by G. E. Uke, Reporter
Walking into Kraven the Hunter, I found myself not expecting much. Sony has a poor track record for Spider-Man spinoffs, and for those who know the lore behind this character…it’s a tall order to make Kraven’s story palatable to the general public without dramatically rewriting his history. But they did, and they did it well.
There are limits to what I can say in this review, so I will speak in generalities. Let me begin by expounding on the good: the first half of this movie is VERY STRONG. The backstory behind Kraven as a boy is compelling, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson knocks it out of the park with a dead sexy physicality and charm that had my wife making appreciative comments and me making jealous angry-cat sounds. Russel Crowe excels in his role as Nikolai Kravinoff, Kraven’s “macho gangster” father, and Fred Hechinger’s portrayal of Kraven’s little brother Dimitri was also quite good. The relationship between them felt authentic and heartwarming, and I thought their acting was great.
The action scenes were fantastic, particularly the stealthy combat and chases. I loved all of them, and Aaron clearly worked hard to project the “atavistic” animal hunter vibe this character is famed for. In the latter half of the movie there are a few combats that had lots of poor CGI, but I didn’t let that stop me from loving them anyway. If you go see this movie for one thing, see it for the action scenes. Running down cars on the highway, sneaking into monasteries in Turkey, climbing buildings with crazy Tarzan-style parkour, this movie has it all.
The villain struck me as interesting because the Rhino is normally a stupid thug. Alessandro Nivola made him interesting: he is almost likable in how insightful, calm, and reasonable he is. The crazy lurking just under the surface shines through in his cheerful demeanor, affability with Dimitri, and surprising lack of brutality. Only at the end do we really get to see him “fang out”, and this is oddly satisfying.
This brings me to the human element: all throughout the movie there are important themes of toxic masculinity, self-authenticity, and ecological preservation that are well delivered. The mystical stuff gets a little weird, but the source of Kraven’s powers in the comics is…dumb. They had to dress this up to make it fit the movie, but putting lipstick on a pig can only accomplish so much. I will say, to be fair, it was a fairly attractive pig.
As for the bad…the movie is bizarrely inconsistent in the quality of its acting. Some scenes are splendidly done, while others feel rushed and stoic. There are moments where people will change clothes when you aren’t looking at them, and moments where characters blithely accept things a normal person would not accept. Did this movie have moments where the camp got out of hand? Yes. Did it have terrible CGI animals? Yes. Were there bits of acting that felt robotic? Sure. Did some characters spontaneously change into sexier outfits for no apparent reason? Well yeah, but they’re sexier outfits and it’s a comic book so that’s how it goes. If I was a “bad” critic like Anton Ego from Ratatouille I could simply dump on this movie and walk away, but that would be doing it a disservice. Readers might not go see it, and it does very much deserve to be seen. You just have to walk into it with the right mindset.
Kraven the Hunter is a COMIC BOOK turned into a movie. I’ve said it before in other reviews and I’ll say it again here: people who walk into a McDonald’s and then get angry because they don’t serve Foie Gras should perform a reality check. McDonald’s does not serve Foie Gras. They knew that before they walked in. It’s the same principle with comic book movies: they are supposed to deliver camp, drama, action, eye candy, and suspense. Kraven the Hunter checks all of those boxes, but to do so it requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief. If you refuse to give it that and instead focus purely on the negative, you are wasting your time and robbing yourself of a great movie experience.
Overall
I will be buying this movie when it comes out. It is…good in that peculiar way that makes it fun to watch in the background without becoming boring. This is the best depiction of a Spider-Man character I’ve seen to date, and that’s saying something. Sony may still have a long way to go before it can deliver Foie Gras, but I’m happy with the result.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Kraven the Hunter 4 out of 5 comic book films.
Please take a moment to FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE to our updated ComicsOnline social channels.
We appreciate your support!
INSTAGRAM – COMICSONLINE
BSKY – COMICSONLINE
YOUTUBE – COMICSONLINE
FACEBOOK – COMICSONLINE
Stay tuned to ComicsOnline for more exclusive interviews, reviews, giveaways, and everything geek pop culture!
