Kraven the Hunter: Keep hunting for a better action movie

The Snapshot: Solid actors can’t seem to hunt down anything interesting to watch this cheap, crummy crime caper.

Kraven the Hunter

3 out of 10

14A, 2hrs 7mins. Crime Action Drama.

Directed by J. C. Chandor.

Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and Russell Crowe.

Now Playing at Landmark Cinemas, Pen Centre.

After several disappointing, B-list action movies featuring lame Marvel anti-heroes, Sony’s new Kraven the Hunter does little to satisfy anyone’s craving.

J. C. Chandor has directed an action movie that’s slow, sombre, and completely lame. Unclear characterizations, unclear character webs and an unclear script are paired with some grisly and goofy CGI effects to leave an overall impression of boredom.

Based on the Spider-Man villain of the same name, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is an origin story for a comic book character that now, instead of a superhero villain, is an assassin with a moral code and more knowledge in biological sciences than most real-world professors and researchers.

What follows is a mix of a gangster drama, hero origin story, and spy mission that, frankly, is mostly a dreary parade of exposition and dull, unexplained superpowers that rarely get used.

The worst part about Kraven is how high the potential was compared to other disasters Sony has done in recent years, like Venom, the 2022 disaster Morbius, and this past February's Madame Web. It’s stunning how consistently awful these movies are; while Kraven is a mild improvement over these titles, that’s a pretty low bar to leap over.

Read more here: Madame Web's wild misfire - Review

Taylor-Johnson does a fine job as the handsome, killer rogue, and the rest of the cast is fine too, including Oscar winners Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe - both woefully underused. But the cast can’t make sense of this slow-paced, shallow story.

None of the actors can’t overcome basic character confusion: Isn’t Kraven supposed to be the bad guy? A famous villain? Or at least an anti-hero? Allusions to past Marvel movies or the character’s history are never addressed. 

(Briefly, it’s also interesting that this isn’t Taylor-Johnson’s first time playing a Marvel hero, nor his first time playing a vaguely Russian one. He previously appeared in the Avengers series ten years ago as Quicksilver, last seen in 2015’s Age of Ultron.)

Less than half an hour into the movie, the setting (comprised only of prologues) have already moved between five different countries. That whiplash of settings and subplots never stops, even though many scenes are dragged out with overlong and pointless backstories from the various characters.

After two hours of boring characters and a banal "hunt", action movie audiences will leave still craving to see an actual action movie. Yes, there’s some great cinematography and actors, but all the other details are bland, slow-paced and unclear.

Finally, a word about the garish visual effects: this level of production on a major studio blockbuster-wannabe is simply unacceptable. All of the animals on screen are poorly rendered and animated, which is embarrassing. I've seen more realistic lions from plush toys in zoo gift shops.

With so many great movies coming to theatres over the Christmas break, this is an obvious one to skip. Take a week off before the rush of great holiday films, when there’s better prey to hunt.