KRAVEN THE HUNTER
***
Directed by J.C. Chandor
Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose
Thriller, Action, US, 127 minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in cinemas in the UK by Sony on December 13th
The franchise known as Sony's Spider-Man Universe has been struggling since its inception in 2018. Although the Venom films performed strongly, MORBIUS was a disappointment, and MADAME WEB was a complete disaster. The latest entry in the franchise is KRAVEN THE HUNTER, from MARGIN CALL and ALL IS LOST director J. C. Chandor, and writers Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway. The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff, a young man who was briefly killed by a lion while on a hunting trip in Africa, before being resurrected by a magic potion which granted him incredible powers. Using his newfound abilities to wage a war on organised crime, Kravinoff quickly becomes known as ‘Kraven the Hunter’ among the criminal underworld. However, Kraven is also forced to contend with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), a crime lord with far-reaching ambitions.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson was impressive in the titular role, as he believably depicted Kraven as someone who struggles to hold on to his humanity despite clearly wanting to give in to his animalistic urges. With his muscular physique and his convincing portrayal of Kraven’s unyielding determination to correct perceived injustices, Taylor-Johnson was clearly doing the best he could to make Kraven into a memorable action hero. And the actor’s performance was one of the film’s main highlights. Russell Crowe also clearly did the best he could with the material he was given, making Nikolai Kravinoff into a suitably menacing antagonist who manages to make viewers feel uncomfortable whenever he appears onscreen. And Alessandro Nivola was also fun as the superpowered villain known as Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino, with the actor gleefully revelling in the sadism which the character proudly displays. Fred Hechinger also appeared as Sergei’s brother, Dmitri Kravinoff, with the actor plausibly depicting his character’s desperation to make his father proud, despite his evident lack of combat prowess.
However, Ariana DeBose was notably miscast as Calypso Ezili, a lawyer who helps Kraven find his victims. Every word said by the Oscar-winning actress in the film sounded completely flat and expressionless, and she may as well have been reading her lines from cue cards. Despite her obvious talents, Debose was completely wasted here, as she clearly was unable to inject any semblance of believability into her role.
The convoluted script mixed Kraven’s vigilante crusade with his family dynamics and a kidnapping subplot, and it occasionally felt like there was too much going on. And a villain known as the Foreigner randomly appeared in a few scenes without adding much to the overall plot. This was apparently because Sony felt the need to showcase as many of the approximately nine-hundred Marvel characters they own the film rights to as possible. There was also a prolonged flashback sequence explaining how a young Kraven (Levi Miller) got his powers. This sequence went on for far too long, and it could easily have been trimmed by two thirds without much value being lost. Conversely, severely important aspects of the story were overlooked or merely glossed over, such as the paper-thin explanation of how Sytsevich became a supervillain. It also seemed like a romance of sorts was developing between Kraven and Calypso, but this was not given anywhere near enough time to properly grow or develop. On the other hand, the dialogue felt stilted and wooden at times, and many of the lines were obviously re-recorded in post-production.
As you are probably aware, the film’s R-rating has been massively hyped, and with good reason. People are stabbed, bludgeoned, and regularly shot to pieces, with spectacularly gruesome results. Kraven also uses his animalistic strength to defeat his foes, even going as far as to bite a man’s nose off in one scene. This is a film which clearly revels in its brutality. And seeing as it is the first R-rated Marvel adaptation to be released by Sony, fans will be thankful to see another film targeting older comic book fans in the same year that Disney released DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE. However, despite the R-rating, the amount of profanity in KRAVEN THE HUNTER was minimal, which may disappoint those of you who look forward to hearing R-rated language in films which carry the rating.
And the massive budget allowed for plenty of large-scale action scenes, including a particularly enjoyable sequence in which Kraven almost uses his incredible strength to bring down a helicopter. However, the visual effects were occasionally shoddy (a herd of stampeding wildebeest looked particularly ridiculous), and some of the set-pieces looked utterly ridiculous. For instance, in one scene, Kraven climbs up the outer wall of a skyscraper in broad daylight, and none of the passers-by stop to look or even question his superhuman feat.
With a more polished script and greater attention to detail, KRAVEN THE HUNTER could have been something truly special. However, it ultimately proved to be a brutal and hugely invigorating action blockbuster with enough gruesome action scenes to satisfy mature fans of the comics in which Kraven originally appeared. It will not be remembered as the best comic book adaptation of the year, but KRAVEN THE HUNTER was still an impressive cinematic outing for a character who will always be remembered as one of Marvel’s greatest superhumans.
David Gelmini
