Kraven the Hunter (2024)
Directed by J.C. Chandor
Kraven Kravinoff's complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
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What critics say influenced Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter is an atavistic reminder of Cannon films. Once upon a time, their cornucopia of loveable low-quality movies — Bloodsport (1988), Cobra (1986), and the Chuck Norris Delta Force franchise to name a few — planned to welcome a James Cameron directed Spider-man picture into their midst.
Then again, Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman previously oversaw production on the lowest common denominator nerd baubles of yesteryear like X-Men Origins: Wolverine while producer Avi Arad was producer on train wrecks of that era like Elektra and Ghost Rider, so perhaps it isn’t so surprising Kraven the Hunter feels like a throwback to the days where “fan service” was something done through gritted teeth.
If you told me that “Elektra” was the only superhero movie that Chandor had ever seen before directing this one, I would believe you without hesitation — if only because it might help to explain why all of the CGI in “Kraven” looks the same as it would have in 2005.
Once upon a time, their cornucopia of loveable low-quality movies — Bloodsport (1988), Cobra (1986), and the Chuck Norris Delta Force franchise to name a few — planned to welcome a James Cameron directed Spider-man picture into their midst. Kraven the Hunter feels like a cousin to that lost opportunity.
The result is a wasted cast sometimes spouting the worst lines since Samurai Cop (1991).
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Then again, Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman previously oversaw production on the lowest common denominator nerd baubles of yesteryear like X-Men Origins: Wolverine while producer Avi Arad was producer on train wrecks of that era like Elektra and Ghost Rider, so perhaps it isn't so surprising Kraven the Hunter feels like a throwback to the days where “fan service” was something done through gritted teeth.
He cozies up to Nikolai, suggesting they become partners, but is rudely rebuffed, possibly because he's wearing Javier Bardem's old hair from No Country for Old Men.
The Foreigner seems to most inspire Oscar nominated director J.C. Chandor, whose best work is “All Is Lost” (2013), to try and make an effort in a sequence reminiscent to the climactic scene in “Monkey Man” (2024).
Not that long ago, director J.C. Chandor helmed thrilling little character studies like All Is Lost and A Most Violent Year, and he assembled a murderer’s row of talent to be squandered beyond just Taylor-Johnson on this one.
Chandor of All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier helmed his first comic-book movie. Except the movie we got here is under the much-maligned Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU), unless you want to count the somewhat financially successful Venom trilogy.
The unlikely director is J.C. Chandor, whose previous films included the talky drama “Margin Call” and the dialogue-less survival film “All Is Lost.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chandor’s action sequences don’t quite work: They speed by so quickly, abetted by such obvious CGI, that they rarely make an impact. Not helping is a script, by Richard Wenk and others, that feels both overstuffed and underbaked.
Directed by borderline competent anonymity by the otherwise talented Chandor (A Most Violent Year, All Is Lost, Margin Call), the obligatory action set pieces unfold with a minimum of tension and a maximum of annoyingly under-rendered CGI, the latter the likely result of Sony cutting corners to save production costs, all but undermining the already slim chances of Kraven the Hunter recouping any part of its budget at the box office this holiday season.
Director J.C. Chandor ("Margin Call," "Triple Frontier") puts all these pieces in motion and drums up a violent superhero tale that is tonally shaky — there are a few spaces for jokes which flatline — and visually skimpy (this is a movie with a zoo's worth of poorly CGI'd animals), while still managing to mostly hold its own.
Yet at the helm this time is JC Chandor, a director with a strong back catalogue of dramas – Margin Call (2011), All is Lost (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), Triple Frontier (2019) – all about the extremes people will go to for the sake of self-preservation.
Directed by borderline competent anonymity by the otherwise talented Chandor (A Most Violent Year, All Is Lost, Margin Call), the obligatory action set pieces unfold with a minimum of tension and a maximum of annoyingly under-rendered CGI, the latter the likely result of Sony cutting corners to save production costs, all but undermining the already slim chances of Kraven the Hunter recouping any part of its budget at the box office this holiday season.
It’s barely worth describing the plot, which doesn’t really exist in the finished product as directed by J.C. Chandor, the filmmaker behind Margin Call and A Most Violent Year, who is totally slumming it here.
JC Chandor is best known as the director of taut dramas and thrillers such as Margin Call, All Is Lost and A Most Violent Year, and Kraven The Hunter, in its strongest moments, is essentially a heightened gangster film. Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven channels his hatred towards his father into tracking and slaughtering villains just like him, while Nikolai belittles and castigates his younger son, Dmitri, for being less of an alpha male than his elder sibling. The moments between the three, although goofy at the best of times, are still effective; Chandor’s too good a director of actors, and his stars too talented, for their scenes together not to have some sort of dramatic charge going on.
