Kraven the Hunter – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Kraven the Hunter – Hunting with Claws of Failure

Films are a very subjective medium.  From action to romance, the pull of the fervor falls upon the eye of the beholder.  Every so often there’s consensus … showing that the masses will agree to swing the pendulum in one direction.  This could mean the film is great or, in some instances … terrible.  In this review, I look at the latest comic book film from Sony.  Just to cut to the chase, Kraven the Hunter is truly … one of the worst films of the year.

This film follows the story of Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), as he uses his ultra gifted instincts to stop evil at all costs.  With any film, there is a hope that the escape is worth it.  No matter the genre, you go into a film wanting to feel enriched by the journey ahead.  With comic book films, they provide the foundation for that escape where fantasy meets reality.  For this latest attempt from Sony, it leads to the question … is it worth the escape?  In the beginning, we have a general action montage that showcases the ‘skills’ of our protagonist, Kraven.  From here, we then flashback to the past, layering a predictable backstory of family feudal dynamic between Sergei and his father, Nikolai (Russell Crowe), how Sergei gets his powers to become Kraven and his motives.  The film then moves back to the present, where we find that Kraven has continued to take out those in the criminal underground, causing conflict with his father and young brother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger).  The first act becomes a weaving of familial dynamics, comic book tropes within cliché melodrama.  After these terrible sequences, we head into a second act where Kraven’s exploits cause his family hardship, leading to him going after another mob boss, Aleksei Sytsevich aka the Rhino (Alessandro Nivola).  Once this becomes the focal point, unexplained story threads come into play, leading to more character introduction for the sake of plot.  As more moronic situations occur, the filmmakers attempt to build a story through a mixture of overtly brutal action sequences, lazy expositional dialogue and bland Easter Eggs (from the Spiderman lore).  As the film continues down a path of generalities, it leads to a convoluted web of underdeveloped story threads.  At the peak of its melodramatic sequences, you realize that this film is nothing but a lethargic script within a hollow Rated R comic book film.   

As Kraven continues his ‘hunt’, everything becomes a recycling of familiar action/comic book sequences (that are done better in other films).  As foreshadowed and convenient elements come into play, it all leads to the obvious ‘hero vs. villain’ climax, and a copout epilogue.  Kraven the Hunter is just a terrible comic book film.  If you want to watch this for the sake of seeing it, go at your own risk, but it will just leave you with a feeling of … what could have been.     

Full Score – 1.5 out of 5 (Noise on the TV)