Kraven the Hunter reviews have arrived, but critics aren’t pleased Sony’s Marvel outing. With 39 Tomato-approved reviews and counting, Kraven has a dismal score of 15%.
ScreenRant says “I’m frustrated.” MovieWeb called the film “Mediocre.” And Collider went for the jugular, declaring Kraven has “the poorly conceived idea of Venom, the barely coherent story of Morbius, and the baffling technical problems of Madame Web.”
Sony’s Spider-verse Without Spider-Man
Kraven is the latest in Sony’s ambitious but beleaguered “Spider-verse without Spider-man” project. Since 2018, Sony’s string of spin-offs have failed to wow critics. Venom (2018), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Morbius (2022), Madame Web (2024), and Venom: The Last Dance (2024) have all debuted with a “rotten” score below 60%. At the low end is Madame Web with 11%. Let There Be Carnage peaked with a high of 57%. Kraven’s score delivered on expectations.
Where is Spider-Man?
Where is Spider-Man? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course. For those who haven’t followed the legal drama, Sony has owned the film rights to all-things Spider-Man since 1999 (purchased for a mere $7 million). They made the original Tobey Maguire movies between 2001 and 2007. Then rebooted with the two Amazing films with Andrew Garfield (2012-2014).
In 2015, Sony negotiated with Marvel to have Peter Parker appear in the MCU, and the results were pretty spectacular. Every MCU film featuring Spider-Man has received critical acclaim, delighted fans, and broken (or set) box office records.
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What’s next for Sony’s Spider-Verse?
The question, now, is what happens next? After a decade of going at it alone and struggling, does Sony finally hand everything over to Marvel and Kevin Feige? If reviews were all that mattered, then the answer might be yes. But, overall, the Sony-verse has succeeded at the box office. The combined budgets for three Venom movies totalled $350 million. The global earnings? Almost $2 billion. Even Madame Web matched its $100 million budget.
Kraven the Hunter could be the tipping point. If its box office doubles its budget, despite bad reviews, then this probably won’t be the last spin-off Sony puts out. On the other hand, if Kraven matches Madame Web, it could mean the end of an era. We’ll see after the weekend numbers come in.
Kraven the Hunter
- Release Date
- December 13, 2024
- Runtime
- 127 Minutes
- Franchise(s)
- Marvel Comics , Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Cast
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Russell Crowe , Fred Hechinger , Ariana DeBose , Christopher Abbott , Alessandro Nivola , Levi Miller , Chi Lewis-Parry , Billy Barratt , Jessica Zhou , Michael Shaeffer , Dritan Kastrati , Greg Kolpakchi , Elander Moore , Filiz Fairweather , Duran Fulton Brown , Alex Skarbek , Rachel Handshaw , Preslav Shipkaliev , Murat Seven , Robert Ryan
- Character(s)
- Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven , Nikolai Kravinoff , Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon , Calypso , The Foreigner , Aleksei Sytsevich aka The Rhino , Young Sergei , Big Rhino , Young Dmitri , Passerby , André , Oleksander , Guard , Law Firm Receptionist , Restaurant Diner , Sniper 2 , Russian Captain , Cora’s Mum , Prison Officer , Ömer Aksoy , Russian Prisoner
- Director
- J.C. Chandor
- Writers
- Art Marcum , Richard Wenk , Matt Holloway
- Budget
- 130 million
