Dr. K's Waiting Room

Released: 13 December 2024
Director: J. C. Chandor
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Budget: $110 to 130 million
Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Alessandro Nivola, Fred Hechinger, and Russell Crowe

The Plot:
Saved from death as a boy by a voodoo serum, Sergei Kravinoff (Taylor-Johnson) hunts wrongdoers as “Kraven the Hunter”. However, when his past comes back to haunt him, Kraven must fight to rescue his cowardly younger brother, Dmitri (Hechinger), from a maniacal, half-human, wannabe mobster.

The Background:
Following the phenomenal success of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (2000 to 2007) and the sadly mediocre reception of Marc Webb’s reboot films, Marvel Studios finally achieved the impossible by striking a deal to include the iconic wall-crawler in their Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). After seeing the incredible success of Spider-Man: Homecoming (Watts, 2017), Sony were excited enough to greenlight a bunch of spin-offs that would focus on Spidey’s villains and side characters. After Venom (Fleischer, 2018) made bank, Sony not only signed off on a very profitable (if critically maligned) sequel, but also, inexplicably, solo projects for Roy Thomas and Gil Kane’s “Living Vampire”, Doctor Michael Morbius, Denny O’Neil John Romita Jr.’s, Cassandra Webb/Madame Web, and Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven the Hunter, a character best known for his memorable (if temporary) death in the celebrated “Kraven’s Last Hunt” (DeMatteis, et al, 1987) arc. Although a prominent villain in videogames and the 1990’s Spider-Man cartoon, Kraven’s journey to the silver screen was fraught with years of stop/start efforts. After committing to the idea of their own adjacent series of interconnected Spider-Man movies, production of a solo Kraven film began in earnest in August 2018. Screenwriter Richard Wenk shared that his screenplay was heavily influenced by “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and that he was experimenting with different directions for the character depending on Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s inclusion, all while MCU creators pitched including Kraven in their films. Aaron Taylor-Johnson joined the project and underwent an intense training regime to prepare for the title role, attracted to the film for its deeply interpersonal story. After a number of delays, Kraven the Hunter finally released to universally negative reviews and, as of this writing, the film hasn’t even made $30 million at the box office. Critics tore apart the obvious dubbing of scenes, the disastrous execution, and the tiresome concept of a Spider-Man-less Spider-Man movie. Though director J. C. Chandor was hopeful of a sequel and Taylor-Johnson was contracted for additional appearances, those hopes seem dashed not only by the film’s poor reception but Sony’s announcement that they’ll be refocusing their Spider-Man efforts.

The Review:
It’s baffling to me that Sony just forgot how to make decent Spider-Man movies. Apart from their animated ventures, all their Spider-Man spin-offs have been mediocre to terrible and completely directionless. I can almost understand making standalone Venom movies and it was surprising how well they worked without Spider-Man, but was anyone asking for solo movies for Spidey’s low tier villains and supporting characters? Maybe if there had some kind of plan, like linking all these spin-offs into a coherent, adjacent universe or bringing back Andrew Garfield for a series of showdowns with these characters then maybe, maybe, things would’ve been different. Instead, we live in a world where Sony legitimately thought people would pay to see Kraven the Hunter, of all people. To be fair, Aaron Taylor-Johnson certainly looks the part. He’s ripped and exudes a rugged charisma that certainly catches the eye and his Russian accent and dialect is commendable. He’s easily the best part of this film but that’s a bittersweet compliment as he’s completely wasted here instead of being put to better use in a film that’s not completely forgettable ten minutes in, let alone by the end. Kraven the Hunter opens with Kraven a fully-fledged manhunter; he infiltrates a Russian prison to assassinate crime lord and poacher Seymon Chorney (Yuri Kolokolnikov), an act that kicks off the central conflict of the movie. The film then jumps back in time sixteen years to introduce us to a young Sergei (Levi Miller) and Dmitri (Billy Barratt) and set up their shared and individual issues with their father, kingpin and avid game hunter Nikolai Kravinoff (Crowe).

