Kraven the Hunter – REVIEW

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe in Kraven the Hunter


I’m not even sure what to say. Sony’s little venture into Spider-Man spin-off movies that don’t actually have Spider-Man in them was admittedly interesting to watch unfold, in a morbid sort of way. I remember being pretty excited for the first couple of Venom movies, which I think are fun in their own right. Turning Venom and Eddie’s relationship into a rom-com is an inspired call, but I can’t even begin to say that about the other films in this “franchise.” Morbius and Madame Web were both famously clowned on by the internet, but even though the latest Venom movie really wasn’t, I think that was the worst of all of these spin-offs so far. Now, we have the unfortunate end to this little world. Sony said just a few days before Kraven the Hunter released that the solo Spider-Man villain movies aren’t returning any time soon, so we’re getting to see a cinematic universe implode in the span of two hours. For the sake of saving my own time, I’m going to copy and paste Sony’s own synopsis for Kraven: “Kraven Kravinoff’s complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.” I mean, that’s not exactly misleading. I kept hearing about how much of a disaster this was, so I ended up just renting it as soon as possible. It wasn’t worth it. I suppose that this is the best non-Venom movie in this, but that’s not exactly a high bar. I think that Kraven, simply put, was painfully boring. I got a couple of unintentional laughs, like when Alessandro Nivola made this noise that kind of sounds like a dying cat. It isn’t brought up again, it’s not explained, and I loved that. Nearly all of the actors are asleep at the wheel here. After being the weakest link of Nosferatu, maybe Aaron Taylor-Johnson just doesn’t have the sauce. At least he’s nice to look at. Russell Crowe is obviously going for a paycheck, and why is Ariana DeBose here? She’s very talented, but maybe she just hasn’t had good luck? I hope that changes soon, get her in something good. Nivola, a wonderful actor, just feels miscast as the Rhino. I hate going down the entire cast list, but what is Christopher Abbott doing here? The Foreigner??? Look, I know that this is very loose review, but I’m treating my review of Kraven like the people who actually worked on it did. The effects are also sloppy and thrown together, even to the point where ADR lines are masked over actors’ mouths to make them say the other lines? It’s rough stuff to sit through. Maybe this is worse than Morbius, I’m not even sure anymore. Kraven was just empty. Not even the worst thing I’ve ever seen, just nothing.


Ryan’s Grade: D