Kraven The Hunter (2024)

Kraven the Hunter (2024)

 

2/10

Starring

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Ariana DeBose

Russell Crowe

 

Directed by J. C. Chandor

 

I don’t know if the bad box office figures will finally bring an end to all these Sony Spider-Verse spin-offs, but if it does, I’d be so happy. There’s no better outcome than stopping all the nonsense movies Sony keeps dropping.

The best thing to come out of these Spider-Man spin-offs is Venom. Even then, it’s only the first Venom (not the sequels) that really made an impact. Every other one has just been a waste of time.

This is the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). It shows the brotherly relationship between Kraven (Sergei Kravinoff) and Chameleon (Dmitri Smerdyakov) and how they parted ways, with Dmitri heading to the U.S. That part sticks to the source material. But the movie focuses more on the relationship between Kraven and his family. We also see how he got his powers.

The movie has a slow start that could have been summarized instead of dragging out for over 30 minutes. After an initial prison break in the first five minutes, there’s a long wait before Kraven is back on the escape plane.

As you know, Kraven isn’t a hero—he’s a villain. But this movie tries to make him an anti-hero.

The story begins with Kraven going to a prison to kill someone and breaking out. Then, it drags on for about 30 minutes, showing Kraven as a young man growing up, who his father is, and why he doesn’t like him.

From there, the movie keeps dragging. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the writers filled this movie with so much unintelligent dialogue. There’s a long stretch—up to an hour—of talking, and none of it is meaningful. The conversations don’t add up to much beyond setting up the next person Kraven has to take down.

As Kraven goes about killing people as revenge for what they’ve done to the land—like killing animals for their horns—Rhino kidnaps his brother. So, Kraven now has to figure out how to save him.

It feels like the writers were trying to build up to the final fight but didn’t know what to add in between Kraven’s introduction and that fight. You have no idea the level of boredom this movie delivers. I’m not surprised it’s a box office flop. Honestly, the best thing you can do for yourself is not to bother watching this movie.

I do hope Sony stop making these movies.