Kraven the Hunter

How should I describe Kraven the Hunter? Well, imagine your four-year-old made you a cheeseburger. Would you inner Gordon Ramsey on this innocent child’s act of love? Heck no! You probably wouldn’t even compare it to a whopper at that rate! As long as it isn’t undercooked or otherwise contaminated, a burger’s a burger. That's how I feel about Kraven the Hunter. It fully cooks the action sequences, and the rest, well, it’s passable. Is it movie of the year? No. But did I want to set up a shrine and pray that the time-gods issue me a refund for two of my precious hours? Absolutely not! It’s just one of those movies where I can sympathize with all the criticisms, while also encouraging others to go see it. I am confident that it will be a good time for any fan of action movies. 

Let’s start with the good: the action. This is where the movie truly shines. Kraven has his own style of combat which is very clearly defined throughout the movie. He climbs buildings, sometimes flipping across beams to avoid bullets or recover from nearly falling. He gets on all-fours to traverse faster, and he takes falls from dramatic heights without injury. It’s clear that the directors knew what they were doing in this department, and they had a lot of fun making the magic happen. And each stunt is not only fun conceptually, but is then executed with such grace that I couldn't help but give an excited holler in the middle of the theater. 

And thankfully, action is what this movie’s all about. The unfortunate thing is that when guns aren’t being fired and cars aren’t being chased, things seem to fall apart. I’ll start with something that stood out to me as a mixed bag: the russian accents. This one is particularly odd to me. You see, I can count on one hand the number of movies that have really good Russian accents. This movie gets a half-point towards that list. Some characters nailed it, to the point where I felt like I was back overseas talking to a neighbor, or someone at the grocery store. Other characters, however, barely seemed to care how they sounded at all. And unfortunately, the main character was in this second category. It was to the point where I even asked myself if he was speaking an entirely different language. 

“Maybe that was polish? Czech? Some other language?” It sounded like he was attempting the “chubby bunny” marshmallow challenge that we all knew as kids. Either way, I couldn’t understand much of what he was saying. You would think that the characters that did have it right could have helped teach the rest of the cast a little, but I guess not. Overall, I’m putting it on my list of “good-russian” movies, but only as an honorable mention.

And now we must dive into the fairly bad part of this movie: the character portrayals. Now, I have no problem with the majority of the acting for this film. It’s clear that everyone knew their roles, and they did a good job in expressing their roles. The trouble lies in the fact that the directors didn’t seem to know how to really capture the impact that characters were supposed to have on us as an audience. 

For example, the movie starts with a flashback to Kraven’s early childhood. This sequence is pretty lengthy, perhaps even lengthier than it should be. This sequence is supposed to do two things: set up the connection between Kraven and his brother, and establish his father as an evil tyrant who the brothers are desperate to be rid of. Honestly, it mostly missed the mark on both of these. We got an explanation of how Kraven got his super-human powers, but the foundation of this plot isn’t effectively built. But it tries to push through and build nonetheless as it looks to the effectively-executed action to carry itself through. 

But thankfully not all is lost, as the acting is still effective and clear. Clear enough that I understood who everyone was supposed to be and what each character meant to others. That part was clear as day. I’m simply disappointed that they didn’t create better moments that give us a better connection to these characters. It would have made some of the later plotline developments far more impactful. 

And it almost felt like more cast members were added to compensate for their lack of portrayed significance. The roster felt a little bit crowded and I couldn’t help but ask myself why they were there. At times, it felt like they were trying to add more to excite long-term fans of old comic books. The trouble is that many of these fan-services would have been better off as background easter eggs, rather shoe-horning them into the main plot. Slimming down the roster could have put the main cast back in focus, perhaps leaving the time and momentum to create some more memorable scenes with them to remedy the impact issue I mentioned earlier. 

But to wrap up my critique on another good note, there was one other thing that stood out as executed well: the visuals. Particularly, the landscapes in the jungle scenes and the animals that inhabited them. Staredowns with lions and stampedes of buffalo are captured with such raw, untamed power that it sent shivers of terrified excitement up my spine. And this pairs well with the action to create whole sections that gave me enough euphoric momentum to get me through the more questionable parts in between. Even if it isn’t received well in the box office at large, it can not be said that Kraven the Hunter has absolutely zero fans. 

Overall, this movie is a mixed bag, but if you like a good “action on, brain off” type of movie, you will have fun with Kraven the Hunter. I’m giving it a fun-meter of 50%. 

That’s my review of the movie, but to take off my critic-hat for a minute, this movie got me thinking: why was I so ready to forgive this movie, and not the new Lord of the Rings animation? Why was I so content to show no mercy to War of the Rohirrim, whilst sparing Kraven the Hunter from a similar fate? After all, both were given extravagant love and care in certain areas, and a complete lack thereof in others. I think it’s because Kraven had whole sections that were executed with flying colors, whereas War of the Rohirrim merely had background-delights. I guess it just goes to show that good execution can sugarcoat conceptual mistakes, but the opposite is far less true. You have to respect the artform no matter what, or your movie will fall flat. 

But as I was writing this review, I had an even funnier thought. My willingness to forgive Kraven’s faults is pretty similar to God’s willingness to forgive me. In my eyes, the movie’s action is done really well, and I felt like that was all I needed for this movie to work. It hits the nail on the head in all the right spots, and even does so in a way that exceeds expectations in places. Similarly, God hit the nails on their heads in all the right spots on the cross some 2,000 years ago. And because that was done really well, He can see the movies of our lives as done really well overall. The rest of the “meh” in the middle, the mistakes we make and screw-ups that slip through the process can all be forgiven because that one moment gives God enough euphoric-momentum to let the rest go. 

Alright, that was the second weirdest gospel-plug I have ever done. (Only one that beats it is the time I compared us to bacon scraps in the Whopper of God’s love. Hoo-boy, was that one a time!) If that felt ultra-corny to read, I can guarantee that it felt cornier to write. I must have paused at least five times to burst out laughing. 

And then a sixth to help my cat get settled on my lap.

So what do you think-have I convinced you to go see Kraven the Hunter? Were you going to see it anyway? And if you did see it, what were your thoughts? Where does this movie belong on your own fun-meter? Let me know in the comments.

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.