Kraven the Hunter 2024

I’m still over here playing catch up on all the superhero movies that came out in the past few years while I had mostly stepped away from this site and I’m trying to go through the handful of Sony Marvel films that I have left which I feel like I’m going from worst to best as I’ve already sat through Madame Web, and I still have the two Venom sequels to go before hitting the high point of Across the Spider-Verse. But today I decided to go with Kraven the Hunter which is the most recent Sony Marvel movie that pretty much came and went. I don’t recall it getting much positive feedback, but I also don’t remember it getting a bunch of jabs at how bad it was the way that Madame Web did, it just came and went without any fanfare whatsoever. And after watching it, I pretty much agree with that sentiment. The movie isn’t awful by any means. It has some interesting ideas, some ok performances, but it just isn’t impressive in any way, shape, or form, it just exists as a perfectly adequate movie.

Now, as someone who comes to these comic book properties from a movies & TV only perspective, this movie is pretty much the beginning and ending of my knowledge about Kraven the Hunter. My only other experience that I can remember is seeing him show up on an episode or two of the 90’s animated Spider-Man series. But my admittedly incorrect impression was that Kraven was always a human hunter at peak physical condition, but this movie showcases him as a supernatural metahuman who was given a vial of mysterious African magic potion after he had been attacked by a lion, and I believe they show a drop of the lion’s blood mixing into his wounds as well, and all that comes together to give him the power of the animals that he hunts. He also has a little bit of the Aquaman ability to communicate with animals, but it’s never shown as him talking directly to any of the animals, he just gives off vibes that they pick up or vice versa. They also introduce three other meta-humans in this movie with a new version of Rhino who feels very Bane 2.0. Instead of Paul Giamatti in a mech suit, it’s a mafioso businessman who underwent a medical procedure to increase his strength tenfold, and gave him rhino-like impenetrable skin, but it came at the cost of constant pain. And he has a backpack with an IV that attaches to his side that keeps the rhino skin, and pain away. There’s also the Foreigner who is able to hypnotize people immediately just by taking off his glasses and counting to three, and the film ends with the reveal of the Chameleon which they had been teasing throughout though comic fans would have likely recognized his alter ego from the jump.

It’s an interesting choice for this film to try and mix this mystical metahuman elements with a more grounded realistic style. Calypso is set up as this young teen who is just barely introduced into the mysticism of her family and immediately gives this potion to a wounded boy who she had never met before, then shows up halfway through the movie after Sergei had finally found her despite him being shown as an expert at hunting people. Showcasing his abilities also felt rather hit and miss as he leapt up and down buildings in a way that felt more CGI enhanced than expert parkour. Rhino was also a hard pill to swallow as he is set up to look like a mafia businessman, albeit a cold and calculating one, but he also has this backpack with a tube sticking into his side, and when he takes it out, the rhino skin immediately starts spreading across his body and when he puts the tube back in it immediately starts regressing. There’s a hint of it halfway through the movie and then he goes full Rhino complete with the horns in the climactic battle. But the Foreigner just shows up and his powers exist with no explanation. Even the Chameleon who is saved for the very end has hints of his powers for those only vaguely familiar with the Spider-Man villains enough to know that he exists without knowing that Dmitri has been his alter ego in the comics, but throughout the movie Dmitri showcases his ability to mimic their father’s voice exactly.

Kraven was presented as being a part of the Spider-Man anti-hero/villainverse that Sony has oddly been trying to build with very mixed results. This movie really pushes him to being much more of a morally gray hero rather than a villainous anti-hero as he feels like a full on variation of the Punisher. The people that he kills in this movie are all human traffickers and mafia leaders who have their hands in all sorts of crime but are generally untouchable by the law. The only potential exception is for the poachers who might not have deserved an immediate death sentence despite still clearly being the bad guys. Kraven himself didn’t have a strong personality, he had Russel Crowe as the emotionally abusive father who cares about strength and power more than anything else and views Sergei’s accomplishments as the Hunter as a victory for himself as a father in contrast to the meek musician Dmitri. There’s the element of the brotherly bond between the two, but it doesn’t make a strong enough impact and the rest of the movie just feels like things happening. It’s not a total failure of a movie, the action is ok, the mystery and investigations on multiple fronts pay off in the end, but it just never feels satisfying enough and leaves you wanting more. Even the final shot where Kraven gets his iconic lion’s mane outfit and sits down in a clear comic book homage feels unearned. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.