Kraven The Hunter Review: Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Marvel Return Is A Letdown

"Kraven the Hunter" is supposed to be Sony's next big comic book movie (despite things not looking good at the box office). It centers on Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the son of a very wealthy drug dealer named Nikolai (Russell Crowe). At some point when Sergei was a teenager he got fed up with his father and left him to become Kraven. Those who read the comics will know that Kraven likes to hunt men because they, at least in theory, are nature's toughest prey. This makes him a true villain because he doesn't kill people for moral reasons; he kills them for sport. In the movie, however, he needs a reason. And he finds one in opposition to his father's creed.

While his father is willing to hunt down whatever animal he can so he can stick its head on his wall, Kraven has a problem with this, especially when his father hunts down a lion that has proven hard to kill. In response, Kraven becomes a hunter of men who are bad guys. He has a penchant for poachers, but he also hunts down drug dealers and gun runners as the need arises.

That's where we first get to know him. "Kraven the Hunter's" opening scenes are at a prison in Russia where he's decided to kill the man responsible for a lot of guns on the streets. How this man runs an empire from prison is anyone's guess, but suffice it to say that Kraven gets his man. Then the movie flashes back to his childhood when his father killed that lion. His father mistakenly believed that Sergei (played as a teen by Levi Miller) would cheer his killing of the lion because the lion had attacked him. In fact, Sergei only lived because a girl, Calypso (Ariana DeBose), fed him an elixir that her grandmother had given her. But Sergei isn't impressed by the killing and instead is furious at his father. At the same time, he's devastated by his mother's recent passing, and this is enough to make him skip town. He goes to live on his mother's land in Russia and only visits his brother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), in London on his birthday. Of course, on one of these occasions when Kraven is in town, The Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) kidnaps Dmitri to set Kraven up for a fall. But Kraven isn't so easy to kill, and The Rhino is about to find that out for himself.

There's a lot more to this tale but none of it is very deep — and that's okay! It's not like there are great expectations of a movie called "Kraven the Hunter." But one major thing gave me pause about this movie: Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Ever since he was the lead in "Godzilla" 10 years ago, I haven't been a big fan. Don't get me wrong, he's great in supporting roles, especially if he can be a little quirky — but I don't tend to love him as the lead. And in this movie I felt it was more of the same.

He made a passable Kraven — he obviously worked to look the part and he can hit his marks — but he still doesn't bring much personality to the role, and the other players are all more interesting. Plus, Taylor-Johnson makes things like ducking down to stroke a bad guy's tiger rug look cheesy instead of cool. Other people playing this scene would make it their own, either leaning into the cheese or finding a way to make it menacing, but Taylor-Johnson just makes it puzzling. This is the biggest problem I had with the film.

That's not to say that everything else about "Kraven the Hunter" was great. The story by Richard Wenk and screenplay by Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway isn't spectacular. It makes things overly complicated yet still doesn't tell us key information, such as the origins of the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott) — they tell us a couple of key facts but fall short of telling us all we'd like to know — and what really happened to Kraven's mother — did Nikolai kill her, or did something else cause her to kill herself? There are hints of more here, but despite the movie running over two hours, they're never disclosed. It's like the director, J.C. Chandor, almost got there and then pulled back at the last minute.

Despite this, there are several positives to "Kraven the Hunter." One is Fred Hechinger, who is great as Dmitri, his father's younger son. Hechinger is great in the role of the underdog and it's understandable why he ends up doing what he does. Another positive is Russell Crowe as Nikolai. Nikolai is repulsive with his toxic masculinity on overdrive and his unwillingness to actually listen to either of his sons, but Crowe does a good job with the role.

Ariana DeBose and Alessandro Nivola are served less well by the script. After "West Wide Story," DeBose can't seem to catch a break with the roles she chooses, and this one is no different. And Nivola unfortunately has the stupidity of his transformation to The Rhino hanging over his head, which, while more comic accurate than Paul Giamatti in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," still looks awfully silly.

My favorite part of the film, though, is what it says about protecting animals. While Kraven isn't a conservationist per se, he clearly has the animals on his side because he protects them from bad men. I personally can get on board with that, even if most of the animals in this movie are obviously computer-generated. However, not everyone will be as sympathetic to this as I was. Besides, even if they are, those who know that Kraven is a villain in the comics are bound to be disappointed anyway. "Kraven the Hunter" isn't a complete disappointment, but it isn't a great example of comic book cinema either. Instead it seems well-suited for our mid era of superheroes and everything else.

"Kraven the Hunter" comes to theaters on December 13.