Kraven the Hunter is a reasonably good movie with a lot of action and a bit of confusion, but I think you should watch it if it comes to a streaming service you have. I was going into this movie fearing the worst and came out genuinely impressed.
What People Think: Apparently, everyone online thinks this movie is not so great, with a 1 rating being higher than a 2, 3, and 4 rating. Professionals like Rotten Tomatoes, giving it a 16%; IMDb, giving it a 5.4/10; and JoBlo, giving it a 5/10, also didn’t really like the movie. I don’t really blame them for these scores, though, with most of them being average scores.
Spoiler Warning!!!
Review: Kraven is about a hunter who kills people who do bad things, which is already a problem for the people. I think the most hate that Kraven got was from this fact alone: that he kills bad people when he himself in the comics is a bad person. If you didn’t know, Kraven is a Spider-Man villain who tries to kill Spider-Man because he’s got a bounty on his head, but, in this movie, he’s portrayed as a vigilante.
I get why a lot of people are mad about this factor, but they should still give it a chance. I like how they portrayed Kraven in the movie; he was a very good character that I was rooting for the whole time; in other words, he was a good protagonist. The main villain of the story was surprising to me; it was Rhino (another Spider-Man villain). I don’t like the way Rhino was in this movie. If you don’t know, Rhino was a Russian thug who underwent an experimental procedure that gave him an artificial skin covering and superhuman strength, but Kraven the Hunter threw this whole story away. Anyway, Rhino and The Foreigner (another Spider-Man villain) are the main villains of the movie because they kidnapped Kraven’s younger brother. Kraven then teams up with Calypso (who is the character that saves Kraven at the beginning). One thing I liked is how they used Calypso in the movie, since she and Kraven are lovers in the comics. One thing I disliked about the movie was Kraven’s younger half-brother, The Chameleon (another Spider-Man villain). Kraven’s brother in this movie could’ve had so much potential, but they ruined him. When Kraven ran away from his old life, he left his brother with his dad, and now he’s a club owner and a pianist, which is weird for the son of a hunter-obsessed father, but it’s whatever. He gets kidnapped by Rhino and Foreigner and is taken to their base/penthouse. Skipping forward, there was a scene that had so much potential. Rhino and Chameleon were talking, and Rhino was offering Chameleon to join them and kill his father, but he refused and said he’s loyal to his family, even though Kraven left him with his father, who treats him like dirt. Rhino is about to shoot him but then gets interrupted by The Foreigner before he was about to get killed. Then after Kraven does his thing, a year later it’s his brother’s birthday, and Kraven joins him. He tells Kraven he took up his father’s business even though he said he wouldn’t and “betrays” Kraven. This confused me because this isn’t being loyal to your family at all. The right way the Rhino conversation would have been for the Chameleon to think about it and then get interrupted, making this last scene make more sense. Another complaint is Kraven the Hunter feels like Sony was trying too hard to be an R-rated movie. The “gore” in Kraven doesn’t really feel R-rated, more like a PG-13 movie trying to fit in. They only really had one good gore scene, but that was about it. Overall, I think Kraven could have been a good movie, but I think Sony settled for an ok movie. Even with all these drawbacks, I still think you should watch the movie when it comes to a streaming service you have. I don’t think it’s worth paying $20 to rent on Prime Video, though, so you’ll just have to wait.
