Also, part of what made Taken such a sensation was it was an old dude doing all the a*s-kicking. Having a young guy like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who also has superpowers, doing the a*s-kicking creates an entirely different—and less compelling—dynamic. Also, the gimmick here is Kraven fights like an animal and doesn’t use guns. The guy who shot Spider-Man with a hunting rifle doesn’t use guns? Wrong.
In fact, Kraven loves animals and shares a magic bond with his furry friends. The guy who wore the tiger pants in the comic books? Wrong. Apparently, Sony thinks Kraven is either DC’s Animal Man or Marvel’s Ka-Zar, Lord of the Hidden Jungle. Wrong. Kraven is a villain who would end up fighting heroes like that. Revisionism is all good, but this is plain wrong.
“The guy who shot Spider-Man with a hunting rifle doesn’t use guns? Wrong.”
And, f**k me to tears, it is so boring. All this talk of Faust-like levels of comic book violence onscreen was a crock. Instead of super geysers of blood, we get a handful of ketchup packets. I felt a flutter once when Taylor-Johnson bit off a nose, but it disappeared into thin stale air. Kraven retrofitted as a hero is boring. His mean old dumb daddy, Russell Crowe, is boring. All the villains introduced are boring and expendable. I mean, were we really supposed to wait until the finale before the Rhino tries to headbutt something?
Sony would do well to remember that the star of their Raimi Spider-Man movie was the Green Goblin and that villains work better as villains. And as Madame Web introduced three cool-looking Future Spiderwomen, there is ample opportunity to allow the Sony villains a chance to be as gloriously evil as they were in the books.
Sony would do well to dive into the thousands of undeveloped Spider-Man storylines from the books to use with the Future Spiderwomen, as repeated watchings on Netflix have made them the biggest thing on the Spider horizon. Just lower the stakes by lowering the budgets, as there are amazingly talented micro-budget indie filmmakers out there who still know how to entertain.
Kraven The Hunter doesn’t entertain. The only thing it does right is release the hostages after two hours.
"…yet another Taken rip-off with some Marvel characters instead of old dudes."
