KRAVEN THE HUNTER : Tuesday 17th December 2024

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'KRAVEN THE HUNTER' earlier this week, and this American Superhero film features the Marvel Comics characters of the same name and is the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. It is Directed by J.C. Chandor who made his feature film making debut with 'Margin Call' in 2011 and would follow this up with 'All Is Lost' in 2013, 'A Most Violent Year' in 2014, and 'Triple Frontier' in 2019. The film was released here in Australia and the US last week, cost a reported circa US$120M to produce, has so far grossed US$29M worldwide and has garnered generally negative critical reviews. Apparently, earlier this month and following the projected financial failure of the film, it was reported that 'Kraven the Hunter' would be the final film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, ending any chance for a sequel or crossover film, although one well known publication stated that this will not be the last film in the franchise . . . . . so who do you believe?

The film opens up with a convoy of prison vehicles driving along a snow covered landscape deep inside Siberia. The convoy comes to halt at a fuel stop so that the prisoners can relieve themselves before continuing their onward journey. One of the prisoners is Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who is assigned a cell with a mean looking MoFo of a man. Kravinoff tells his fellow inmate to give him just three days before he escapes. The next day Kraven is brought to the attention of Seymon Chorney (Yuri Kolokolnikov) a Russian crime lord and fellow inmate, after he successfully overpowers two of Chorney's henchmen in the exercise yard. Chorney asks Kraven who he is, to which comes the reply that he is the Hunter, with Chorney responding that it's just a myth. Within a minute Chorney and his two henchmen are dead, stabbed with the tooth of a lion which Kraven plucked from a lion skin rug on the floor. Kraven then makes his escape through the prison effortlessly clambering up walls, running along roof tops, jumping barbed wire fences, and evading a hail of bullets from the prison guards. Once outside he runs into a snow storm in which is waiting an aircraft to transport him back home. 

We then back track sixteen years, and following the death of his mother, Sergei Kravinoff (Levi Miller), along with his half-brother Dmitri Smerdyakov (Billy Barratt), are taken out of school by their father Nikolai (Russell Crowe) to prepare to take over his drug trafficking operations. During a hunting trip in Tanzania, Sergei is mortally wounded protecting his brother from a legendary apex lion. Almost dead from the savage mauling, he is found by a girl named Calypso (Diaana Babnicova), who, having been forewarned by her grandmother that she would intervene in an accident very soon and give its victim great power, heals him with a serum gifted by her grandmother, and calls for rescue, leaving a tarot card in the hands of an unconscious Sergei. A few days later Sergei comes around in a hospital bed having been officially pronounced dead for three minutes, but now appears to be fighting fit. Nikolai discharges his son from hospital and the three return to their grand home on the outskirts of London. Nikolai reveals he killed the lion to teach his sons a lesson about showing no fear, and in his world it is very much survival of the fittest. Sergei, meanwhile having discovered his physical attributes have become animal like, becomes sickened by his father's actions and his intentions for his sons, and retreats to a sanctuary his mother owned in the remote wilderness of eastern Russia, leaving Dmitri behind to fend for himself.

Fast forwarding to the present day and Kraven travels to London for Dmitri's (Fred Hechinger) birthday, which he does every year. Unable to sleep that night on the sofa of Dmitri's lavish apartment, he goes for a walk falling asleep in the park outside Dmitri's building. He wakens the next day and goes back up to the apartment to find Dmitri gone and blood stains on his pillow and bed sheets. Dmitri had been captured by mercenaries, and when Nikolai refuses to pay the US$20M ransom, Kraven tracks down Calypso (Ariana DeBose), now working as an investigative lawyer in London, and convinces her to help track down his brother's kidnappers. 

Meanwhile, Dmitri is met by his kidnappers' boss Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) who took part in an experiment spearheaded by a cutting edge New York doctor, granting him the strength and outward appearance of a rhinoceros which he is able to control by way of a back pack containing a serum which continually drip feeds via a tube into his lower side. When he unplugs the tube, he turns into Rhino but says the process is extremely painful. Aleksei proposes an alliance to overthrow Nikolai, but upon discovering Kraven's connection to Dmitri, Aleksei lures him to an abandoned monastery in Turkey, with the intention of taking out Kraven there, but he survives the ambush. 

