Is Kraven the Hunter a good or bad hunter? [critique]

The director of Margin Call and A Most Violent Year, plus a cool actor (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and the promise of a very brutal R-Rated film. Didn't it take more for fans of superhero films to be fooled one last time?

After Venom, Morbius And Madame Webwe couldn't miss the announced funeral of the universe (without) Sony's Spider-Man. No other films are in development at Columbia Pictures. And Kraven the Hunter is therefore supposed to close this disorderly series of films which strived to weave links (pun intended) only to finally disappear shamefully six years after its launch.

Like his little friends, Kraven is a supervillain nemesis of Spidey in the comics. Problem, Sony does not have the right to have Tom Holland appear in these films. Everyone is therefore entitled to their spin-off where they find themselves propelled as an anti-hero, facing other villains but they are truly evil. The shadow of Peter Parker hovers somewhere but shush, you must not say his name.

The five films released so far have raked in $2.1 billion at the box office. A deceptive success. The Venom trilogy was inexplicably a hit, while Morbius And Madame Web were monumental ovens. But what they have in common is having been devastated by critics. To the point that director JC Chandor called for clemency from fans before the release of Kraven :

“People need to give us a chance and come out and support the film, and literally try to forget some of the things that happened. Give our film a chance“.

The director of Margin Call And A Most Violent Yearplus a somewhat cool actor (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and the promise of a very brutal R-Rated film. Didn't it take more for fans of superhero films to be fooled one last time?

Except that even before the film came out we were set. Ten days ago, Sony released the first 8 minutes of Kraven the Hunter on the internet. And we could already measure the scale of the massacre.

Covering the fake Soviet song ofIn pursuit of Red October (composed by an American of Greek origin, Basil Poledouris), this opening sequence shows us Kraven breaking into a prison to kill a crime lord after a haphazardly post-synchronized dialogue in Russian. The tone is set.

Kraven regularly borders on the ridiculous. Like the flashback showing us how the young Sergei Kravinoff acquired his powers during the hunting trip that went wrong. Mortally wounded by a fabulous lion, Zar, he is saved by a miraculous potion and is endowed with superhuman abilities thanks to the blood of the beast which has mixed with his own. He then leaves to live his life as a hunter of bad guys, leaving his fragile little brother alone with their father, himself a big criminal.

And it goes down hard for a little over 2 hours. Taylor-Johnson, definitely a mediocre actor, shows off his ironic expression in all circumstances. In line with The Vatican ExorcistRussell Crowe (his father), ever more gargantuan, seems very proud to have unlocked a new accent. Fred Hechinger (his brother) manages to overplay as much as in Gladiator 2. But less than Alessandro Nivola (Rhino, the final boss). And poor Ariana DeBose (his sidekick) seems lost in the middle of it all.

Despite all these efforts, Kraven does not go far enough to switch to camp or pure nonsense, and offer us the possibility of savoring him in the second degree as Venom. We are simply facing a cheap production, with its ultra-basic storyline, its low-cost special effects and a totally disembodied staging. Words fail us to describe the power of The Stranger (Christopher Abbott), a super-killer who says “1, 2, 3” before moving furtively to kill guys.

Apart from some nicely gory moments (with splashes of blood in CGI), the fight scenes also disappoint, which should have been the strong point of a film about a bestial character like Kraven. But Chandor preferred to make him a big-hearted animal protector.

Worse, in full denial, the director really designed Kraven like the beginning of a saga, with the introduction of a big bad guy for the sequel and the unnecessary nod to Spider-Man in case Kevin Feige, suffering from dementia, accepts that Tom Holland will immerse himself in this quagmire.

Chandor, let's talk about it. The beginning of the 2010s, when the American director's first films carried a certain cinematic promise, seem a long way away. After Triple Frontiera project abandoned by Kathryn Bigelow which was to be released in theaters and finally landed on Netflix, it goes down another notch. Hollywood has once again got the better of an author, and it's very sad…