Kraven The Hunter
"I still don't understand" Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra said, "because the film is not a bad film." Who am I to say? Maybe we're the problem. The tragic tale of the misunderstood anti-hero transcends into the real world. But you know what, Mr. Vinciquerra? I also don't understand. Because the film is, in fact, a bad film.
Kraven the Hunter (2024) follows Sergei Kravinoff, a near mythic huntsman, seeking to rid the world of the evil he found in his father. Vengeance, however, brings collateral damage and his latest hunt may destroy the one thing he holds dear. Oh, and at one point, he bites someone's nose off.
To be totally fair, I don't think this first draft fever dream of a Sony anti-hero/villain is Aaron Taylor-Johnson's problem. He has the charisma to sell an action hero with some punchy Marvel one liners. There weren't any of those in this movie (save the one line of the film I actually liked: "There's six of us and one of you." "There's six of you, now."), but if there were, he'd have sold them. Russell Crowe is interesting to watch as Sergei and Dmitri's cold, ruthless father. Next to Taylor-Johnson, though, I can't help but feel Director J.C. Chandor gave them completely opposite direction. Whereas Crowe leans into the cruelty, Taylor-Johnson's cracking quips and smirks. To be fair, I'm here for both approaches, just not in the same movie.
Ariana DeBose is fine as Calypso Ezili. Her character is given next to nothing to do so there's not much to say other than an Oscar-winning actor was wasted. To add to that disappointment is Fred Hechinger as Dmitri. Not because he did poorly. But because the minute the movie faded to black, I wished it was his character study and not Kraven's. A thoughtful performance wasted.
Now on to my questions.
I don't understand why, if we decided we weren't going to do an origin story, we shoehorned in an entire short film that basically amounted to an origin story. Why didn't we sprinkle that as flashbacks throughout the movie a little bit better? Why did I still feel like I was missing valuable context? Why was Calypso's grandma so cryptic? What, technically, are Kraven's superpowers? Why did this sequence include an animation I'm not convinced I didn't black out and create myself in Windows Movie Maker?
I don't understand why Sergei/Kraven needed Calypso to help him. To be quite frank, I don't understand why she's in this movie at all. After her brief contribution to his origin story, she's invited along on Kraven's present day adventure in what has to be one of the least competent set-ups to a romance I have ever seen. It's not that she can't be helpful; toward the end she comes in clutch. But her whole purpose for being there at all makes no sense: Sergei tracks Calypso down to help him track someone else down. Leaving aside the question of how he even knew who she was at all, tracking is literally THE HUNTER's thing. Oh, you might be thinking, she's a lawyer so maybe he's looking for paper trails, not footprints. Maybe he just doesn't know how to use Google. But not two seconds ago he tracked down a couple bad guys all the way to London and I'm guessing they didn't walk there. In any case, it's really fortunate that Calypso's skills at tracking amount to little more than calling someone else to see if they know where so-and-so is. Super good stuff here.
I don't understand a scene near the beginning where Kraven walks straight up to Calypso and he gets right in front of her before she jumps and says, "you scared me!" (or something to that effect). I'm positive this scene is played so we understand how very sneaky Kraven the hunter is and technically yes, that is showing and not telling and I am here for that. However, in my humble opinion (and truly it is quite humble) maybe we should have instead showed him doing something actually sneaky (which, like, he does much more effectively later anyway so how did this get screwed up this time?). I don't know. Call me crazy.
I don't understand the main villain's motivation. He's literally called the Rhino. You'd have thought he'd have thicker skin (I refuse to explain that in any more depth than the film gave his character).
I don't understand the main villain's motivation. He's literally called the Rhino. You'd have thought he'd have thicker skin.
I don't understand the addition of another villain with "The Foreigner" (Christopher Abbott). Or maybe I just don't understand him as a character. I had to Google (see, Kraven? Just type in google.com) to figure out who he was. According to Marvel Wiki Fandom, he has some superpower that resembles hypnosis. While I can tell you that is portrayed in the film, I cannot tell you much more. Not because I don't want to spoil it, but because I am also still a little confused.
I don't understand the line, "She died not long after that. I never saw her again." Literally, I understand it. But, like, what.
Still, still, I cannot help but feel there was a better story waiting in the wings with Kraven's half-brother Dmitri. It was so infuriating. Every time they tiptoed around an avenue with more emotional depth they detoured to poor Kraven saying some awful one liner you just know a Sony executive thought killed at the test screening. Sigh. But, then again, if they had just gotten the right writers and creative team, Kraven might've worked, too.
Despite my questions, you'll still want to go to the theatre. It really is marvel-ous (pun intended) to see how a studio could so easily set roughly 110 million dollars on fire.
And just think: you'd only have to light five and a spare.
Comments