This extended flashback establishes that the Kravinoff boys fear and loathe their authoritarian father, who believes in survival of the fittest and refuses to show or tolerate any weakness in either himself, his vaguely defined criminal organisation, and his two boys. Resentful towards Nikolai for his treatment of their mother (Masha Vasyukova), who was mentally unwell and took her own life, the young Kravinoffs are nevertheless powerless to defy their father’s will and forced to accompany him to Tanzania for a hunting trip. While Nikolai favours Sergei, he’s critical and dismissive towards his bastard child, Dmitri, whom Sergei tries to defend at all costs. This drive sees Sergei leap to Dmitri’s defence when a gigantic lion approaches them in the wilds. Hesitating to shoot, Sergei is mauled and hauled away by the beast, leaving Dmitri in hysterics and Sergei close to death. Luckily for him, young Calypso Ezili (Diaana Babnicova) just happened to be vacationing in the area, coincidentally learned from her grandmother’s (Susan Aderin) tarot cards about Sergei’s fate, and carries a helpful voodoo serum which, coupled with the lion’s blood, not only saves Sergei’s life but bestows him with vaguely mystical animal powers. After fully recovering and lashing out at his father’s abhorrent ways, Sergei packs up and leaves, strangely leaving Dmitri behind, fleeing to his mother’s sanctuary (essentially a spherical greenhouse) in the far reaches of Russia. There, Sergei learns the extent of his new abilities: he’s fast like a cheetah, climbs skyscrapers and trees like an ape, is soft footed like a deer (to the extent that he apparently negates people’s peripheral vision), has eyes like a hawk, and superhuman hearing and durability. These gifts allow him to build a reputation as the world’s greatest hunter and he carves a name for himself as “Kraven”, hunting down crime lords like his father (but, oddly, not his father) and local poachers. In all that time, no one has ever pieced together that Kraven is Sergei Kravinoff and his name has become legend. He travels the world with his unseen pilot (whose scenes were clearly left on the cutting room floor) ticking names off his list. However, he riles up the criminal underworld when he kills Chorney as it leaves a power vacuum that both Nikolai and would-be kingpin Aleksei Sytsevich/The Rhino (Nivola) are eager to fill.

As mentioned, I don’t get why Sergei left Dmitri behind. The boy lived in constant fear of his father and was desperate to earn his approval and respect, an uphill battle he was seemingly doomed to never win, even with his “chameleon” like talent to mimic voices and lovely singing voice. It seems like it would’ve made more sense for Sergei to take Dmitri and for him to be his pilot but, instead, Dmitri ends up kidnapped by the Rhino and held to ransom, forcing Sergei to reunite with Nikolai and begrudgingly work alongside his estranged father to rescue his troublesome little brother. Despite being renowned as the greatest hunter in the world, it takes Kraven sixteen years to track down the now adult Calypso (DeBose), now a lawyer living in London and jaded by the bureaucratic justice system. Though initially hesitant because of Kraven’s violent lifestyle, Calypso reluctantly agrees to help him track down the Rhino and warns him against pursuing dangerous crime lords, a caution that comes true when Dmitri is kidnapped and Calypso is also targeted by the Rhino in a bid to flush Kraven out. If there’s supposed to be a romantic subplot between Kraven and Calypso, this also seems to have been cut from the film. Calypso certainly looks the part and there are glimpses of chemistry between her and Kraven, but so much of her dialogue is clearly redubbed through ADR and it’s not only jarring but leaves much of her performance flat as a result. She just about manages to prove her worth, however, and she’s never held hostage like Dmitri. She also has contacts who provide Kraven with leads (even if they’re false ones courtesy of the Rhino’s slick henchman, “The Foreigner” (Christopher Abbott), a superhuman mercenary with unexplained hypnotic powers), and even saves Kraven’s life when he’s drugged and brought to the brink of death once more.

Despite years of mistreatment, resentment, and hatred towards his father, Kraven purposely leaves Nikolai off his list because, for all his flaws, the crime lord is still the hunter’s father. Kraven reunites with his father and brother once a year for Dmitri’s birthday, growing more and more troubled by his brother’s obsession with pleasing the old man, and rebukes Nikolai when he refuses to pay Dmitri’s ransom to avoid showing weakness. Taking matters into his own hands, Kraven tracks down the Rhino and runs into the Foreigner, a mysterious assassin who, honestly, could’ve easily been cut from the film or supplanted with someone else. While we learn of his personal grudge against Kraven, we never learn the Foreigner’s real name, how he got his strange powers, or even what the extent of them are. He easily subdues and murders anyone in his path until he reaches Kraven, who he decides to drug, cripple, and beat up rather than go for a quick kill, which costs the Foreigner his life. Compounding matters is the use of the Rhino, of all people, as the film’s main antagonist. Reimagined as a neurotic, semi-maniacal would-be crime lord who craves attention and a “partner” to elevate him up the ranks, the Rhino is a strange, cartoonish villain just as apt to make bizarre noises as he is to monologue about his aspirations. After being disregarded by Nikolai for his physical weaknesses and needy demeanour, the Rhino turned to Doctor Miles Warren for both a cure for his condition and a means to become stronger. The result was some unexplained genetic tampering that turned Sytsevich’s skin into an impenetrable hide and bestowed him with incredible strength, much like his namesake, but also causes him such agony that he medically keeps the transformation at bay. Instead, he orchestrates a convoluted plot involving kidnapping and murder to try and fill the void left by Chorney and make a name for himself as the man who killed Kraven, or coerce the Kravinoffs into joining forces. This latter scheme is mirrored by Nikolai, who desires to rule the criminal underworld with his sons, leading to what’s essentially a war between rival mob gangs in a bid for greater glory. However, if you ask me, reimagining the Rhino into this role is a poor fit. I would’ve preferred to see Alonzo Lincoln/Tombstone in this role, with the Rhino replacing the Foreigner as his muscle/henchman, and possible have rewritten the script to weave Dr. Warren into the narrative more explicitly, but what do I know?

