'Kraven The Hunter' Reviews: Critics Carve Up Marvel Villain Movie

"Kraven the Hunter" partial poster.

Kraven the Hunter—a Marvel standalone movie starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe—is being savaged by critics.

Playing in Thursday previews and opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, Kraven the Hunter is based on the iconic villain from Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man universe.

The official logline for Kraven the Hunter reads, “Kraven's (Taylor-Johnson) complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.”

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Rated R, the film is directed by All is Lost and Triple Frontier filmmaker J.C. Chandor. As of Wednesday, Rotten Tomatoes critics are showing no mercy to Kraven the Hunter, collectively giving it a 16% “rotten” rating based on 49 reviews.

Since the film is not in theaters yet, Kraven the Hunter’s RT Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings on the critic aggregation site is still pending.

The release of Kraven the Hunter follows a report in The Wrap Tuesday that noted Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is done with making movies about characters other than the webslinger after Kraven the Hunter. Earlier this year, Sony released the Spider-Man Universe films Madame Web and Venom: The Last Dance.

As such, some RT critics are not only ripping on Kraven the Hunter but oddly lamenting what could have possibly happened had the character had a chance at any more big-screen adventures.

“The real tragedy surrounding Kraven the Hunter isn’t that it promises a future that will never be, but that it could’ve allowed itself and the universe to which it belongs to go out with some dignity,” writes The Wrap critic Bill Bria in his “rotten” review of the film.

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Also giving the film a “rotten” review is Rolling Stone’s David Fear, who writes, “We don’t know whether Kraven the Hunter is truly the final bow of the SSMU. It is undoubtedly a self-inflicted killshot.”

David Schrager of The Daily Beast also deemed Kraven the Hunter “rotten,” writing, “A corny and turgid saga that should bring to a close Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse, if not the faltering genre as a whole, it’s an unspectacular affair that melds Marvel, Tarzan, and John Wick to depressing and forgettable ends.”

In addition, IndieWire’s David Ehrlich takes a shot at Kraven the Hunter’s visual effects, writing, “The CGI devolves from ‘adorably cartoonish’ to ‘done as cheaply as possible by a studio trying to cut its losses’ so fast that it comes dangerously close to Scorpion King territory by the end.”

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Some RT critics, including Kristy Puchko, found Kraven the Hunter entertaining enough to give the film a “fresh” review.

In her review for Mashable, Puchko writes, “This bonkers superhero movie is at its best when it embraces its most bizarre elements. In those moments, Kraven the Hunter is chaotic fun that's an absolute blast to see on the big screen.”

Also starring Ariana DeBose, Fred Herchinger, Christopher Abbott, Chi Lewis-Parry and Alessandro Nivola, Kraven the Hunter plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.

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