Title – Kraven the Hunter (2024) 

Director – J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year) 

Cast – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Fred Hechinger, Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott, Alessandro Nivola

Plot – Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven the Hunter (Taylor-Johnson) is determined to become anything but his cold-hearted gangster father Nikolai Kravinoff (Crowe) as he sets about becoming one of the most “hunters” of criminals across the globe.  

“You’re just another man, hunting for a trophy”

Review by Eddie on 13/12/2024

Hammering the big final railway sleeper like nail into the coffin that is filled with all the horrible 2024 big-budgeted releases that have ensured this cinematic year is one of the most unholy of the modern era, Sony’s reported final Marvel spin-off outing, an era that has given movie fans some truly horrific movie watching experiences, ends on a sour note with soon to be box office bomb Kraven the Hunter. 

An oft-delayed product that now finally arrives into cinemas around the globe before the busy holiday period with what appears to be zero interest and a resigned feeling of defeat from its studio, there was still some odd flicker of hope that this solo outing for one of Marvel’s most beloved cult figures would somehow be OK as surely renowned director J.C. Chandor and stars such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe would ensure at least a modest amount of entertainment value was there for the taking in this two hour outing. 

These hopes for things being OK are quickly dashed around 10 minutes into proceedings. 

A generic by the numbers origin story/tiresome anti-hero goes up against a barely established “big bad” plot line makes Kraven’s task to be entertaining or surprising a monumental one with hopes laying purely on the shoulders of Chandor somehow managing to instil the same magic he found in breakout debut Margin Call or his crime classic A Most Violent Year, Taylor-Johnson finally getting to breakout in another lead role after a few lean years or Kraven’s uncompromisingly bloodthirsty action raising the pulse levels but none of these facets come to fruition in this sad and sorry excuse for a feature film. 

Drab, unloved, cold and cumbersome, Kraven is all of the unfortunate things that have infiltrated the Sony/Marvel collaborations over recent time with Chandor’s film feeling like it shares much in common with misfires that were Morbius and Madame Web. 

From terrible PS2 like CGI segments, a wooden script that would make an amateurish screen-writing workshop participant blush and a sense of second hand embarrassment watching talented actors lower their colours in such an affair, from Crowe’s comical accent, Fred Hechinger’s Tony Bennett impressions or Alessandro Nivola’s snarling like an animal, Kraven is filled with laughable acting moments, Kraven is misfiring on all cylinders and reeks of a film that was abandoned in the care department long before it reached its eventual release date. 

You have to give Sony credit in some ways, to monumentally get it wrong so consistently in the Marvel space is some sought of feat. 

To think they have managed to wrong so many well-liked characters and worlds across recent memory is hard to come to terms with, it makes one wonder how it was all allowed to go so bad with Kraven somewhat enjoyable as a train wreck watch similar to its kin Morbius and Madame Web but at the same time a film hard to watch as you witness talented artists lower their colours on a money laundering scheme of the lowest order. 

Final Say – 

Working best as a film to enjoy as an unexpected comedy full of quotable one-liners, terrible storytelling and embarrassed actors, Kraven the Hunter couldn’t fight the good fight to become more than was hoped it could be, becoming exactly the dumpster fire many (including its studio) expected it to be. 

1 hardy tarot card out of 5