The Nitty-Gritty:
Kraven the Hunter is, fundamentally (somewhere beneath all the mess), a story about a son escaping the shadow of his abusive and totalitarian father. While part of young Sergei enjoyed his father’s approval, he was nevertheless disgusted by Nikolai’s treatment of Dmitri and his penchant for big game hunting. Having grown up emotionally and physically abused by his father, and having witnessed his brother get the same treatment or worse, Kraven is determined to not become the same kind of man as his father. To a degree, he accomplishes this (he becomes a morally grey vigilante, of sorts, rather than a ruthless crime boss) but his affinity for violence and desire to be seen as the Alpha Male among his peers echoes his father’s teachings. Naturally, Kraven rejects these comparisons and believes he’s doing good by taking out poachers and mob bosses, but his path inevitably intersects with Nikolai once more and he’s clearly disturbed by his similarities to his father. Dmitri couldn’t be more different from both men; he craves the approval Nikali shows Sergei and does everything he can to appease his father. Dmitri’s talents are in entertaining and mimicry rather than physical feats, wowing the patrons of his club with his pitch-perfect vocal talents and even earning a modicum of respect from his father, who appreciates Nikolai’s Tony Bennett impersonation. Despite a lifetime of abuse and mistreatment, and being beaten and having a finger cut off, Dmitri refuses to succumb to the Rhino’s torture or sell out his family to the irrational wannabe, though he’s stunned to learn that his brother is the fabled Hunter, which only adds to his insecurities and desire to carve his own legacy by the film’s end. Despite featuring many names associated with Spider-Man, Kraven the Hunter is very light on Spider-Man elements: the Daily Bugle appears a couple of times, Dr. Warren is name dropped, and it’s revealed that Kraven has an inexplicable and convenient and never explained fear of spiders. However, there’s no indication that a Spider-Man exists in this world or if it’s even connected to Sony’s other spin-off films.

While Kraven the Hunter is often a mess of clunky, clearly rerecorded dialogue and overdone clichés, the action on display is pretty good at times. The film is, sadly, populated with some of the worst CGI animals I’ve ever seen; the gigantic lion and the leopard that attack Kraven at different points are the worst offenders by far. When Kraven leaps into action, the violence is fast, bloody, and brutal, with him stabbing foes, slicing their throats open, and clamping bear traps to their heads! At one point, he sets traps for his pursuers that sees one guy get ripped in half crotch first, another take a machete to the head, and blood splattering across a bleak Russian forest. Kraven beats guys to death with his bare hands, easily breaks bones and manhandles multiple, even armed foes, and his skilled with knives, blades, and spears is readily apparent. Believing it dishonourable to use firearms and any weapons not made of the land or meticulously crafted, Kraven keeps a cache of blades and weapons at his sanctuary and on his person, subduing targets with blow darts and poisons and easily clambering up sheer surfaces with an animal grace. I’m not the biggest fan of or expert on Kraven but I do believe he’s often imbued with animal senses, spirits, and ferocity and that’s on full display here. Kraven often gallops about on all fours, tackles jeeps like a rhino, clings to purchases like a monkey, and has senses so keen that he can hear, smell, and see things no normal human could. This all adds to his abilities as a manhunter and in a fight, with him being swift enough to avoid gun fire and carpet bombs, durable enough to take a beating, and apparently strong enough to survive being buried under a bunch of stones and debris. Somehow, he’s so fleet footed that he can remain completely undetected even when standing right behind his foes and his eyes often glow an ethereal orange to show he can see in the dark or across vast distances. He’s not completely invulnerable, however. He succumbs to the Foreigner’s poison like any other man and is beaten close to death by the malicious mercenary, his life only spared by the timely intervention of Calypso. Dmitri also proves to be a vulnerability, one the Rhino doesn’t hesitate to exploit, and Kraven’s emotions often get the better of him where his brother and family are concerned.

