You can watch the 8 opening minutes of Kraven the Hunter here

In less than two weeks now, audiences will get to experience the latest (and, for the time being, last) movie in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. Kraven the Hunter has been making headlines for all the right reasons since its eight opening minutes were showcased at New York Comic Con. I think it's fair to say nobody expected much from a movie starring a B-list Spider-Man villain taking part in a dying cinematographic universe. However, the footage changed the attendants' perception for the better as it took them through a violent and surprisingly good ride that only signals greater things to come. So in anticipation of the movie's release, Sony made the opening minutes available for everyone to see and, yes, it is indeed more violent than most Spider-Man-related movies.

Kraven the Hunter opening looks brutal

From the get-go, Kraven is presented as more of an anti-hero than a straight-up villain. He purposefully gets sent to a Russian prison to take down Seymond Chorney, a man who runs a gang and whose weapons kill thousands of people around the world. We all know Sergei Kravinoff is a man of honor who's willing to fight his foes fairly and squarely on comic book pages. We see a bit of person here, as Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven gets in a room with three other goons and no weapons in hand only to take them down with whatever he finds in his reach.

The brief encounter features well-choreographed fight scenes in which Kraven moves more like a beast than a normal man. Regardless of the quality of the story, it's fair to say audiences will be entertained thanks to impressive action sequences that could be among the best found in any SSU movie. On the flip side, there's a chase where Kraven miraculously dodges thousands of bullets from hundreds of guards in the prison, which might be less believable than a giant Rhino being the movie's main villain. On a personal note, I think that's the only part where this footage commits a blunder. But everything else? Honestly, it looks absolutely solid.

Sergei's superpowers like super strength and super speed are quite evident. Based on released trailers it looks like he'll get these abilities from a herbal potion — which isn't all that far off from his origin in comic book pages. So perhaps we could be looking at a faithful adaptation that also does justice to other Marvel characters such as Rhino and Chameleon. While we didn't get a glimpse of them in the footage, they surely have a big role to play as the main antagonist and the protagonist's half-brother respectively.

All things considered, Kraven the Hunter looks like it could be a great surprise. Sure, there will be instances where we'll have to accept Kraven will survive highly unlikely scenarios just because he's the protagonist. But aside from that, I'm pleasantly impressed. As someone who didn't watch Morbius or Madame Web (and will likely never do) I'm excited to give Kraven the Hunter a chance. Sony won't stop doing these movies any time soon so, hey, at the very least it's nice to see they are trying to improve the quality. Fortunately, it's just a matter of days before we finally discover if the waiting was worth it or not.

Kraven the Hunter will be released on Dec. 13, 2024.