cue a smidgen of discussion about sustainably hunting for food (good) versus hunting for glory, wealth, or the hell of it (bad), with Nikolai’s motivations belonging to the latter trifecta.

Not long afterwards, we get the blood-mingling lion-Sergei interface that serves as the equivalent of Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider. The “radiation”, in this case, is provided by a healing voodoo potion, courtesy of Calypso Enzili (Ariana DeBose, with Diaana Babnicova playing her younger self). One family estrangement later, we fast forward to the present, with Kraven now doing his vigilante thing via superpowers (once you’re on his list, you never get off it, apparently).

The targets of his murderous ire are very much in the had-it-coming category; whether they be vicious mobsters involved in gun running, drug smuggling, and people trafficking; or environmentally unfriendly hunters chopping horns from bison and leaving their carcasses to rot, bringing to mind a certain scene in Dances with Wolves (1990). Anyway, a couple of supervillains emerge to test Kraven’s mettle — Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) and the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott) — and Calypso (now a lawyer) naturally gets caught in the crossfire.

Performances aren’t terrible, but they’re not exactly compelling either (except Crowe, who gives the film much-needed energy whenever he’s onscreen). Then again, the screenplay (by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway) doesn’t give them much to work with. Director JC Chandor has made much better films — Margin Call (2011), All is Lost (2013), and A Most Violent Year (2014) leap to mind — but this feels very much like a job he took for the money. I suppose he tries to inject a modicum of excitement during one chase in London, but it isn’t enough to significantly raise the pulse. What’s more, the climactic moment of said chase (involving a helicopter) invites unfavourable comparison to Captain America: Civil War (2016); a highly superior superhero film with genuinely thrilling action sequences.

I could pick further nits, but it’s a largely pointless exercise. A bit like this film, in fact. There are much better choices currently in cinemas far worthier of your attention, but if you absolutely must see this (and on your own head be it if you do), at least Russell Crowe’s pantomime “toxic masculinity” (if you’ll forgive my use of an eye-rolling cliché) provides an olive branch of enjoyment.

(Originally published at Medium.)

The Dillon Empire beyond Substack

For a full list of my published novels, click click here.

For more on my novels and other fiction projects, click here.

For my Patreon page, click here.

For my Medium page, click here.