KRAVEN THE HUNTER – The Red Right Hand Movie Reviews [Matthew Stogdon]

Starring
Aaron Taylor-Jonhson
Alessandro Nivola
Ariana DeBose
Russell Crowe

Much like Venom, Morbius and Madame Web, Kraven The Hunter covers the origin story of a classic Spider-Man villain without a Spider-Man present. In this outing, we are introduced to Sergei Kravinoff [Taylor-Johnson], son to a Russian criminal boss who likes to hunt big game. A decade and a half ago, while on a hunt in Africa, Sergei defends his half brother Dmitri from a lion attack. Near death, a drop of lion’s blood falls into his open wounds and he is stumbled across by a young woman named Calypso [DeBose]. Who feels it is her destiny to administer a special family-recipe serum that will heal Sergei while simultaneously giving him untold powers in the process. Back in the present day, this combination of big cat blood and magic potion has given Sergei the magical abilities of an almighty hunter and he uses them to stalk and kill criminals and exact justice.

It’s my earnest belief that nobody sets out to make an intentionally bad movie. But with every scene it does feel more and more like this entire film has been constructed solely to irritate and annoy. And I’m not talking about superhero fatigue or mindless action smothered in rushed CGI (although there’s plenty of that), but that the myriad writing tropes and tools that could be leveraged to make this wafer-thin story work are actively neglected. There are countless examples of well-told, meaningful stories that follow a similar path, but instead Kraven goes out of its way to slalom away from the means to make this narrative not only engaging and gripping, but memorable and worthwhile. And given J.C. Chandor is a more than capable director, I simply cannot understand the logic behind how this big budget movie became so cursed. Especially after the financial catastrophes that were Morbius and Madame Web.

I will acknowledge that there’ll be a handful of people who go along to this movie and will have a good enough time to justify defending it. And, in truth, if this movie came out in 2004, I’m sure there’d be a sizeable fanbase heralding it as “not nearly as bad as you remember.” But with the evolution and progression of superhero films, audiences shouldn’t have to tolerate woefully inferior experiences just because it’s attached to familiar intellectual property. And the first foundation that goes awry is, of course, the script. The building blocks of the story itself are fundamentally fine but quickly fall apart when stacking too many disconnected and superfluous elements. None of which is aided by clumsy, blunt dialogue that is painfully repetitive and exposition-heavy. What does this symbol mean? Who is that person? Where do I need to go now and why? Everything is explicitly laid out with no trust in the actor’s abilities to convey and perform, or the audience to interpret nuance and subtlety.

It is, at its core, a thoroughly insulting movie that goes so far to explain every detail, fearing viewers will not be able to follow, that it veers dangerously into parody. With amazingly dumb lines like “she died not long after that trip and I never saw her again.” Yeah, most people don’t see the dead after they die. Or Kraven repeatedly insisting that he’s the greatest hunter, not only a killer of man and beast, but an entity that can track anyone or anything. Case in point, he manages to locate Calypso based on a tarot-like card. But in the same scene where he gutturally boasts “there’s nobody I can’t track” he then immediately admits to Calypso that he needs her help to find one kidnapper. Again, it’s not that the film is contradictory or inconsistent, it’s that nobody from the writer, to the director, to the cast, to the editor, seems to care.

I could argue that there is some semblance of redemption in the performances. Because, despite the appalling dialogue, ambling plot progression, and confused focus, Kraven is gifted with a decent cast. Aaron Taylor-Johnson obviously brings a physicality to the role that one would expect, but also a level of sincerity that gives a little weight to the family melodrama. Similarly, Fred Hechinger who plays Kraven’s half-brother is probably one of the more grounded and interesting figures. A berated and cowardly individual who has been abandoned by his former protector and wilted under his father’s oppressive overbearing rule. But being a superhero movie, we have to talk about villains. After all, anti-hero or straight lace hero, you still need complex adversaries to pit them against. And this movie has three; each of which fails for a different reason.

From the outset, Kraven positions Nikolai Kravinoff as a noteworthy antagonist. A toxic masculine figure, a power-hungry mob boss, and an all-round bastard for a father; which Crowe plays superbly. Drawing on several other performances (oddly Harry Power in True History Of The Kelly Gang came to mind), he is a domineering presence and commits to being a detestable force in Kraven’s life. Second we have Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich – or the Rhino, to use his Spider-Man alias. As a complete juxtaposition to Crowe, Nivola almost understands the kind of film that Kraven is, or possibly is meant to be. And as such, he is a soft-spoken, almost comedic cartoon villain. Armed with a backpack loaded with a serum that stops him transforming into a hideous anthropomorphic rhinoceros man, he is a laughably silly character in this very dour film. Is that enough to make it watchable or entertaining? Unfortunately not. If anything it’s just another haphazard vagrant component that feels like it’s washed in from a different movie altogether.

Which brings us to villain number three, and easily the most egregious, unnecessary inclusion. See, while Kraven is running around striking people off his list (the list is of no real importance or consequence, so I won’t explain it), the Rhino employs another super powered villain to pursue the hunter. And this person is called The Foreigner (played by Christopher Abbott). To try and describe this character is a little tricky. Partly because if you go back to the comics, this new iteration doesn’t line up. And if you try to understand his inclusion in the overriding story, it doesn’t make sense. From his mysterious hypnotic powers to his dull motivations, little intrigue is created. He is an entirely arbitrary inclusion solely there to pad out an already bloated feature.

In truth, Kraven The Hunter is a phenomenally boring film. Sluggish, self-serious, incongruous, and banal. But the biggest surprise is that it exists in this current form. Sony have produced these consistently terrible films and learned nothing along the way. Any hope that Kraven might come off as a last hurrah or finish this experiment with a passable outing are shot down so quickly. It’s as if these disconnected films have been given a terminal sentence and told to repent for the end is at hand. Yet it clings steadfast, holding course on its doomed trajectory. Better to die shit than attempt to be good.

Release Date:
13 December 2024

The Scene To Look Out For:
I’m quietly confident that anyone who watches this movie will unify behind the opening scene. It’s not anything overtly spectacular but it lulls you. It offers a glimpse of something else: a capable movie. Kraven impersonates an inmate bound for a remote Russian prison, gets himself trapped, and then we learn he is there intentionally to assassinate a seemingly unreachable target. Taylor-Johnson goes from restrained to animalistic with ease, and the action is tight and arresting. However, I should also highlight the musical choice. For some indescribable reason, the film opens with a track from The Hunt For Red October. Which is beyond baffling, especially as you’ve got Benjamin Wallfisch scoring your film with decent motifs like Motherland and Reborn on his roster.

Notable Characters:
There are so many shoe-horned elements in this movie but DeBose as Calypso feels like one of the most accidental. Formulaically speaking, I understand why her character is included but at no point does she act like a rounded human with agency or intention outside of plot contrivances. Her stumbling across a young Kraven, her becoming a lawyer, her indifference to seeing a snow leopard attack, and her dispatching of one of the key adversaries, all feel unearned and wholly beneath DeBose’s abilities as an actor.

Highlighted Quote:
“Man who kills legend becomes legend.”

In A Few Words:
“I rarely say films aren’t worth your time and that you should form your own opinions, but Kraven The Hunter is so generic and uninspired that it’s best to avoid.”

Total Score: 1/5

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