We finally got a comic book movie about Kraven: The Hunter, but is it the one we expected…. is it the one we deserve! While it may be true that we are in the Golden age of comic book movies, not all of them are hits and sometimes the writers and directors don’t understand the character’s journey in the comics. Most of the Marvel and Sony superhero films have been good. I’ve especially loved Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man. We even got a proper telling of Venom, but I can’t say I’m pleased with this film about Kraven. The character is not one of my favorites, but I understand his motivations and eventually, you have to understand the character’s true motivations, especially in their origin story. Kraven: The Hunter is certainly an intriguing origin story and it’s a nice way to introduce the character, but they missed the point on Kraven actually being a villain and not just an anti-hero.
The movie has a lot of great action and Aaron Taylor-Johnson embodies the physicality of Kraven. He does a good job in an action role then I don’t necessarily hate him as Kraven, but this film feels more like a mob movie than an actual superhero movie. Yes we get the character’s origin story and him dealing with his own family, his father who’s basically a big-time drug dealer, but this doesn’t really feel like a superhero movie. The villains are bland and we never get to see the most important connection that Kraven has to the Marvel universe… being an enemy of Spider-Man. Not even a post-credit scene sets that up. We don’t even get a setup of how he will be part of the Sinister Six, which is weird because in every Marvel origin story film, it does by the end connect the character to the larger universe. Kaven is not supposed to be a good guy and act like Batman when dishing out vigilante justice. It’s almost like the writers just forgot or didn’t realize who craven really is as a superhero character. But then again so many of my complaints when it comes to superhero movies are the writers who ignore the source material, which frankly, is a common theme in the nerd universe. This is why nerds get upset when we see stories that are based on the comics, but not a comic book story!
However, the spine all the flaws there are some good things about the film. It has a lot of great action as I mentioned before, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a good job with the character. He’s an action star, he may even make a great James Bond. The first 10 minutes of the movie where he basically breaks into a prison to kill someone is awesome, but none of these things can save what’s supposed to be a good story. And while the casting is actually decent for this movie combat, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is not supposed to be a hero’s story. I mean, Calypso is not a hero, she doesn’t get to be a lawyer with a heart of gold helping the less fortunate. She is a Voodoo priestess who is very much a villain. I think my biggest complaint is them treading the line on trying to make these two characters anti-heroes that we can get behind. No, that’s not how good storytelling works with these characters.
At least in DC, they don’t hide from the fact that the Suicide Squad are villains… that part was always evident. What’s the verdict on Kraven… just like Madam Webb, It will be a very forgettable superhero movie and even though the character of craven is interesting enough to be included in future movies, this character may be tainted by terrible writing and a lack of understanding when it comes to Kraven’s backstory in the comics. And I hate to say it, I actually enjoyed Madam Webb more than I enjoyed this movie. Personally, I would love to see Kraven in future Marvel movies, but it may be too late to include him after such disastrous storytelling and making him a largely forgettable character. This was Sony’s last superhero movie with the Spider-Man universe. They should have ended with Spider-Man: No Way Home and quit when they were on top with one of the best superhero movies that combined different universes into one great adventure. However, Marvel does have the multiverse so maybe one day we’ll actually get the character of Kraven that he was always meant to be, a supervillain and not some antihero who’s just trying to be Batman!
