Kraven The Hunter (2024) Trailer Review

A Big Trailer kind of snuck under the radar yesterday and that is for the upcoming film Kraven The Hunter and I watched the trailer today and here are my thoughts on Sony's next attempt at making a Spider-Man Villain a franchise. 

The Film will be R-Rated

Possibly the biggest thing from this trailer is that Sony have now made the decision to make this film R-Rated and extremely violent. Now, I actually think this fits Kraven as a character so I am fine with this but I do wonder if they saw Deadpool and Wolverines success and felt like they wanted to get on the R Rated train. They missed the boat with Venom and Morbius not being R-Rated so I am glad that they have made this decision. 

Kraven seems to be hunting Hunters

One of the rumours going around is that they have turned Kraven into an animal loving character and that he has a hatred for hunters and poachers. Now that isn't fully confirmed here, but we see a scene where he uses hunters traps to kill them and I really hope this film doesn't see Kraven becoming this animal activist as that goes against the character completely.

Russel Crowe has a hilariously bad accent 

Russel Crowe is a fantastic actor but his roles in comic book films are pretty mixed and judging by this trailer it looks like this will be more on the Zeus level instead of Jor-El. Over the years, many actors have given bad Russian accents and it is nice to see it continues here and Crowe is probably going to be a hard watch here. 

The Action Scenes looks Decent

This trailer focuses more on the action side of a comic book film and I think it looks decent to be honest. The restrictions being lifted due to the films rating probably allows them to be a bit more creative and hopefully shows Kraven in full flow. 

We are Briefly Introduced to The Chameleon

In the comics and here, Kraven is the brother of a character called The Chameleon. Someone who has the ability to shapeshift and has caused plenty of problems for Spider-Man in the past. I think there is only a small chance that we see these powers but with the inclusion of this character there always is that potential. 

Rhino is here in all of his CGI Glory

It was reported a few months ago that regular Spider-Man villain Rhino was going to be a main antagonist for this film and we get a clear look at him here and I must say it is pretty bad. We see him as a normal guy until he puts on the suit which seems to be more synthetic and it just looks really silly. It seems Rhino doesn't translate well to the big screen, I think the version from the Spider-Man PlayStation games should be the base for that character. 

Aaron Taylor-Johnson seems miscast

I said this when we heard the news that Aaron Taylor-Johnson was going to play Kraven that I thought it wasn't the right fit and all of the footage I have seen hasn't changed my mind and that is a shame. Again, similar to Rhino I think the inspiration for Kraven should come from the Spider-Man PlayStation Game where he was handled perfectly. 

Is this the last throw of the dice for Sony?

Over the last few years, Sony has decided to take Spider-Man side characters/villains and have tried to turn them into their own franchises and I think everyone can agree that they have failed. Venom has made some good money but the films haven't been rated highly. Morbius and Madame Webb were both critical and financial disasters so Kraven is the last chance in my opinion. 

Overall

Overall, Kraven The Hunter looks like it could be a bit of a mess and it does give me Morbius vibes for sure. The decision to go Rated-R will hopefully give it the bump that it needs but I must admit that I am not particularly excited for this film.