Director: J.C. Chandor
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe
Screenplay: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
127 mins. Rated R.

Where are we again? It’s been 3 Venoms, a Morbius and a Madame Web, and now we’ve arrived at Kraven the Hunter, the sixth Spider-Man film from Sony that somehow still doesn’t have Spider-Man in it. This time around, notably serious director J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier) is in the mix to give us the Spider-Man villain-turned-hero that’s a mixed bag of elements, big on scenery chewing and low on fun.

Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bullet Train) has had to grow up in the shadow of his infamous criminal father Nikolai (Russell Crowe, The Nice Guys). After escaping his grasp and venturing out into the world in search of communing with the animals his father likes to hunt, Sergei has found a new prey: humans. He hunts the scummy criminals of the world and unleashes vengeance. Now, when a familiar face resurfaces with a few new powers, Sergei finds himself hunted down by the dreaded criminal known as The Rhino (Alessandro Nivola, American Hustle).

There’s some excitement to be had in Kraven the Hunter. I feel like the character, while making some shocking changes to turn him from villain to hero, actually kind of succeeds at being a Marvel mirror of Aquaman, who can commune with wildlife and fight the real predators. There are a number of interesting new Marvel characters introduced to film here, and while they are not as well-realized as the lead, but I did find that director J.C. Chandor, in his first time tackling a big property, gave us a Spider-Man villain spinoff that almost could have succeeded on its own merits, something that this franchise has consistently struggled with. I’m not saying it all works (in fact, it’s more 50/50), but if you look past what appears to be like heavy studio interference and some extremely poor editing and pacing (the movie has 4 endings), there’s an excellent movie in there. What ended up onscreen, though, is missing that.

Kraven the Hunter is probably the most well-executed of the Sony Spider-Man Villain films (though that isn’t laying the praise on that thick), but it still seems to forget the fact that I think it’s supposed to be fun. So much of the action is CGI blood and quickly edited to leave very little impact, and any humor is absent from the finished cut, but films like this usually succeed because the cast is having a blast chewing on scenery and embracing the camp, and Kraven the Hunter takes itself far too seriously.

Certain performers in this cast seem to understand what movie their in, like Johnson, Nivola, and Crowe, each of them understanding the inherent silliness of the proceedings and embracing that while matching the energy. Johnson has leading-man abilities but so often is relegated to supporting roles, and he’s actively uplifting Kraven the Hunter. Nivola is a performer that has been pigeon-holed in a number of similar roles in his career, so it’s nice to see him cast as a sneering villain who’s flexing his zanier muscles to solid effect. I’m loving this current stage of Russell Crowe’s career with outlandishly enjoyable turns in films like Thor: Love and Thunder and The Pope’s Exorcist. Sure, he’s using the same kind of vocal accent he applied in both those earlier efforts, but it works well enough here.

The problem is that much of the remaining cast seem lost in what the expected tone should be. I adore Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), and I was honestly more excited to see her in this film than anyone else, but Calypso is such a flatly-written side character (the narrative should have focused on her as our viewpoint into Kraven’s world) and she’s given little to work with, mostly coming on pretty wooden in the finished product. There’s also some terrible audio work with some of her lines, as if they were re-recorded into obscurity.

You get the sense that Kraven the Hunter has drastically changed from inception to finished product, and that’s likely the case. Though we’ll probably never know all the details, I’m certain that a film where Kraven actually hunts Spider-Man with Sergei as the protagonist would have been far more daring. Therein lies the problem: where is Spider-Man, and why hasn’t he appeared? Each of the Sony Spider-Man villain films could have used a punch of Spider-Man to lend them more credibility and give more narrative purpose to their existence. As it stands, we have these disparate little franchises that all hint at leading to…something? I’m not sure that Sony has a plan for these films other than moving the goalposts for someone to come up with one.

As far as this franchise spinoff series goes, Kraven is a bump up from the others in terms of execution, but it still feels very forgettable for a bloated 2-hour superhero actioner. While Venom has a terrific love story at its center (Eddie and Venom), and Morbius and Madame Web have this morbid fascination to them, Kraven feels rather bland at times, but I did enjoy the lead performance and the actors who understood the assignment. Sadly, it’s not enough to save it. Kraven is far from the worst, but it’s also not worth hunting down to check out.

2.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier, click here.