Create a movie around an action hero, such as Jason Statham he’ll do all sorts of things that only happen in film; like demolishing five thugs with bare hands within two minutes, drive cars at breakneck speeds down ancient European city steps, jump over balconies onto helicopter rotor blades. It’s rather like thinking of him as a superhero, except that what he does is real, sort of.
Similarly, Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) or “Kraven the Hunter,” also does a lot of that stuff, only he doesn’t play the part of an “action hero.” He is a Marvel character with an extra-human side. Debuting in comics in 1964 as a Spider-Man enemy, but his abilities are those closest to Spider-Man’s. He can climb up walls and jump from high buildings without any harm. In one arresting scene at the beginning of the movie, he sneaks into a Siberian prison to kill a mob boss (slasher style he takes out one of his teeth using a tooth from the saber-tooth-tiger trophy head and then stabs him). Finally there is much jumping rolling crawling twisting and so on as he gets away.
In contrast to the Spider-Man with web-shooting and elastic limbs, “Kraven the Hunter” presents a less thrilling Kraven character. Let’s half call him Jason Statham, half Spider-Man. In any case, a Statham movie is more enjoyable to watch because we can at least doubt that his protagonist has some superhuman qualities which he uses as James Bond does. For Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, “Kraven the Hunter” is the beginning of the end game in film production and you may sense this through how Kraven’s minor enhanced abilities turn him into an average comic book fighter.
J.C. Chandor is the director of “Kraven the Hunter” who began his career by creating intelligent thrillers with a human drama base in them (“All Is Lost,” “Margin Call”). In 2019, he directed Netflix’s bad expensive action film “Triple Frontier”, and it feels like “Kraven the Hunter” is his first attempt to make a blockbuster movie. You get why Chandor chose it. Kraven, as played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in longish hair and a beard but not much else that really distinguishes him (he’s ripped! who isn’t?), is a rather antsy superhero (or, technically, supervillain), full of Brodish angst. But the less polite way of putting it is that he seems like the third-tier superhero he is, just like Morbius or Madame Web. The action in “Kraven the Hunter” is fine as far as it goes, but it rarely incites or bedazzles you.
Instead, our focus should be on Sergei’s past which is made up of his cruel mobster father (Russell Crowe who still knows how to make the scene his own), his mother’s suicide, and his love for his younger brother Dmitri. Another thing that makes the narrative more interesting is its indication of a conflict between him and an antagonist referred to as Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) who can grow an impenetrable hide and break things because he was a product of lab experiment in essence this implies that he is like Hulk, while Kraven is Spider-Man. Rhino captures Dimitri so that Kraven will go after him into what seems to be his hiding place but it’s all part of a larger con game. With slightly goofy self-adulation and speaking Esperanto with an American accent, Nivola does well playing the character as the biggest ham in the piece, just as Crowe does.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is one actor who doesn’t steal scenes. I’ve kept waiting for him all along because he was amazing in “Nocturnal Animals”, “Nowhere Boy” and “Savages” and it seemed for a while as if he could become a star: the look of a pretty-face, the smell of danger, and British sophistication. However, despite recent rumors that he was set to take over from Daniel Craig as the next James Bond; I think Taylor-Johnson may be missing something special. He did good work in “Kraven the Hunter,” when he had to dash through London streets, just running away from himself and cling on top of speeding truck. His American accent wasn’t doing him any favours though, as it made him sound like an emotionless Ken doll. A scene continues forever with Sergei sitting on a park bench talking to Calypso (Ariana DeBose), his corporate-world partner who is also an attorney, and Taylor-Johnson ends up being swamped by expositionary dialogue. But he should have found another way to spin that.
Kraven the Hunter is something of a backstory, in which African-born Sergei Kravinoff is raised by Calypso, and reflects back on his youth (a time that includes a stint in the hospital after being mauled by a lion). When we meet him he is already known as “the hunter.” His list. It has names on it. These are the names of killers. So, what does this all mean? Who are these people? What’s up with that list? But what does this mean? We know that it takes place among stampeding water buffalo when final duel occurs; but why? For any reason whatsoever. I’ve seen worse films based on comic books than “Kraven the Hunter,” but let me just say I didn’t stay to see if there’s an after-credits teaser because I was done with it by then. That would be shirking my responsibility, even though I don’t have any real intentions to do so. Simply because I hadn’t actually thought of doing it before now
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