Review by Tim Robins
The Film: Kraven’s complex relationship with his ruthless father starts him down a path of vengeance, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared…
The Review: It’s hard to write a good review for a film that has been dumped on by so many other critics, but I’ll try, because Kraven the Hunter (2024) is an entertaining, very watchable adventure that seems to have been doomed even before it hit cinema screens. Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Movies (or SPUMM, according to Mr Sunday Movies) has flopped at the box office, leading to a thousand cinemas in America giving Kraven The Hunter a short run of only a week or two. Oh, and the film is rated R in America but only 15 in the UK. Who knows if that made a difference?
The cast is easy on the eye. As Kraven, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has done that American thing of transforming from a dweeby teen (in Kick Ass) to a centerfold hunk. Calypso is introduced as a pretty and earnest young girl (Diaana Babnicova) who grows up to be Ariana DeBose, a sassy New York lawyer with ties to the underworld, and enough fighting skills to keep even her clients in order. Russell Crowe tries to get his teeth into his role as Kraven’s Dad. He never quite pulls off the ruthless Russian patriarch, but that’s more the script’s storytelling problems than any fault of his.
The film tells the origin of the eponymous Kraven the Hunter, one of Spider-Man’s earliest foes and a founding member of the ‘Sinister Six’, which comprised of Kraven, The Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Electro and Sandman. All of these characters have been featured in Sony films but none of them, except Kraven (natch’), are in this one. Instead, Kraven the Hunter gestures towards other potential villains, including the Chameleon, The Rhino and The Jackal. How these would fit into a Tom Holland led Marvel collaboration is, or was, anyone’s guess. The long awaited sinister super-villain team-up now seems to have been shelved, if not indefinitely.
Kraven’s origin story departs from the comic book character introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man comic in 1964. A Steve Ditko co-creation with Stan Lee, Kraven was an undisguised riff on Richard Connell’s popular, much adapted and influential, short story first published in 1924, The Most Dangerous Game, also published as The Hounds of Zaroff. Thus, Kraven’s real name, Kravinoff, and the story’s title, ‘The Most Dangerous Game’, is a direct nod to Connell’s story, although Kraven hunts Spider-Man through the concrete jungle of New York rather than an island paradise.
The film gives Kraven super powers, including the natural ability to psychically communicate with animals, a ‘healing factor’ and animal powers derived from a combination of Lion’s blood and a magic potion cooked up by Calypso and her gran, stereotypical ‘natives’ blessed with supernatural powers such as Tarot reading (don’t even go there). Never mind all that: See Kraven jump! See Kraven run! See Kraven crawl up walls with only the aid of barely hidden wire work!
Some of the film’s imagery seems inspired by the comic book mini-series Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt (not to be confused with Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt), particularly a fantasy sequence of Spider-Man being covered in actual spiders. The comic also evokes the controversial J. Michael Straczyinski comic book storyline in which Spider-Man’s powers were a creation of a ‘Spider-God’.
There’s a line in the film stating that we all have an animal within us. Unfortunately for Kraven’s half brother, it’s a Chameleon (Fred Hetchinger) so I guess he’s destined to hang about on branches and eat insects with a super-long tongue (at least it wasn’t a hamster), and Aleksei Sytevich (Alessandro Nivola) who shares the same Doctor, is turned into a humanoid Rhino. Then there’s ‘The Foreigner’ (Christopher Abbot, an assassin because… why not?
Screenwriter William Goldman has admonished writers that, when it comes to predicting what entertains an audience, nobody in Hollywood knows anything. Sony’s marketing department even released the first eight minutes to overcome the negative press. It didn’t work. Critics just said, “Ok but what has this clip to do with the rest of the film?” Then again, what has anything in a film got to do with anything? I’m getting used to make-it-up as you go along plots, (Yes, I’m looking at you, Avengers: Endgame. Was that about anything expect for Avengers: Infinity War?)
Yes, all the things people have criticised are here. The dialogue is rather on the nose, without really explaining much. There are leaps in plot logic that require you just to accept what’s going on, and there’s always a rhino in the room, i.e. just how was this all intended to mesh with a film about a gang of Spider-Man’s most fearsome foes.
Confusingly, Kraven is a good-guy here – a protector of animals and enemy of poachers. Even his name doesn’t work. Kraven has connotations of cowardliness – fine for a villain not so much for a hero. The case could be made that he is subverting the family name and throwing the stigma of being a coward in his Father’s eyes and throwing it back in his face.
There’s signs of a good film here, including a smattering of amusing quips – when one villain asks where his boss is, Kraven nods towards blood on the floor and replies that the villain is standing on him. Ho, ho. The action scenes are exciting, but, again, it would be even better if we knew why, in the grand scheme of things, they were happening.
The film lacks moments that set scenes up and signalling how scenes fit within an overarching plot. I did lose track of how and why we came back to particular locations, including how characters were able to jet about from location to location with no care for flight times and a nation’s airspace. And the film struggles to end on an impressive note. The story called for James Bond treatment, but I suspect the budget just wasn’t there.
Some critics have claimed that watching Kraven the Hunter has made them rethink their life choices. I guess it’s fun to pile on a movie and mock it to the inch of its life, particularly from the basement of your Mum’s house. But I can’t go along with the pack. If you find yourself devoid of entertainment or exhausted from shopping on-line, get to a cinema and give this movie a fair shot.
Tim Robins
• Kraven the Hunter may still be in cinemas when you read this
• Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
The origin story of one of Spider-Man’s most tenacious foes, Kraven the Hunter, is finally told, written by the visionary J.M DeMatteis that brought the world Kraven’s Last Hunt.
In Kraven’s Last Hunt, writer J.M. DeMatteis delivered the definitive tale of one of Spider-Man’s deadliest foes. Now the acclaimed writer returns to uncover the origins of Kraven the Hunter. Revealing secrets and answering mysteries Spidey fans have been waiting for, this is the story of what made Kraven the man he is – in a tale set just after Spider-Man: The Final Adventure, when Peter Parker was powerless! As Peter and Mary Jane prepare for their new civilian lives in Portland, a figure from Kraven’s past stalks them. Who is this mystery man, and what does he want with Spider-Man?
- About the Author
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
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