Kraven the Hunter

Thanks to Director J.C. Chandor and the sheer star power of Aaron Taylor-Johnson as our title hero, KRAVEN THE HUNTER doesn't deserve all the comparisons to the horrific "Madame Web" being slung its way.

It is a Marvel classic? No, but it's entertaining, violent and absolutely mad.

The film opens with an assassination and a prison escape in the middle of a snowy nowhere. Taylor-Johnson gives you a taste of the action and his animal-like powers with a well staged sequence by Chandor that gets things rolling.

Things slow a bit when we flashback to Sergei/Kraven as a high schooler (Levi Miller) and his brother Dmitri at a wealthy boarding school. Their mega wealthy crime kingpin father Nikolai (Russell Crowe having some fun) pulls the boys out of school and takes them to a big prey hunt in Africa, where tragedy strikes Sergei.

This half hour sequence is the weakest half hour in the film, with a young girl named Calypso being introduced in a scene with her Voodoo High Priestess grandmother. Calypso gets a magical potion...blah blah blah, it all feels a bit forced, but Chandor does his best to bring enough action to the screen to keep you engaged.

The film improves by leaps and bounds when it flashes back forward to current day.

Kraven is taking out bad guys all over the globe, operating a one man special forces unit against the worst criminals, anywhere they live.

Two villains emerge to face off against Kraven.

Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) is The Foreigner, a lethal assassin able to hypnotize his victims with one look and a countdown. 1...2...3, I'm over here now and you're dead. It's a talent that the film uses to it's advantage.

The dumbest part of the entire adventure is the character Aleksei, who was offended by Nikolai many years ago on that doomed safari, and has spent his life trying to get over being butt-hurt by Russell Crowe's words. Through the work of a mysterious doctor that the film glazes over as fast as possible, Aleksei turns into Rhino if he doesn't have a constant supply of a treatment he feeds to himself through a plug in his side. Alessandro Nivola (The Brutalist, Boston Strangler) gives a ballsy performance, not without humor, but it's a strange character and some of the tics he adds push the limits.

OK, I know we're in Marvel territory here, and okay, his skin gets super hard like a Rhino skin, why does he also sprout Rhino horns if he goes off his meds? If the film doesn't care enough the explain, I assume I'm supposed to have read all the comic books, or that the explanation is on the cutting room floor.

Honestly, anytime that Taylor-Johnson was on screen as Kraven, I wasn't trying to figure out the plot. He's got screen presence to spare and he's an absolute blast as Kraven. Whether he's chasing bad guys through the streets of London after a kidnapping or bringing a London lawyer (a miscast Ariana DeBose, who makes it work by the end of the film, because she's that good) into the fold, Kraven is fun to watch.

That London chase sequence is the film's best and gets the blood pumping.

Taylor-Johnson is still widely rumored to be the lead contender to be the next OO7 and I really hope he gets it. Kraven isn't a great film or a great role, but he elevates it through sheer physicality and personality. He kills it.

The big showdown conclusion is predictable but fun, loaded with action that Chandor presents with style. Chandor has made some of my favorite films, including "A Most Violent Year" in 2014. If you haven't seen that film, go get it and thank me later. He also directed "Margin Call" and "All is Lost".

However, the tacked on final scene here is just dumb and unnecessary and Rhino is one of the goofiest bad guys in years. Russell Crowe seems like he's filming another crime family movie and just wonders on set once in awhile. The writing is all over the map.

But don't insult Chandor & Taylor-Johnson by calling this "Madame Web".

It will share the same fate as that crap, by being the last Sony/Columbia Pictures produced film in the Marvel series focusing on secondary characters. At least they had the good sense to make it their only R-rated entry in their series.

A box office bomb with less than $30 million in box office against its $110 million budget after two weeks, this film's legacy is DOA.

I'd say that's a shame for Kraven, but I'm hoping Taylor-Johnson is way too busy donning a tux and drinking shaken, not stirred martinis for the next decade to bother with Lion-Boy.

Good not great, but certainly entertaining in bursts, KRAVEN THE HUNTER gets a C+.