Kraven: the Hunter Movie Review
Uh here's my review and might be some spoilers up ahead. Idk yet. (also take this all with a grain of salt. I was high both times I watched this movie, and while I was writing this)
First off this movie is the one Marvel movie I have liked since Endgame came out. That was the end of I would say Marvel's best movies, before they had that stale Marvel feel. I think there is a couple reasons for that but we won't go into that here.
So starting out I feel like one-off Marvel movies don't have that classic lead-up to where they are now, which is lame because as I was watching this both times, I couldn't help but feel I wanted a whole movie just dedicated to Sergie's back story off living in the wilderness. I know we got clips of it, but I think it would be extremely cool to see him test out, and start to become Kraven. Sounds cool and interesting. I love origin stories, and I think that's why a lot of earlier Marvel films did well. Sometimes it's fun to see how a character gets to where they are now. Loved that portion of the movie. It was very twilight reminisce though. For example, when he was running, I was just thinking about the following: "You better hold tight, Spider-Monkey."
Like, look at him. Little baby Edward
but to sum up this point, I'd love to see him learn to hunt, and catch a fish in the water, and fix up the yurt. I would like to see little him get his ass kicked, so he learns not to get his ass kicked. I want to see him struggle, so we know he deserves where he's at now.
Kraven the manly but sweet man
This is another reason why this movie is so well done. We see that Kraven cares, but not in the typical man way. This movie almost had that Female-gaze feel to it. I'd say the reason why is how much that Kraven gets to show he cares. He isn't afraid of showing his soft side, obviously, it's not just because of how he treats Calypso but of how he also treats his brother. Kraven gives that kindness he knows he can trust. He knows he can trust Calypso after their first interaction, and that's why he is so much more playful in their second interaction. He opens up to her and gives her info we know he doesn't give easily. I don't think he's telling her to just gain her trust (but could be) but that he's telling her to yes trust him, but also because he knows he can trust her, and feels comfortable around her. He gets to let his primal side soften. This is true around his brother too. I think too often we get lost in this men have to be manly, and they can only show their "soft side" to their women. they can't even show their soft side to their family. However, in Kraven, we get to see him share his brother's pain, and care for his brother. This is clearly a damsel in distress situation, but Dimitri is the damsel.
For some reason I am very into the whole "I'll burn the world down for my sibling"/"I'd sacrifice anything I love for my sibling" trope (this is probably due to the book I'm writing) but I think the most emotional, beautiful part of this movie is that the brothers were able to have such familial love. Like this movie is about Kraven saving his brother. That is the main plot, and I love it. Kinda reminds me of the friendship of the old Spiderman movies with Tobey Maguire movies between Peter and Harry.
(also b4 I move on, the perfume scene is a great way to show how he cares. Because he lets the woman know her man is cheating on her. Go king)
This leads me to another good point, that Kraven has real motivation. He wants to kill Rinho because that guy kidnapped his brother. Very John Wick esc. In a lot of other Marvel movies, I feel like the motivation isn't reasonable, or believable. This has a lot of factors, like the relationships with the characters. (Again this would do so well if we had an origin story, but with the origin we got it does still make the point) Kraven and his brother had a build-up of emotions, and bonds before the main story was made. Therefore their relationships as adults were more believable.
I really enjoyed this movie. It said a lot about he anti-hero archetype, (which I have lots of things to say to that, mostly about comparing them to vampires (not because of twilight)) I loved that they didn't force a romance between him and Callypso (I am so glad they didn't do that. They were great friends), and because the relationships and the arcs of the characters were believable and real.
But also on a real note, I liked this movie because Aaron Taylor-Johnson is hot, and I read fanfic about him when he was Quicksilver. Like fuck bro
