The only positive aspect from these previous Spider-Man stories is Crowe's safari-loving Russian oligarch character, although I did not appreciate anything else.
This particular piece of poorly crafted superhero action was only worth watching because of Russell Crowe’s excellent portrayal and what some might see as an exiled Russian plutocrat Mikhail Khodorkovsky sly visual gag.
Even without the great arachnid making an appearance, we know that the role of Kraven the Hunter will be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He is a supporting character in the Spider-Man part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an ultra-muscular super predator with Spidey’s swooshing and bounding up and down the buildings sense as well as something feeling off. Kraven the Hunter Watch Free Hurawatch is a bad man and has mercifully been given his own film. Kraven despises anyone who dares to lay claim of being able to kill noble creatures—sure, they mean humans who are nothing but evil in every sense of the word, but behind every bad, twisted heart there is a shred of sadly and ironically honorable game—they deserve everything that’s destined for them. A digital feline or two did, indeed, have the pleasure of being wrestled with by Taylor-Johnson himself.
His origin story goes like this: As a teenager, Levi Miller portrays Sergei Kravinoff, alongside his half-brother Dmitri, played by a young Billy Barratt—and Fred Hechinger later takes over as the adult Dmitri. Sergei’s father, Nikolai, is an abusive Russian oligarch played by Russell Crowe. He takes his sons on an African safari just to showcase his savage tendencies. It is clear his mental issues are what led their mother to suicide.
Now, the sheer notion of a lion trying to attack Sergei is downright ludicrous. But from the angle of a lion having the respect of a young noble, as crazy as that sounds—lion’s do ‘noble’ krieger like gaze: And nearly allows itself to be ‘commanded’ by his affection. This is until Nikolai opens fire, dragging pobre Sergei back toward reality. Even with the somewhat condescending role Ariana DeBose is stuck with, Hector changes mid-swoon-because-he’s-perfect into a lion—became a lion-blood-infused-Sergei—and a drop of it alongside Calypso stew sets him loose on the world and he turns into King Predator Kraven. His sonlessly sadistic father doesn’t bother supporting him, preferring snarky casualness support from Aleksei, the beta male resembling millionaire khodorkovsky—Alessandro Nivola sports saber-like specs and a geektastic bag.
This long and complicated story takes us from Siberia to London and Turkey, ending with a rather predictable conspiratorial twist. It is puzzling to hear Taylor-Johnson’s Americanized English accent as Kraven when his father and brother have the ryegulation Ryussian accent. He is starting to assume a rather Roger Mooreish wry dismissal visage, which could win him the 007 part, but the dialogue is far from intelligent or humorous.
Crowe outruns both Fred Hechinger and Crowe, although Hechinger’s role is more interesting. There is little of the untempered mayhem that used to be part of the superhero genre, and the genre has not yet made a comeback. Kraven is a subpar character in an equally subpar film. He poses and walks like a bad version of Wolverine, and the movie is bad.