Year of Release: 2025
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Aaron Taylor Johnson, Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott, Levi Miller, Billy Barratt, Murat Seven, Yuri Kolokolnikov
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 2
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Synopsis and Review
J.C. Chandor who up until now has had a fantastic qualitative feature output, has hit a bit of snag with his first foray into the Marvel universe, with what has turned out to be one of the most disappointing films that Marvel has placed their label on. The film follows the tory of Sergei Kravinoff whom we first encounter as a teenager, protecting his younger half brother, following the death of his mother. His father takes the boys on a hunting trip, aiming to teach them about trapping animals, power and control, but ends up putting the boys in danger. Sergei in particularly is injured while protecting Dmitri. He is attacked by a lion and manages to survive because a young girl by the name of Calypso spots him, and gives him a special serum given to her by her late and mystical grandmother. Years later Sergei now goes by the name of Kraven and is a vigilante who tracks and hunts criminals. While in London celebrating his brother's birthday, he is unable to prevent him from being abducted. The man behind the kidnapping is Aleksei Sytsevich, who was known to Kraven's father years ago, but has since become a crime lord himself, and wants to push Nikolai out of the business. Kraven reaches out to Capypso, now a well known lawyer to help him with the Dmitri situation, and while they eventually trace his whereabouts, they also fall into a trap. While they manage to escape, Sytsevich has unleashed a dangerous contract killer on them who uses special skills to get to his victims.
Sony's attempts at scalping the Spider-Man universe for more and more films based on supporting characters finally hit a stop following the critical and commercial derision this film suffered. Kraven, much like Morbius, Sandman, Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Mysterio, Electro, Black Cat, to name but a few, were all a series of villains always hellbent on destroying Spiderman. For some reason the creative teams at Sony have decided to create a series of films with these characters, portraying them as anguished and battered heroes, who by force of circumstances eventually face-off against Spiderman (including in that roster, Venom). The biggest problem with "Kraven the Hunter" is the fact that connections between characters and events are set in motion without much of a discernible narrative thread, the same going for the characters themselves, who magically transform from one thing to the next, without much of a realization for the tremendous gaps that exist in their lives (or what brought them to the current stage of where and who they are). As far as the characters themselves, they aren't given much to do, and the film ultimately feels as if though there's an entire chapter of it missing. Calypso, Aleksei, Nikolai, Dmitri, and even Kraven himself, are given so little in terms of a journey to go on, that everything in this film feels like a set up for a brief action sequence, that ultimately doesn't go anywhere (what is Kraven's ultimate goal, and for that matter, what is Calypso's or Dmitri's or any of the other characters). The cast while peppered with credible names, all get tarnished from this experience, starting with Russell Crowe, someone who has always been a thoughtful and powerful presence, but here is seemingly mocking his own persona, transforming himself into a poor version of what the late Oliver Reed used to make. The recently awarded Ariana DeBose is equally terrible, and really poses the question of how she just recently won an array of acting awards. The usually fantastic Alessandro Nivola doesn't fare much better, with the only untarnished presence being the subtle Christopher Abbott, who thankfully doesn't have much to do. The production team is impeccable, with highlights going to Ben Davis cinematography and Eve Stewart's production design. Maybe somewhere inside some well secluded Marvel vault there's a whole other chapter to this film that has not seen the light of day, but what indeed has is poorly conceived and is a miss-step for the talented J.C. Chandor.
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