Aleksei is then approached by the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), an assassin who uses ocular hypnosis to disorientate his targets, with an offer to kill Kraven, having carefully studied his modus operandi for years. Tracking Kraven and Calypso to his sanctuary in eastern Russia and using Dmitri as bait, Aleksei and the Foreigner ambush Kraven. Drugging him with neurotoxin, the Foreigner attacks Kraven and is successful in overpowering and paralysing him but just as he is standing over Kraven and about to pull the trigger of the gun pointed at his head Calypso kills him with an arrow straight in to his eye, and revives Kraven with a vile of the serum. Kraven then uses a buffalo stampede to trap Aleksei, who, despite turning into the Rhino and briefly overpowering him, is killed. 

Having determined that Nikolai was the one who revealed his existence to Aleksei, Kraven tracks his father down to a snow covered Siberian forest for answers. There in the dead of night Nikolai states that he knew Aleksei was targeting him and manipulated his sons to remove him. Kraven refuses to kill his father and turns his back on him and as he walks away he drops the ammunition he unloaded from his fathers shotgun on the ground just as Nikolai is attacked and killed by a bear. 

One year later on the occasion of Dmitri's birthday, Kraven again visits his brother in London. Dmitri in the meantime has gained shapeshifting abilities from the doctor who experimented on Aleksei, and after discovering this new found ability disowns Kraven, stating that despite his claims of being morally superior, he and Nikolai were the same - big game hunters searching for their next big trophy. Dmitri demonstrates this to Kraven by changing his appearance before becoming chameleon like and then changing back to his natural appearance. 

At his family home, Kraven comes across a note left for him by Nikolai along with a vest made from the skin and the mane of the killed lion that mauled Sergei when he was young, which he puts on, and takes a seat in front of a mirror.

'Kraven the Hunter' is not a bad film, but it's also not that good either. The plot is fairly thin on the ground, the action set pieces are well enough choreographed, but the CGI is left wanting and sub-par for a film costing well north of US$100M, and, nothing that we haven't already seen before. The dialogue is also pretty lame, and the only saving grace is in the performances of Taylor-Johnson, Crowe, Nivola and DeBose, with the latter being given too little screen time and too little to contribute. J.C. Chandor whose previous film output has been far far better, has crafted a film that seems to have had too much studio and Producer interference, resulting in a film that is sure to disappear into the annals of mediocrity and leaving Sony's Spider-Man Universe to bow out on a whimper.

'Kraven the Hunter' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 12th December 2024

The 16th edition of the Les Arcs Film Festival this year takes place from Saturday 14th through until Saturday 21st December. The official website reads 'A major cultural event, the festival's aim is to promote the diversity of European cinema and showcase the many talents on our continent. Set in the heart of the Alps, in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world, the festival is an opportunity to enjoy the first snows and film screenings throughout the day in the presence of filmmakers and actors. All this in a festive atmosphere with unforgettable evenings, entertainment, concerts and DJs!'

There are eight films in competition for the Crystal Arrow Award which reveal the many facets of European Cinema today. These films are :-

* 'The New Year That Never Came' - from Romania and Directed by Bogdan Muresanu. Romania stands on the brink of revolution. It is 20th December 1989. Authorities are preparing for New Year’s festivities as if nothing is amiss, yet the official facade is beginning to crack. Amidst the fervour of protest, six lives intersect over the course of an extraordinary day. 

* 'Kneecap' - from Ireland and Directed by Rich Peppiatt. There are 80,000 native Irish speakers in Ireland. 6,000 live in the 'North of Ireland'. Three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.

* 'Loveable' - from Norway and Directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir. Approaching her forties, Maria's world falls apart when her husband asks for a divorce. She will have to learn to reconcile with herself and seize the opportunity for self-discovery, growth, and confronting the unconscious and dysfunctional patterns within her.

* 'Moon' - from Austria and Directed by Kurdwin Ayub. Former martial artist Sarah leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy family in the Middle East. What sounds initially like a dream job soon becomes unsettling - the young women are cut off from the outside world and under constant surveillance. Sport doesn’t seem to interest them. So why has Sarah been hired?

* 'Peacock' - from Austria and Germany and Directed by Bernhard Wenger. Matthias is a master of his profession. Do you need a 'cultured boyfriend' to impress your friends? A 'perfect son' to influence your business partners’ opinion of you? Or maybe just a sparring partner to rehearse an argument? Whatever it is, just rent Matthias! While he excels at pretending to be someone else every day, just being himself is the real challenge.

* 'Toxic' - from Lithuania and Directed by Saule Bliuvaite. Abandoned by her mother, 13-year-old Maria is forced to live with her grandmother in a bleak industrial town. During a violent clash on the street, Maria meets Kristina, a girl of the same age who is striving to become a fashion model. Trying to get closer to her, Maria enrols in a mysterious modelling school, where the girls are preparing for the biggest casting event in the region. Her ambiguous relationship with Kristina and the intense, cult-like environment of the modelling school force Maria on a quest to discover her own identity.