Not that long ago, director J.C. Chandor helmed thrilling little character studies like All Is Lost and A Most Violent Year, and he assembled a murderer’s row of talent to be squandered beyond just Taylor-Johnson on this one.
Yet at the helm this time is JC Chandor, a director with a strong back catalogue of dramas – Margin Call (2011), All is Lost (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), Triple Frontier (2019) – all about the extremes people will go to for the sake of self-preservation.
Chandor, on the other hand, had an extraordinary first three-film run with Margin Call, All Is Lost, and A Most Violent Year, though he stumbled slightly with the star-studded Triple Frontier.
Picture this: filmmaker JC Chandor (“All Is Lost,” “A Most Violent Year”) directing a Marvel movie with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the villain Kraven The Hunter, facing off against Spider-Man or Black Panther as written by Ryan Coogler.
The (unambiguously heroic) origin story that screenwriters Matt Holloway, Art Marcum, and Richard Wenk have devised for one of Spider-Man’s oldest villains is a hot mess from the moment it starts, as its efforts to split the difference between a super-powered “Uncharted” and a gangster rivalry in the spirit of Chandor’s own “A Most Violent Year” are considerably less successful than Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s efforts to split his entire body into 412 distinct abs.
Yet at the helm this time is JC Chandor, a director with a strong back catalogue of dramas – Margin Call (2011), All is Lost (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), Triple Frontier (2019) – all about the extremes people will go to for the sake of self-preservation.
Fast-forward to today and three postponed dates later since January 2023, we finally have a Kraven the Hunter movie with a beefed-up Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing the titular role and acclaimed director J.C. Chandor of All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier helmed his first comic-book movie.
Chandor, on the other hand, had an extraordinary first three-film run with Margin Call, All Is Lost, and A Most Violent Year, though he stumbled slightly with the star-studded Triple Frontier.
Director J.D. Chandor (The Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier) has previously built up an impressive body of work full of muscular action and crime films, but here he seems totally lost with what to make of a story starring a guy with super-strength and super, uh, *checks notes* lion-vision?
Alas, while Taylor-Johnson possesses threatening and fearsome leading man villain qualities and Chandor is a fine director who really impressed and upped his action chops in the underrated “Triple Frontier,” this is a Sony-produced Marvel movie as written by the goons that work for Avi Arad—a cancerous blight who has never let go of “Spider-Man” film ownership and sadly has never been ousted (tellingly, Amy Pascal is not a producer here, and it shows; Matt Tolmach also helped lead the “Amazing Spider-Man” films, and the less said there, the better).
We live in a world where Kraven the Hunter exists, after all, to say nothing of the last box office bomb to feature a version of Superman’s jaded cousin.
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Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024), meanwhile, bombed at the box office, while seeming to incite their own kind of delirious, widespread hysteria.
Kraven joins the ranks of Morbius (2022) alongside the Venom franchise. These are films that want to emulate the Deadpool formula but are too afraid to dip more than a toe in R-rated waters.
What a sad end to a franchise that at its best, with “Venom” (2018), was fun, but at its worst, with “Morbius” (2022), was a complete waste of time.
After a trio of Venom films that dwindled in quality over their release, Jared Leto’s embarrassing Morbius, and this year’s early misfire Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter is arriving at a point where any excitement over these anti-heroes and their origins is at an all-time low.
Once upon a time, Sam Raimi planned to introduce Kraven the Hunter to pit against Tobey Maguire’s Spidey in Spider-Man 4, but unfortunately, the project got scrapped. That would be a dream come true for (many) fans to see Spider-Man vs Kraven the Hunter on the big screen, given the latter’s being one of the most formidable foes in the Spider-Man comic-book universe.
The comic version was originally contracted by J. Jonah Jameson to hunt and kill Spider-Man, but in Kraven the Hunter, Sony gets on the Marvel bandwagon, deciding we needed another hero.
Alas, while Taylor-Johnson possesses threatening and fearsome leading man villain qualities and Chandor is a fine director who really impressed and upped his action chops in the underrated “Triple Frontier,” this is a Sony-produced Marvel movie as written by the goons that work for Avi Arad—a cancerous blight who has never let go of “Spider-Man” film ownership and sadly has never been ousted (tellingly, Amy Pascal is not a producer here, and it shows; Matt Tolmach also helped lead the “Amazing Spider-Man” films, and the less said there, the better).