Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Kraven the Hunter Blu-ray Movie Review

"My son, never show mercy. They are prey. We are predators."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 16, 2025

Sony at long last seems poised to let go of Spider-Man and its properties. After Mobius: Leto Go and Let God, Madame Webbing Up a Script, Venom 3: Still Venomin' and now Kraven the Hanger, the verdict is in from critics and audiences: no thanks. And the MCU may finally be on its way to being whole. May. The next few years will tell. For now we're left to clean up the mess. Which mess? Specifically Kraven the Hunter. You've no doubt read that it's a bad movie. What I don't think anyone was or is prepared for is just how bad of a movie it is. Blame it on the strikes or whatever else makes you feel better, Kraven is a movie in search of a purpose, not to mention one that makes so many baffling decisions that it ceases to be entertaining and simply is. It sits there, on the screen, begging for a grin, a cheer, a tear, but incapable of earning any, lost in the wilderness of plotting, pacing and performances, none of which amount to much of anything.

I really wanted to give Kraven the Hunter a fair shot. I'm an absolute sap for comic book movies. Any comic book movie. And Kraven was an old favorite from "Spider-Man" comics back in the day. What could go wrong? For five minutes, I was genuinely prepared to defend the film by labeling it Big Dumb Fun. Unfortunately, the first five minutes is the only solid, somewhat exciting part of the movie. After that, it's less downhill and more bottoming out, with trite flashbacks and tired conversational showdowns aplenty. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Kraven the Hunter introduces half-brothers Sergei (Levi Miller) and Dmitri Kravinoff (Billy Barratt), whose father Nikolai (Russell Crowe) grieves the loss of Sergei's suicidal mother, not by hosting a funeral but by taking his boys on a hunt for a legendary lion, a giant cat called Zar. "Men should be only animal that is dreaded," Nikolai tells Dimitri, before making an enemy of a man who has joined them on the hunt, Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), who will later become the Rhino, a genetic aberration granted the strength of the beast for which he's nicknamed. But it all goes sideways when Sergei is attacked by Zar and carried away, nearly dead. His blood mixes with the blood of the injured beast, and before you can say "Spidey Sense," a girl named Calypso (Diaana Babnicova) appears in the nick of time, utilizing a magical potion to bring Sergei back to life. But the boy is no longer a mere human. He's now imbued with the powers of the legendary lion. Cause... magic. Alas, Nikolai isn't relieved to find Sergei alive; he's disappointed his son didn't take a shot at his would-be predator. Cause... bad dads. Soon Nikolai shows off the head of the lion, which he tracked and killed, which upsets Sergei for... reasons? It's not entirely clear. However, a hawk shows up to inspire the boy to run away and take refuge in his mother's home. I couldn't make up that last sentence if I tried.

Fast forward fourteen years, after traveling to Russia and honing his skills (at one point a very wise wildebeest stares him down to help him overcome things like fear), Sergei is now Kraven, The Hunter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a super-powered vigilante who tracks down and eliminates criminal targets. But when mercenaries led by the still spurned Aleksei and his hired gun, The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), kidnap Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), Kraven springs into action. Tracking down Calypso (Ariana DeBose), now a lawyer and voodoo priestess (sigh), the supernaturally charged hunter goes on the hunt, this time for Aleksei and anyone allied with him in his criminal enterprise. And I gotta say, there's a twist in the mix that's as stupid as it is predictable, but one that continues to make Kraven the Hunter a film about hopelessly dysfunctional family rather than anything more poignant.

There's so much comicbook nonsense packed into Kraven that it's easy to lose track of what does and doesn't work. For every element with promise -- Kraven's bounty hunting, his clashes with his father or... well, maybe that's it -- there are a dozen plot threads that dangle and trip up the otherwise gifted cast. Nivola makes a string of bizarre moves with the Rhino (which the film's fx also fail quite unforgettably), Abbott hams it up with a baddie that uses ocular hypnosis to stun his prey (seriously), DeBose is from a completely different flick (and is easily one of the most egregious mis-castings), and Taylor-Johnson brings more power and seriousness to every scene than four separate movies could support. No one aside from Taylor-Johnson seems to know what the hell is going on, particularly Crowe, who dials in a performance that may as well have been based on John Malkovich's Teddy KGB from Rounders. There are deep-running themes aplenty, but each one is disrupted by rendezvous with Disney-like animals that guide our hero along, a never-ending childhood flashback that feels like it runs for hours, and enough hoodoo to drag the superpowered antics into Doctor Strange territory, which doesn't work in the slightest.

