Kraven the Hunter (2024)

Score: 4 / 5

Everyone has their favorites when it comes to superheroes and their counterparts, and mine were always part of the X-Men or Spider-Man comics. Certainly one of the top contenders was Kraven, a beastly predator of a man whose prowess at hunting and tracking was aided by certain mystical elements that granted him superhuman strength and the convenient ability to commune with and influence animals. The image of Spider-Man clawing his way out of his own premature burial at Kraven's hand will haunt me forever, as will the frank sex appeal of the character himself. And now, joining the ranks of Sony's Spiderverse films, Kraven lives in live-action, and it's easily my favorite of the franchise.

Don't get me wrong: the story is a mess. For whatever reason, and despite clear love of the characters, this series has never quite mastered the art of intelligent storytelling, often choosing to advance via strange plot twists and extended action sequences rather than believable character or thematic developments. They hop around the globe for spectacle, not for purpose, and they increasingly rely on digital animation in order to tell their stories, not as boons for having told a good story on its own and desiring embellishment. This is all true here, perhaps to some extent more so as a result of the many animals necessary to establish Kraven's identity, and the film will not win many new fans. Indeed, this franchise has become so popular to hate that I've already seen more folks than I care to count lambasting it on social media.

Yet you'll notice that precious few say much of substance, preferring instead to level evaluative charges of it being "bad" or "stupid" without attempting to understand or appreciate it. And while I'm admittedly blinded by my ecstasy that a personal favorite character is finally the title character of a film, I'm also aware that any earnest critical engagement with art will increase appreciation if not enjoyment. One must simply deny the base pleasure of sounding off an opinion and approach a challenging or troubling work with curiosity. It's wild, I know, especially in a genre of such grounded, believable stakes and realistic integrity as superheroes.

But seriously, for fun, this movie slaps. We begin with Sergei Kravinoff, called "the Hunter," assassinating an arms trafficker in a Russian prison before escaping to London for his younger brother's birthday. It doesn't take long for star Aaron Taylor-Johnson's shirt to come off, and while it's silly in context, at least someone making the film knows what we paid to see. Taylor-Johnson has never looked better -- which is saying a lot -- and while we see less skin of him that I was expecting, it does make the few select shots much more satisfying. More importantly, his acting is more subdued than in several of his recent roles (The Fall Guy, just this year) while still carrying that larger-than-life charisma. He knows he can handle whatever comes his way, exuding effortless confidence in every shot, specifically in his movement work, which incorporates some lovely animalistic flair I'd have liked him to lean into further.

Unfortunately, the writers wanted to include much more, meaning that many other characters are brought in without much room to develop. Dmitri, Sergei's half-brother, is a welcome addition, brought to life by Fred Hechinger, a casting choice I dislike despite his capable performance as the nascent Chameleon; sadly, he's only brought in when Kraven needs to urgently do something. Similarly, Kraven's two opponents in this story are Alessandro Nivola as the Rhino and Christopher Abbott as the Foreigner, two excellent choices who are undermined by ludicrous effects and a marked lack of interiority. Kraven's father (a miserably uninteresting Russell Crowe) and once and future girlfriend Calypso (Ariana DeBose looking great with nothing to do) pop in and out, but really are mostly there to monologue about what they care about and what they intend to do. You might say it's much ado about, well, not much at all.

But who cares? Probably most folks, so let me rephrase: I certainly didn't care, because I had a blast in the auditorium. Aided by a double shot of Jack Daniels in my frozen Coke, I laughed at half-baked jokes and gasped at contrived action and had the most purely entertained time at the movies in ages. Perhaps I'm a presold nerdy fanboy, but I'll own that. The mindless fun of Morbius or the Venom series or even Madame Web have had me all along, but if this is the true end of the franchise (as it is rumored to be), I'm thrilled that we at least got this action-packed sexy fantasy romp through previously unexplored geekdom. Even if my main takeaway was the final shot, that alone is worth far more than the price of admission. Selah.