Despite Kraven’s lauded and feared reputation, he struggles to piece together the paper-thin plot taking place around him and needs Calypso and the intel offered by his dying targets to figure out what the hell’s going on. Already angered that security footage that identifies him is doing the rounds, Kraven’s desire to shut down those actively seeking him out is exacerbated when Nikolai’s life of crime seemingly causes Dmitri’s kidnapping by would-be rival kingpin, the Rhino. When Dmitri and Kraven shoot down the Rhino’s offer to join forces, the Rhino organises a strike against Kraven on his home turf, a ridiculously poorly thought-out operation that leaves all his ill-equipped troops dead and Sytsevic forced to allow his transformation to take full effect. Transforming into a hulking man-rhino that, despite being comic accurate, looks laughably cartoonish, the Rhino fights Kraven amidst a buffalo stampede. Thanks to his impenetrable skin and augmented strength, the Rhino easily shrugs off Kraven’s blows and knives and pummels the Hunter, beating the piss out of him and looking to throttle him to death. However, Kraven spots the medicine line on the Rhino’s thick hide and rams a role into his stomach, then has the stampede trample the weak-ass villain to death. Although Kraven talks Dmitri out of executing the Rhino, Kraven has not hesitation about confronting his father, who released the video footage to coerce his estranged son into eliminating his competition, a revelation that leaves Nikolai being mauled by a wild bear courtesy of Kraven. The film then ends with Kraven being aghast to learn Dmitri has taken control of their father’s operation and undergone some “unorthodox” surgery of his own to assume the face of anyone he wishes at will. How Dr. Warren did this isn’t explained and quite how the Chameleon thinks he’ll fool anyone with his short stature is beyond me. I think a better reveal would’ve been that Dmitri was posing as Nikolai and was a bad guy all along, manipulating events to seize power and using fake masks and practical augmentations rather than what I assume is either a nanotech or some vague bioengineered tampering to steal people’s identities. Oh, and Kraven gets his signature jacket, made out of the hide of the lion he failed to kill, as a parting gift from his father.

The Summary:
I wasn’t expecting much, if anything, from Kraven the Hunter. I’m really not a fan of the character and would have little interest if he showed up in a Spider-Man movie, so giving him a solo film seems moronic and pointless to me. Luckily, I can say that I enjoyed Kraven the Hunter more than Morbius or Madame Web, but not by much and that’s hardly a high bar to clear and the film’s flaws mean it’s still not getting higher than a generous two-star rating. This rating is based purely on Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s performance, which I did enjoy, and the brutal, bloody action sequences, which give the film an edge sadly not afforded to the Venom movies as swearing and strong, bloody violence would tip them into 18-rated affairs. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does look great in the role, and I did enjoy the depiction of Kraven’s powers; it seemed a lot of his actions and stunts were practical, too, which was appreciated. However, it made the poor CGI stand out even more. I obviously don’t expect the actors to be wrestling with real lions and such but surely CGI has progressed to the point where they can be rendered more convincingly? The Rhino suffers greatly from this, too. Clearly a rushed, last-minute inclusion, the Rhino is so awful here and looks so janky that I honestly prefer the mech-suit version we got previously; at least that’s somewhat believable! Add in pointless characters like the Foreigner, a strange and ill-fitting interpretation of the Rhino, and some horrendous and distracting ADR, and you have a film that feels like it was butchered by the budget and the editing process. It feels like many scenes were left on the cutting room floor, especially those featuring Calypso and Kraven’s life between hunts, making for an awkwardly paced and disjointed affair. It’s also disappointing that it’s not made clear where Kraven the Hunter fits in Sony’s spin-off films, if anywhere. However, even if the film had been better in these regards, I would still be unimpressed and annoyed at the idea of giving Kraven a solo movie. And, if it had been a Spider-Man film featuring Kraven, I would’ve been equally disappointed as I just don’t care about the character. Thus, Kraven the Hunter was doomed to fail for me and I cannot understand, for the life of me, who this mess was made for.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy Kraven the Hunter? If so…what’s the matter with you? What did you think to Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s performance and the depiction of Kraven’s powers? Do you agree that the film felt rush, especially regarding Dmitri’s story arc? What did you think to the Rhino and his eventual full reveal? Did you also think that the film felt butchered in the editing room? Are you a fan of the character in general (and, if so, again…why?) and would you like to see Kraven return in some capacity? What Spider-Man villain would you like to see get a standalone movie? I’d love to know your opinions of Kraven the Hunter, so leave them below and be sure to check out my other Spider-Man and Marvel content.