Kraven the Hunter review: An abysmal farewell to Sony’s Spider-Man universe

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. A recent report, published in The Wrap, claimed that the long-delayed Kraven the Hunter will be the final attempt to launch a franchise based entirely around the webbed hero’s gallery of nemeses, now that Tom Hardy has departed the somewhat successful, and occasionally charming, Venom films. Kraven the Hunter is packed to the rafters with the kind of bizarre sights we’ve come to expect from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe : Aaron Taylor-Johnson, shoeless and feral as our titular hero, running around London on all fours and climbing up the walls; Russell Crowe in a tiny scarf with a Boris-and-Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle-level Russian accent; a CGI bison with the meanest mug you’ve ever seen. Sergei – and it takes an egregiously long flashback to explain this – was victim to an unfortunate lion-related incident which left him with big cat blood in his veins, having been resuscitated by Vodou magic wielded by a younger version of Ariana DeBose’s Calypso. It’s not a knockout: Aaron Taylor-Johnson in ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Chandor is able to sneak in the rare inventive shot or gnarly kill.