I Heard Kraven The Hunter Was A Bad Movie, But Now I've Seen It And I Think It's Something Worse

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Kraven the Hunter. If you haven’t watched the Aaron Taylor-Johnson Marvel movie, please exercise caution.

With so many superhero movies coming out throughout 2024, I didn’t have a chance to catch them. That includes Kraven the Hunter, one of three releases from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe that came and went last year. It didn’t move a lot of critics ahead of its release – CinemaBlend’s review said it completed the trilogy of duds – and never really found an audience, either. And so I spent the past few months thinking it was just another bad movie. That is until I watched it myself…

Like a lot of people with a Netflix subscription, I decided to watch Kraven the Hunter soon after it landed on the platform in March 2025. After watching it, I totally agree it’s a bad movie that’s easily forgotten, but I found it to also be painfully boring. That, I’m afraid, is something far worse than being a bad movie.

I Didn't Have High Hopes Going In, But I At Least Thought It Would Be A Fun Bad Movie

As I just mentioned, I didn’t have the highest of hopes for Kraven the Hunter. Even if you take the numerous duds from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe from 2024, like Madame Web and Venom: The Last Dance, I felt like this movie was a disaster waiting to happen. Prior to its December 13, 2024 rollout, the Aaron Taylor-Johnson comic book adaptation was delayed multiple times going back to its originally planned 2023 release, which is never a good sign.

Still, though, I thought this would be a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I mean, there are a lot of “bad” movies that are actually a lot of fun to watch. The trailer looked okay, the idea of Russell Crowe playing a ruthless crime lord (and objectively terrible dad) obsessed with killing a lion was promising, and its R-rating had me intrigued. On top of that, I thought one man’s garbage could be another’s mildly entertaining treasure, right? Wrong! So, so wrong!

But Instead, The Movie Was Just Flat Out Boring

While it is true that Kraven the Hunter is a bad movie, it’s also true that it’s an excruciatingly boring movie. There were multiple times throughout the movie when I pressed pause to see how much time was left, and I even considered stopping it entirely; I was that bored. The action sequences, which I thought would at least be fun, were flat, unoriginal, and, worst of all, uninteresting. You know that feeling when you are watching a movie late at night and can barely keep your eyes open? Well, I had that with Kraven but at 3 o’clock in the afternoon… while drinking coffee.

And it’s not just the action that was dull, as the plot was pretty much a drag outside of the prologue and epilogue (more on both later on). The whole origin of how Sergei Kravinoff gained superpowers and everything that came after it felt like it was just there to set up the action later on and not be an interesting story. Even everything with Sergei and Calypso Ezili (Ariana DeBose) just kept going and going with no excitement.

The Opening Prison Sequence Was Great, But That's The High Point Of The Film

When I first started Kraven the Hunter, I thought everyone was wrong and maybe this would be another example of a great opening scene immediately setting the tone for a fun movie because the whole prison sequence was awesome. The whole idea of Kraven willingly going to a Russian prison to hunt and kill an arms dealer only to escape to the frozen tundra was great. The action was intense, the dialogue was fun, the tone was great. For the first 10 or so minutes, this movie was rocking.

But I would soon find out that while this sequence was a lot of fun, it was the only fun I would be having for the better part of the next two hours. Maybe it was jumping back in time to 16 years earlier that did it, or maybe director J.C. Chandor made the mistake of starting with a great scene that couldn’t be outmatched. Maybe it was a combination of those factors.

All The Other Action Sequences Were Just Dull And Unremarkable (Even The Lion Hunt)

Describing action sequences in superhero movies as dull and unremarkable is something I never thought I’d be typing, especially for a movie that has an R-rating. But that was the case with Kraven the Hunter, as so much of the movie is so forgettable. Yeah, there are some gnarly kills and violence isn’t in short supply throughout this movie, but it just felt like something was missing, and the sequences largely never kept my attention.

This is also true for the crucial big-game hunt early in the movie when a young Sergei is viciously attacked by a massive lion in Africa. I thought this sequence, which shows the origin of the character, would be somewhat exciting or engaging, but it was just meh. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve seen, but it was far from being noteworthy. Even the car chases later in the movie, or Kraven’s fight with Rhino (Alessandro Nivola) was off.

I Like Everything That Happens In The Epilogue, And I Think A Kraven Vs. Chameleon Fight Would Have Been A Better Movie

Though I have a lot of problems with the vast majority of Kraven the Hunter, its action, and all of the characters’ motivations, I did find the epilogue rather enjoyable. Everything after the point Kraven pulls some tricks so that his dad can’t defend himself against a bear just works. The cut to one year later with Dmitri Kravinoff fully in charge of his and Kraven’s dad’s vast criminal empire and now having shape-shifting abilities to match his impersonation skills is great. I would go as far as to say that the movie would have been better if it had just sped through the whole origins for both brothers and instead focused on them fully established as their comic book characters.

I don’t know if Sony thought we were going to get multiple Kraven the Hunter sequels to further explore their relationship now that Dmitri is fully committed to being Chameleon and Sergei as Kraven (with his comic book-accurate costume), but this was a missed opportunity to tell a more engaging and entertaining story.

With Sony’s Spider-Man Universe having seemingly come to an end, I’m kind of bummed we’ll never get to see what could have been for Kraven if he had only gotten a better, and less dull movie.