Kraven the Hunter: Movie Review

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott
Director: J C Chandor

Frustrating given its promise and cast, Kraven the Hunter squanders its premise thanks to a mix of tantalizing ends which were never going anywhere and mysteries that don't demand resolution but tease endless possibilities.

Following a mauling in Ghana from a lion (poorly executed by sub-par CGI) and saved by a few drops of a mysterious elixir administered by a young girl called Calypso, Sergei Kravinoff (Taylor-Johsnon) emerges from being dead for 3 minutes with new powers.

Years later Sergei and his brother live under the yoke of their tyrannical growling (and occasionally comatose) gangland father Nikolai (Russell Crowe). Pushed to the limit after his father's actions, Sergei breaks free and becomes a vigilante, hunting people he believes deserve punishing.

Both overlong and somehow undercooked, Kraven feels like a rote expansion of a universe unremarkably contracting in on itself.

While Taylor-Johnson has some charisma throughout, it's dulled by dialogue that's beyond awful and action that feels increasingly unrealistic and poorly executed. Even worse, with a paper-thin plot, what is a essentially a hunt film collapses under dull direction and thuddingly awful pacing that makes its two hour run time feel ridiculously overlong and padded.

Worse still, it feels lots of this was fiddled with after production, with parts of dialogue added in and editing issues clearly visible in some of the action sequences.

What's most annoying about Kraven The Hunter is what could have been. DeBose, Nivola and Abbott all make their characters seem plausible enough in parts, but the script and limp execution lets everyone down.

Ultimately, Kraven the Hunter brings down the curtain on Sony Cinematic Universe - but in a weak way. It's sadly symptomatic of the kind of apathy most of the films have been made with.