* 'Vittoria' - from Italy and Directed by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman. Jasmine is 40 and has everything she ever wanted. But after her father’s death, she experiences a recurring dream in which a young girl runs into her arms, offering Jasmine a new sense of fulfilment and completeness she can’t ignore. She decides to follow her dream of a daughter and dives headfirst into the challenging world of international adoption – risking her marriage, her sons’ well-being, and her own moral compass along the way. The entire family is in crisis, until they finally realise that the only way out is together.

* 'When the Light Breaks' - from Iceland, France, Netherlands and Croatia and Directed by Runar Runarsson. Day breaks on a long summer's day in Iceland. From one sunset to the next, Una, a young art student, encounters love, friendship, grief and beauty.

For the details of the other film strands being showcased, plus a whole bunch of other good stuff, you can visit the official website at : https://lesarcs-filmfest.com/en/festival/les-arcs-film-festival

This weeks four new movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to home, kick starts with a visceral stand-alone story about how and why one of Marvel's most iconic villains came to be, and what motivated him to become the greatest and most feared hunter. Next up we have a Chinese drama offering about a man who, following a period of incarceration, comes home and takes a job ridding a town of stray dogs in time for the Olympic Games. This is followed by an Irish set film centering around two estranged cousins who never knew each other, but try to make amends for many generations of family dispute, before closing out the week with an anime fantasy film about the untold story behind Helm's Deep, nearly two hundred years before the fateful war, telling the life and bloodsoaked times of its founder, Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'KRAVEN THE HUNTER' (Rated MA15+) - this American Superhero film features the Marvel Comics characters of the same name and is the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. It is Directed by J.C. Chandor who made his feature film making debut with 'Margin Call' in 2011 and would follow this up with 'All Is Lost' in 2013, 'A Most Violent Year' in 2014, and 'Triple Frontier' in 2019. 

Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster and crime-lord father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell 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. Also starring Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott. The film is released in the US this week too, and cost a reported US$130M to produce. 

'BLACK DOG' (Rated M) - is a Chinese drama film Co-Written and Directed by Guan Hu and saw its World Premiere screening at this years Cannes Film Festival in mid-May where it won the Un Certain Regard award. Here former stunt motorcyclist and musician Lang (Eddie Peng) returns to his hometown on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert, where he was a local celebrity prior to his imprisonment on a manslaughter charge ten years previously. Now residing with his father, Lang must avoid the spiteful local gangster 'Butcher Hu', who aims to take revenge on Lang for his role in his nephew's death. Lang decides to seek the bounty placed on a wild dog as part of a larger programme to remove unwanted animals in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and eventually strikes up an unlikely friendship with the canine. The film was released in its native China in mid-June, in Singapore at the end of July and only now is released in Australia, having so far grossed US$4.6M at the Box Office, garnered generally favourable reviews and collected twelve award wins and another eight nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

'THE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE' (Rated M) - this Irish set buddy comedy film is Directed by Chris Cottam and is Co-Written, Co-Produced and also stars Paul Reiser. Here then, honouring his father’s dying wish to reconnect with the American side of the family, Irishman Ciaran (Colm Meaney) reaches out to his cousin Barry (Paul Reiser), inviting him to visit Ireland. Eager to escape the daily grind of his New York real estate job, Barry agrees to make the long trip. After an initially warm reunion, tensions quickly escalate when it's revealed that Barry has unexpectedly been left half of Ciaran’s father’s inheritance. The discovery sparks a bitter feud fuelled by greed and jealousy, leading to a series of petty squabbles and comedic misadventures. As the situation spirals out of control, the question remains—will these two stubborn cousins ever find a way to make peace? The film had its World Premiere at the Austin Film Festival in October 2023, was released Stateside in early October and in Ireland in early November.

'THE LORD OF THE RINGS : THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM' (Rated M) - is an anime fantasy Directed by Kenji Kamiyama and is based on the characters created by J.R.R. Tolkein. Set 183 years before the events of the Peter Jackson's 2001-2003 'The Lord of the Rings' film trilogy, 'The War of the Rohirrim' tells the story of Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox), a legendary king of Rohan, and his family (most notably his daughter Hera voiced by Gaia Wise) as they defend their kingdom against an army of Dunlendings (led by Wulf voiced by Luke Pasqualino). Helm goes on to be the namesake for the stronghold Helm's Deep. Also starring the voice of Miranda Otto as Eowyn who narrates the film. Peter Jackson and his Co-Writer and wife Fran Walsh are credited as Executive Producers. 

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-