Kraven the Hunter can climb sheer walls like a gorilla, snatch fish from rivers like a bear, and outrun deer. But there’s something this piece of human beef can’t do: anchor a decent movie.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the lead hero in “Kraven the Hunter”, marking Sony’s sixth attempt at assembling enemies for Spider-Man in films that do not feature the webslinger. It’s stuck in time, reminiscent of years ago when complex superhero origin stories were hot, and studios were dusting off even the worst IPs to tell stories.
The screenplay by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway attempts to build up Kraven’s backstory, but soon loses interest and settles for third-rate bad guys like The Rhino and The Foreigner, before finally introducing the Chameleon. Starts adding original stories. If there is another Kraven movie coming. ,
We learn that Kraven was born Sergei Kravinoff, the son of a Russian mobster who was turned into a superhero in a ridiculously strange plot. After being attacked by a lion on safari in Ghana, he is given some mumbo jumbo about a mysterious botanical serum mixed with lion’s blood and tarot cards. Clinically dead for three minutes, Kraven wakes up and is a world-class hunter. At least that’s what he keeps saying.
“Hunting people is my habit,” he says, and later: “I’m the greatest hunter on the planet.” Soon he’s killing bad guys, but his intentions aren’t always clear. Hunting isn’t quite like infiltrating a high-security Siberian prison and killing a cartel boss.
Director JC Chandor has a very loose hand, never shaping a long narrative or reining in his actors and sometimes abandoning scenes casually. Additional villains distract from what appears to be a focus on masculinity, and the special effects are jarring and ridiculous, like the fight between Kraven and The Rhino – somehow still wearing pants – which drew some attention at a recent screening. Made fun of.
Part of the problem is that Kraven’s powers aren’t clearly defined. He must use animal skills to hunt, but are there many four-legged hunters out there skilled at blowing darts or inserting a pen into the trachea? He hates hunters but wears a tooth necklace and a leather bomber jacket.
Craven’s eyes glaze over occasionally, but to no apparent benefit other than making Taylor-Johnson look even more badass as he stares into the camera shirtless. He has the ability to focus his attention on distant objects, such as when he sees a fallen cigarette and recognizes it as a Turkish brand, a skill rare for superheroes.
The film suggests that Kraven can communicate with animals like Aquaman, but, if so, he’s really pretty bad. At best, they tolerate it somehow. At one point a tiger jumps out on him and you can’t blame him.
Craven is created primarily in opposition to his drug kingpin father, played by Russell Crowe, who has apparently watched “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” to hone his thick, comical Russian accent. “Never fear death,” he tells his son. “The man who kills a legend becomes a legend.”
Crowe’s father is a whiskey-soaked, full-on testosterone, Tony Bennett-loving man who despises any sign of weakness or kindness. He kills animals for fun, uses cocktail waitresses as human shields, does not pay ransom because it makes him look soft and dismisses his wife’s suicide with the comment: “She was weak.”
If Crowe is cartoonish to the point of parody, Alessandro Nivola as the human-rhinoceros hybrid makes him look like Sir Laurence Olivier. There are few instances when someone has overacted a film, unnecessarily adding an undercurrent of murderous, funny psychosis to an already bizarre creation. The costume department dropped the ball here too, giving Rhino a small, string backpack that looks like it was found in a Kohl’s discount bin.
Two fine actors – Fred Hechinger as Kraven’s younger brother and Ariana DeBose as his lawyer-partner – get bogged down in a film that stumbles and stumbles to an unsatisfying ending. Is Kraven a hero or a villain? Who cares? What’s the point, really, without Spider-Man, right?
Sony Pictures’ release “Kraven the Hunter,” which opens in theaters Friday, is rated R for “strong bloody violence and language.” Running time: 127 minutes. One star out of four.
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