If there's a saving grace to Kraven the Hunter it's that it might just be remembered as the exclamation point on Sony's run of bad Spider-adjacent films; the movie that finally made the studio throw in the towel and hand the reigns to Marvel proper. These are characters that have a rich and endless history in the comic industry and they deserve far better big-screen outings than this kind of schlock. Here's hoping Sony's truly finished and ready to return the hostages they've held for over a decade to Marvel Studios.

Kraven the Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

While I've no doubt Kraven the Hunter's 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer is a solid representation of the film as it appeared in theaters, I ran into a number of disappointments. Contrast is muddy at times, so much so that foreground elements fail to pop and entire sequences struggle with dimensionality; most often in darker scenes but, on occasion, when things are brightly lit. Detail isn't consistent either. While the vast majority of the film features clean edges and reasonably revealing fine textures, a few too many scenes struck me as soft or poorly defined, as if sharpness hadn't been adjusted properly. Thankfully, very few of the problems and inconsistencies are outright distracting, but they don't help the film's CG, which is already on the subpar end of things, especially when it comes things like stampeding wildebeest and the fully transformed Rhino. Otherwise, there isn't much to complain about. Colors are subdued but lifelike on the whole, with convincing skintones, instances of vibrant primaries, and inky black levels. Sony has yet to send a copy of the 4K edition, but I'm very interested to find out how much of a boost in quality there is (or isn't). As it stands, Kraven the Hunter isn't a great looking film, so it's hard to draw a line where its dull cinematography stops and its technically sound encode begins. I'll add more impressions once I have the 4K release to compare with the standard Blu-ray.

Kraven the Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is much better, although it would be wise to adjust expectations toward a rather generic comic book action movie experience. Dialogue is clear and intelligible throughout, prioritization is fairly flawless, and the film's score punctuates the soundscape with assertive ease. LFE output is aggressive and bombastic, most of all when the Rhino comes out to play, but other sequences feature plenty of low-end fun for the masses. Rear speaker activity is exciting and engaging as well (even when the movie isn't), creating an immersive soundfield that believably moves from jungle plains to mid-city hunting grounds and back again. Directionality is convincing, pans are invisible and there's very little to frown at other than the movie's at-times canned, plain-jane atmospherics.

Kraven the Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Becoming Kraven (HD, 5 minutes) - The first of several EPK-style featurettes focuses on Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his performances. It's clear that the actor desperately wanted to bring something more to the role than the movie allowed, waxing poetic about the "texture" of the character and all that entails. But ultimately it amounts to Taylor-Johnson walking around set roaring.

• Beast Mode: The Stunts of the Hunt (HD, 5 minutes) - Next up a stunts featurette that touches on the danger and the goal of "doing everything for real" (just don't tell them that there's a giant CG rhino-man running around in the final film). It's an exciting look at a film that didn't quite translate to screen.

• Kraven's First Hunt: The Direction (HD, 5 minutes) - Director J.C. Chandor is given high praise from the cast. "He knows how to tell a story," Taylor-Johnson offers. "He knows how to bring emotion." Touching on his draw to the material and his connection to the actors and characters, the featurette keeps it short and sweet. Which is either a shame or a godsend, depending on your take.

• Allies & Antagonists: The Killer Cast (HD, 6 minutes) - Going beyond Taylor-Johnson and digging into the ensemble beyond Kraven. Again, though, a short EPK featurette hardly has the time to dig into process or performance, making this something of a non-starter.

• Deleted Scenes (HD, 4 minutes) - Five scenes are included: "Solitary Confinement," "Dmitri's Birthday," "Sleep Interrupted," "Homecoming" and "Kraven's Dead." All were wisely cut.

• Outtakes & Bloopers (HD, 3 minutes) - Laughing it up with cast and crew. Unfortunately it's bits like Russell Crowe running into a lampshade and a desk drawer that won't shut. Otherwise it's all flubs and yuks set to heavy music.

• Sony Previews (HD)

Kraven the Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kraven the Hunter is a rough movie. So rough that you might begin to wonder what film everyone in the supplemental package thought they were making, cause it wasn't this one. It's best beat completely plagiarizes Captain America: The Winter Soldier (hero nabs helicopter), and when your best is a photocopy of a far better film, you're in trouble. Taylor-Johnson puts in the work but the filmmakers fail him. Maybe Marvel Studios will scoop him up, pull a little multiverse magic, and pit him against Tom Holland as a Kraven we can enjoy watching. Sony's Blu-ray release, meanwhile, offers decidedly decent video, strong lossless audio, and a small but welcome complement of extras.