Aaron Taylor Johnson Last Hunt

Tony Vinciquerra, CEO of Sony Pictures, is correct: "Kraven: The Hunter" is not a bad movie. It features good actors, decent performances, plenty of action scenes, and a somewhat interesting plot. The question here is whether the audience going to see these movies really wants to see that. Will most viewers go watch an action movie about a character they don't know or have never heard of? Is the majority of the audience deeply knowledgeable about the comic book world? I highly doubt the first question can be answered positively. Action movie fans go to see "Fast & Furious," James Bond, or "Mission: Impossible"; they are somewhat conservative and don't risk watching a movie when they don't have much information about the character.

The second question is even more complex. If the answer is positive, it becomes very clear why Kraven has been an absolute failure, perhaps Sony Pictures' biggest, at the box office. Kraven is a good action film, despite some minor sins; however, almost its only connection to the classic Spider-Man villain is the name. Even worse, in the film Kraven falls into the dubious category of "antihero," meaning the filmmakers either didn't respect the character's essence, didn't know it, or simply didn't care, and that's something Vinciquerra needs to understand, but I think he won't.

Russell Crowe's performance must be highlighted, as he alone can carry the weight of a film and turn a mediocre script into something highly entertaining. On the other hand, I was surprised by Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance, who is definitely no longer the pitiful teenager he played in the great "Kick-Ass," alongside the ever-interesting Chloë Moretz and the delirious Nicolas Cage. Now Taylor-Johnson is even being considered to play James Bond, which is good, but that's part of the movie's problem: Kraven is not James Bond. I'm well aware that Spider-Man villains are usually portrayed by great actors: Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Michael Keaton, Paul Giamatti, Jamie Foxx. Great actors playing great villains is a tradition in Spider-Man more than in any other film franchise. But Taylor-Johnson doesn't fall into that category.

I heard that at some point, Adam Driver was considered to play Kraven. That would have been incredible. Driver would undoubtedly have managed to combine the intensity, complexity, and madness of the character, who in another context would be worthy of residing in Arkham. However, some ambitious Sony executive had the idea of making unsolicited films about villains, a strategy very common in the comic book world but one that hasn't translated well to cinema. Venom? Salvageable. Morbius? Terrible. Madame Web? Let's forget it. Kraven, an antihero who hunts others more evil than himself? For God's sake! Who had that awful idea? Calypso as a lawyer? The Chameleon as a singer imitating Chris Martin, Tony Bennett, and Ozzy Osbourne? Disastrous. On the other hand, I must point out that bringing back Rhino, another classic Spider-Man villain, and returning him somewhat to his Russian gangster essence, part of an experiment to harden his skin, is interesting. They should have used Giamatti for that treatment instead of putting him in a machine made of Soviet scrap. Miles Warren, the Jackal, responsible for Rhino's transformation? Sony folks, you don't know the comics at all!

Kraven is a good action movie. It's not a movie about the comic book character, it only takes some vague ideas. If Sony had wanted to make a good Kraven movie, they should have adapted "Kraven's Last Hunt," although that idea was already taken by the clever Quentin Tarantino in "Kill Bill Vol. 2," when Bud knocks The Bride unconscious, played by Uma Thurman, and buries her six feet under. Would they have made a second film with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and had him commit suicide as in the ending of "Kraven's Last Hunt"? That would have been very interesting, but I doubt Sony executives would have wanted to put an end to a potential box office success. The result? A good action film that, by twist of fate, bears Kraven's name, will go down in history as one of the worst superhero films.