Skip to content
Kraven The Hunter gets off to a bad start, proving that the best thing about this long-unawaited superhero film is beginning by nicking Basil Poledouris’ theme from The Hunt for Red October, as the titular character (Aaron Taylor-Johnson – The Fall Guy) is holed up in some jail 3 million snowy miles from nowhere, kills some crime lord bigwig who was surplus to any forthcoming plot and escapes.
Yes, this film cost up to $130m, hired THREE composers, and couldn’t get a memorable original note from any of them.
Director JC Chandor – taking one for the team with a film that was originally scheduled for release in Janaury 2023, before being put back multiple times and then thrown to the wolves at Christmas time, and up against stronger and more family-orientated fare – having been previously responsible for the great All Is Lost, the okay A Most Violent Year, and I’ve still to see Triple Frontier, although shooting that in the bizarre aspect ratio of 2.11:1 shows he must’ve been drinking on the job, as Never Let Go proves it suits NO cinema screens!
Then we go back to 16 years earlier to Upstate New York (probably Albany), to show how we got to where we are, with tarot cards, special potions, and the feeling of your life dripping away as it takes forever to get to the point, with a situation leaving Sergei Kravinoff (later, Kraven the Hunter) at death’s door, before he can leap tall prisons with a single bounce.
Frequently in his vicinity are brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger – Gladiator II) and Dad Nikolai (Russell Crowe taking a busman’s holiday with the worst cod-Russian accent in movie history) but, because reasons, Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola – Chimerica) is ‘kraven’ for a kill, and wants to bump ATJ’s character off.
If the baddie’s name rings a bell, he’s also known as Rhino, last portrayed onscreen, albeit briefly, by Paul Giamatti in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a film I really enjoyed on the big screen first time round, but got a bit bored with on a recent viewing, as all the Spider-Man films from 2001 onwards were put back on the big screen, as the film does rather drag a bit.
Here, though, Rhino’s skin hardens when he stops pumping whatever liquid is flowing through a tune, from himself to himself – it appears, making him more unbeatable in a fight, whereas Giamatti just shouted a lot.
Also in the cast is Ariana DeBose (I.S.S.) as Calypso, the name sounding like something from a James Bond movie, but aside from a brief appearance in a flashback scene, her lawyer character ends up seeming completely surplus to requirements.
Meanwhile, Kraven basically ends up like Dr Dolittle, effectively being able to talk to the animals, so he can avoid being eaten by big lions, for example, instead directing them to feast on baddies. However, I hope they like bland flavours, since anyone onscreen here are the most cardboard cut-out of baddies I’ve ever seen!
Apparently, Sony were impressed with JC Chandor’s vision for Kraven the Hunter, but I found the entire 127 minutes to be nothing we haven’t seen before!
That said, while this film is classed a ‘box office bomb’, scores of films have been terrible but have gone on to box office success, but Kraven The Hunter ticks a box for being shat out the door as being made for other financial reasons.
Kraven is part of the Spiderverse, like Morbius, Madame Web and Venom, but Sony thought that zillions of people would want to watch films aplenty with Spider-Man adversaries, but NO Spider-Man! It worked for Tom Hardy’s Venom, but hasn’t for the others. However, Sony are contractually-bound to make these films in order to retain the rights to the Spidey films they’ve made following the deal with Marvel that allowed the character to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hence, it makes financial sense there, but everyone still has to suffer this mess in the first place.
Similarly, Warner Bros and New Line Cinema had to make The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim to avoid losing the film adaptation rights for JRR Tolkien’s novels, and in 2005, 20th Century Fox release their first of three contractually-bound Fantastic Four movies within a decade. However, after the flop of 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, no-one wanted a third, so when 2015 rolled along, it was the turn of Miles Teller et al to take one of the team in an unnecessary and unwanted reboot, that was so bad, it ensured no-one would want any more.
All three of these films mentioned have been flops, but since they help prop up the studios in other ways, they’re still a hit. Hmm… make money by producing a flop? That’s the plot of The Producers!
And so the most interesting thing about Kraven The Hunter is how it’s an underhand cash-grab.
NOTE: There are NO mid- or post-credit scenes, but it’s clear that the last scene BEFORE the credits is what would’ve originally come as a post-credit scene, and can also be seen as something casually throwaway. Had they stuck it at the end or in a mid-credits scene, it would’ve forever been one of those movies with a ‘cliffhanger’ that never gets resolved.
Kraven The Hunter is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 127 minutes
Release date: December 13th 2024
Studio: Sony Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (4.5K),)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 2/10
Director: JC Chandor
Producers: Avi Arad, Danielle Halferty, David B Householter, Jackson Kerr, Matt Tolmach
Screenplay: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Kraven creator: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
Music: Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine, Benjamin Wallfisch
Cast:
Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter: Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Calypso Ezili: Ariana DeBose
Dmitri Kravinoff: Fred Hechinger
Aleksei Sytsevich: Alessandro Nivola
The Foreigner: Christopher Abbott
Nikolai Kravinoff: Russell Crowe
Semyon Chorney: Yuri Kolokolnikov
Young Sergei: Levi Miller
Young Dmitri: Billy Barratt
Young Calypso: Diaana Babnicova
Bert: Tom Reed
Ömer Ozdemir: Murat Seven
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.