It's time to be honest: Kraven the Hunter isn't really that bad

It isn't really a secret that Sony's Spider-Man Universe is officially dead. Much to no one's surprise, the franchise never quite took off after six years, six films, and zero critical successes. The worst part? It ended on a very flat note according to critics. Kraven the Hunter premiered with just a 9% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and while that percentage went a bit up (only for it to be removed afterward), it's still nothing to be proud of. So I went into the movie with zero expectations, assuming I would be extremely disappointed as with many other superhero movies before (not Madame Web, though, as I couldn't get myself to watch that one). But much to my surprise, it wasn't really that bad. Now, I know how that sounds, but hear me out.

Kraven the Hunter isn't a fantastic movie by any means. It has incredibly harsh pacing issues, the CGI (especially Rhino's) can be very rough, some dialog is questionable at best, a few performances are off, and characters can go from "I won't betray my family because I'm a good guy" to "Nah, I'm honestly glad my family is dead. Now I'll conquer the world" real quick. But its biggest sin? It failed to understand its titular character. Kraven's whole deal in the comics is that he has bested almost every wild beast imaginable so easily that he's not interested in the hunt anymore until Spider-Man enters the scene. Does he hunt humans? Yes, but he also hunts animals and yet he fails to do that in the movie.

Sony is obsessed with creating complete films centered around supervillains, yet they don't allow their titular characters to be evil. Is Kraven a man of honor in comic book pages? Absolutely, but he was also abusive to his half-brother, killed his family, teamed up with the Sinister Six, and buried Spider-Man alive amongst many other things. He's definitely a villain and not a Punisher-like anti-hero with a greater moral code. Unfortunately, that's how the movie presents him. Seriously, I can't give enough props to DC's The Penguin for actually letting Oswal be a shameless bad guy.

However, let's not pretend like other "acclaimed" superhero movies haven't taken some big liberties with their titular characters as well. Remember how Ms. Marvel was introduced as a Mutant rather than an Inhuman in her Disney+ series? Or how Thor was a big goofball in Thor: Ragnarok even when his comic book counterpart is a very serious character? Many fans were very vocal about how they hated the fact that Spider-Man relied too much on Stark Tech on the big screen (myself included). Yet, it seems those types of criticism only affect the reception of Sony movies which... well, feels fair since they gave us Morbius. However, Disney also released Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, so...

On that same page, many other superhero projects are also guilty of having the same problems that plague Kraven the Hunter. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law had very rough CGI and yet the series is still sitting at a 79% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Besides, the dialog in Batman V Superman could also feel very off. Finally, Eternals had pacing problems as well. And while these last two movies weren't a critical success — critics suggest there's an abysmal difference between them and Kraven the Hunter. But let's face it: that isn't the case.

Sony's latest movie also has a few bright spots. The action is fast-paced and visceral, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe gave fantastic performances, character designs can be incredibly comic-book accurate, and the relationship between half-brothers Sergei and Dimitri can be heartwarming. I'm not saying that's enough to make it a good movie, but it can be enjoyable if you turn your brain off. And even if you don't like it, chances are you'd be more inclined to do a rewatch of Kraven the Hunter than Thor: The Dark World (even if the latter had a higher critics' score).

Is the movie really as bad as the internet is making it out to be? Not at all. It can be rough, but it also has its entertaining moments along the way. It wouldn't even be at the bottom of the list of worst MCU movies ever made.