Reviewed by Cliff Homewood
Faster than a black SUV, more powerful than a laundromat, can climb tall buildings with a CGI pound.
Sony’s Cinematic Universe is dead. Kraven’s here to take away the corpse. That crazy idea of having Spider-Man villain movies without Spider-Man didn’t work, who’d have thought? We had a somewhat dodgy but successful Venom trilogy thanks to Tom Hardy’s hilarious Venom but then there were others. Morbius was the worst, a film without teeth. I seem to be the only person that liked Madame Web, which felt the Spidey equivalent of Brightburn. Now Kraven comes out with terrible reviews and Sony launch, telling the world they’ve given up on this universe. Way to sell products Sony! The critics declared an incoherent storyline, but whilst I concede the point, I found it a reasonably good story. If you lose track of what’s going on; look, he’s chasing bad guys. It was pleasingly not bogged down by a love story. I went into this supposedly bad movie and found myself enjoying it, as did my friends. The weakest response? ‘Alright’. His issue? No good guys. Kraven’s a good guy. He’s like The Punisher, he only kills bad guys. Key thing here is if you’re an animal lover, early on it establishes if you slaughter them, Kraven kills you. This to me made him cool. If I was to sum Kraven up in two words, it would be Russian Tarzan.
The Russian element is a stereotypical one. It’s a hard as nails film set firmly in the criminal underworld. I enjoyed seeing gangsters being hunted by someone with superpowers. Kraven’s making a list, checking it twice to find out who’s naughty or nice. Goes a bit Rambo at one point when it wants to earn its hard R rating. I’m not into gangster films but this enjoyable superhero nonsense didn’t deserve to be kicked to the ground.
I’m a Spidey fan, but never got why the classic Kraven’s Last Stand was highly rated. Spider-Man has a rogue’s gallery second only to Batman and I am disappointed with their treatment. Kraven I liked, with an African feel, even though he’s Russian. One of the better Spidey villains is the Rhino, I hung my head in shame how they wasted Paul Giamatti as a battle bot monstrosity in Amazing Spider-man 2. This film stars a few Spidey villains including obscure ones (Calypso or the Foreigner anyone?) and Rhino is transformed and does transform. In a budget saving idea, Bane like he has serum going into him, but in a nice switcheroo this makes him normal. Rhino in the comics was a stupid thug charging into things, here he’s a calculating crime boss. Normally I don’t like character changes, but it was done well thanks to Alessandro Nivola, and I’d already been beaten by Amazing Spider-man 2. Reminiscent of The Batman as a similar gangstery feel. The Batman for some reason gets all the love, it started good but 3 slogging hours long. Calypso is the only female of note in the film and a two dimensional role. I’d still take her over The Batman’s horrific portrayal of Catwoman, an independent character you could control as much a cat, but in The Batman was just there to do batman’s bidding. Hollywood annoys with their diversity tokenism. The Black Panther is heralded then this has Russians played by Russell Crowe and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (the lead from Kick Ass). Oh, those Russians.
The film is a bit predictable, do you think they can keep Kraven in prison? But cool with it sometimes, what’s cooler than a jail break? And it has a sense of humour, in this scenario, the dialogue with his impressively imposing looking cell mate. I felt he could play Jaws (no not the Shark, that’s a stretch for any actor). Kraven’s powers are never fully defined, generally the way in supes films these days, why slow down with exposition when you can leave them usefully vague, animal like, like those of Steve Austin, the bionic man (enhanced eyes, strength and speed).
Aaron Taylor-Johnson was once in the running for playing Spider-Man, Kick Ass showed he’s a good choice. The more manly Kraven shows he has range, he is Kraven. Autocorrect wanted to call it Kraken the Hunter but I prefer Haven the Krunter, although Kraken is a film I want to see. But that film doesn’t exist yet, this one does, so why not see it?
