REVIEW: ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Is Sony’s Best Spider-Man Villain Movie

As we know it, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) is dead. Outside of a couple of projects further along in development, like Spider-Noir or Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, Sony is halting anything other than the fourth Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Spidey movie, leaving Kraven the Hunter as the last remnant of Sony’s attempt to compete with the MCU.

Here’s the thing: maybe they stopped too early. Outside of the usual hiccups that doomed previous SSU entries, Kraven the Hunter is a rousing actioner that plays its shlock seriously, leading to a wildly entertaining curtain call for the Spider-Man spin-off project.

Director J.C. Chandor gets an unusual amount of leeway from Sony on this picture. Maybe it’s an impressive resume featuring films like Margin Call, A Most Violent Year, or, most recently, Triple Frontier that gave him a little bit of slack from notoriously overbearing producer Avi Arad. Regardless, Kraven the Hunter is allowed to tell a full, if not overly soapy, narrative. The film is written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway.

As a teen, Sergei Kravinoff (Levi Miller) and his brother Dmitri tremble under their domineering father, Russian crime boss Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe). When Nikolai takes the boys on a big-game hunting trip, Sergei’s reluctance to hurt the endangered animals leaves him mauled by a lion.

On the verge of death, a mysterious little girl named Calypso gives him a strange potion that not only brings him back to life but also unleashes his animal instincts; Sergei runs away, vowing to use this newfound ability to not be like his father.

Now an adult (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Sergie, now going by the alias “Kraven the Hunter,” is putting his gifts to the test by hunting down crime lords and poachers. He’s drawn back into his family’s web of shadows when criminal mastermind Aleksi Sytsevich, codename “The Rhino,” attacks his father’s operation and takes Dmitri (Gladiator II‘s Fred Hechinger) for ransom. Faced with his brother’s fate, Kraven must decide- will he be predator or prey?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven is a Sony reinvention, but not a bad one.

As an adaptation of the titular character, Kraven the Hunter is more than a reinvention. Instead of Kraven himself being a big game hunter, now he’s a figure of vengeance, more like a jungle-themed The Punisher. That’s not a change that bothered me too much, and with the film revolving around Kraven, it’s easier to root for him.

His acrobatic skill while hunting is still displayed, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson can hit those comic book poses like nobody’s business. It was a smart move to have Kraven move more like an animal than a human. Despite some dodgy CGI, Johnson and the stunt team sell the audience on what makes him a badass character to watch in action.

In terms of performance, Aaron Taylor-Johnson dutifully plays the anti-hero role. The script, written by Richard Wenck, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, sees Kraven as more of a means to guide us through the warring factions of the Kravinoffs and The Rhino’s goons.

This means that Kraven himself doesn’t get much personality as being vaguely noble, looks great, and kills guys really well. Does this matter much? Not really- J.C. Chandor and the screenwriters assemble such an enticing array of supporting characters that having an underwritten protagonist doesn’t make as much of a dent in the proceedings as you’d think.

Alessandro Nivola is having the time of his life playing The Rhino. Even before going “full Rhino,” Nivola brings such a devilish charm to the role of a wicked man with boundless ambition. Moreover, the secondary antagonist, “The Foreigner” (Christopher Abbott), who seems to have the ability to move quickly, use hypnosis, or stop time—it’s never really clear—steals the show.

His dead-eyed, knowing smirk conjures up the feeling of the great goons of cinema past. Of course, you can’t beat a late-period Russell Crowe role, and his stern, dismissive, very Russian Nikolai Kravinoff is the perfect evil patriarch to set this story in motion. That’s to say nothing of Fred Hechinger, who offers up a sincere sense of struggle as his character slowly inches towards becoming C-list Spider-Man villain, The Chameleon.

The bar was low, but Kraven The Hunter does clear it. 

Sadly, Ariana DeBose doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo, as her take on the character Calypso is as confusing as it is confused. It’s a real feedback loop, where DeBose does not know quite how to play this character, or the character itself is underwritten as all hell feed into each other.

There’s some really poor CGI here, too. In a movie where there’s going to be more than a few CGI animals, it’s an issue if none of them look convincing. Furthermore, outside of a few striking compositions, cinematographer Ben Davis slaps the movie with the same sludgy, muted look that has wrecked so much of the comic book film genre.

Thankfully, Kraven the Hunter has it where it counts—the action- though sparse- is gory goodness that sets this apart from the pack. Moreover, Kraven the Hunter moves with its intention. J.C. Chandor plays into the inherent silliness of a movie like this by taking itself absolutely seriously, which almost gives it a camp value where this kind of comic-book story told so po-faced lends a certain sense of fun. Regardless, I couldn’t help but leaning in intrigued the whole time, drawn into the drama of the Kravinoffs and their enemies and, truthfully, wanting more.

Kraven the Hunter isn’t going to be anyone’s favorite comic book movie. What it is, though, is still respectable. You can do much worse than a propulsive action flick with a ridiculous premise and a lot of fun supporting characters. If Kraven the Hunter is indicative of anything with the Sony Spider-Man Universe, it’s that they should’ve stayed in their lane, making more trashy good times like this.

Kraven The Hunter releases in theaters nationwide on December 13, 2024.