"Kraven the Hunter" another spidey flick without Spiderman.

I find it a bit ironic that even though I've been quite far from superhero movies these past few years, the last few movies I've seen within the genre have been those characterized as being the worst that have been released recently, perhaps an unconscious consequence of the morbid curiosity I feel about seeing how bad they can be.

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And, just as it happened to me a couple of months ago with Madame Web, the most painful thing about Kraven The Hunter (the film directed by J. C. Chandor with a script by Richard Wenk) is that at least in theory there were a couple of good ideas, but the execution couldn't have been more disastrous.

Starting with the solid choice of Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the role of Kraven, as well as a direction that gives us a couple of interesting moments (and the same thing happens at the photography level), Kraven The Hunter repeats all the regular problems of all those installments of the Spiderman cinematic universe that Sony has been determined to build for almost a decade, a universe that, apart from that, we must mention, does not have the participation of Spider-man.

However, it's not hard to see how such a project could work without the world's most famous arachnid, especially if you're familiar with the story of Sergei Kravinov, a savage Russian hunter who hoards his prey as trophies, and who dismisses the use of modern weapons in favor of much more traditional tools.

Like other Spidey universe film adaptations (Venom, Madame Web, and Morbius), Kraven The Hunter takes these elements and repurposes them to make them work as isolated origin/adventure stories for these recognizable characters, rendering them unrecognizable in the process and imbuing them with a mix of adult action, drama, and comedy that never quite comes together.

On the surface, what we have is a film that tries to turn Sergei into an antihero, recontextualizing his origin and turning him into an avenger traumatized by his mother's suicide and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, a cold-blooded mobster obsessed with the idea of ​​being the ultimate predator. Unlike the comics (in which we see the striking chase of Kraven with Spiderman), the live action focuses on the Russian hunter doing everything possible to save his brother, who has been captured by Turkish criminals.

Despite the recurrent use of action scenes and a fast-paced editing style, the more than two hours that Kraven the Hunter lasts almost seem eternal, a direct consequence of a boring script plagued by cringe-inducing moments, and several characters that lack any kind of depth. To be honest, it's not all bad, and several of the action sequences are quite entertaining, especially when the CGI takes over Taylor-Johnson's movements and we see his supernatural abilities in action, and while this is a departure from his comic book origins, it's a kind of creative freedom that's easy to accept, and it works well within this new context. Beyond that, there's not much to say, it's a mediocre film that had the potential to be better, and it's probably Sony's last attempt to keep this expanded universe alive.

The score was taken from my letterboxd account.