Kraven the Hunter Review

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is a DynaMic Network podcast. Hey guys,Marvelous Joe at the top of the episode to
remind you that if you visit dynamicduel.com,our website, and click on the store button,
you will be exposed to a treasure trove of coolmerchandise options from Dynamic Duel right
in time for the holidays. It is a little bittoo late for you to now buy things from the

(00:22):
store and have them shipped to you before ChristmasDay, but you know what? You can still support
the show. You can still support a great causein Stand Up to Cancer because Jonathan and
I will be donating 10% of our proceeds to thatcharity for the months of November and December
of 2024. Yeah, people give gifts during NewYear's parties, right? That's a thing. Yeah,

(00:43):
and people also like, they get money for Christmasand they're like, I gotta buy some cool stuff.
Maybe I should use that money on some cool dynamicduel shoes or some hoodies or like a calendar
or posters. or a whole bunch of stuff that wegot up there. It's really cool, check it out
guys. And again, support our show, and DeGreatCause and Stand Up to Cancer. Again, visit

(01:05):
dynamicduel.com and click on the store button.Thanks guys, and happy holidays. On with the
show!

(01:31):
Hi and welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast,a weekly show where we review superhero films
and debate the superiority between Marvel andDC by comparing their characters in stat-based
battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'mhis twin brother Johnny DC. And in this episode,
we are going to be reviewing the latest SonySpider-Man Universe film, Kraven the Hunter.

(01:53):
Jonathan liked the movie. I'm just gonna letyou guys all know you should make fun of him.
He told me that he liked it. I was surprised.I said it wasn't bad. I think it was the best.
of the three Sony Spider-Man Universe filmsthat were released this year. Oh, you're wrong.
I would consider you incorrect in that assertion,but we'll talk about it later and make fun

(02:13):
of you some more. Before we get into that review,we're gonna break down the latest comic book
movie news to come out this past week, includingthe news that Chris Evans has been confirmed
by trades to return for Avengers Doomsday. Soin addition to Robert Downey Jr., we're gonna
have Captain America back, or maybe, you know,He's playing some other fucking character,
who knows? Baron Zemo. Bite your tongue. Wealso learned that Clayface is going to get

(02:39):
a film that is set for release on September11th, 2026. And we also got a trailer for Harley
Quinn Season Five. As always, we list our segmenttimes in our episode description. So feel free
to check out the show notes if you wanna skipahead to a particular topic. Our artificially
intelligent duel simulator, AJ9K, has a quickmessage for our listeners, so listen up. Why

(03:02):
hello there, do you want even more from thispodcast? Then become a part of the dynamic
duel community on Patreon, where you can choosefrom three tiers. The dynamic two-oh tier gives
you access to our Discord chat server. The fantasticfour tier gives you two bonus episodes each
month, and the X-Force tier makes you an executiveproducer of this show. Lastly, the Diner Mike

(03:22):
podcast network tier lets you create your ownpodcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny
and Joe will help you develop your show, providegraphic support and consultation, and get you
simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideasvia email at dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com.
Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel.Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ and IK and thanks

(03:45):
to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys,be sure to tune into the other shows in the
DynaMic Podcast Network this week, includingMax Destruction, which pits your favorite action
heroes from film and television against eachother. Hosts Scotty and Gilly are still taking
a break for the holidays, but they will be backnext week with an episode on Christmas Day.
So Merry Christmas, guys. On the Senjou Worldpodcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on

(04:07):
fights between fan favorite anime and mangacharacters. This Thursday, Zach will reveal
who would win in a fight between Tsunade fromNaruto and Unohana from Bleach. And on the
Console Combat podcast, host John and Dean simulatebattles between popular video game characters.
Though in yesterday's episode, they reviewedSonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2, with myself guesting

(04:31):
on that particular episode along with the Kamachotwins from Max Destruction, and the former
co-host of Max Destruction, Dustin Belcom. Itwas a great time. You guys should definitely
listen to that episode if you enjoyed the Sonicthe Hedgehog films and are looking forward
to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 that's coming out ina few weeks. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click
the link in our show notes to listen to allof the shows. in the DynaMic Podcast Network.

(04:56):
But with that out of the way, quick to the NOPrize! A NO Prize is an award Marvel used to
give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic DuelNO Prize, is a digital award that we post on
Instagram for the person that we feel gave thebest answer to our question of the week. Last
week we asked you guys, what live action Marvelor DC film do you think had the best cinematography?

(05:18):
and what was your favorite shot? And this wascoming off the news we received that Rob Hardy
was confirmed as the director of photographyfor Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow. We didn't
get a whole lot of answers for this question,but let's go ahead and break down our two honorable
mentions as well as the no prize winner. Ourfirst honorable mention goes to Cyrus Moore,
who said, Hey guys, Cyrus Moore here. We gotto go with Dion Beebe's greatest movie ever,

(05:44):
greatest cinematography. movie, greatest CGImovie, gotta go with the Green Lantern movie.
The most beautiful scene was Parallax. Oh, sucha very powerful scene, so beautiful, couldn't
ask for a better movie. Yay. Now, I don't knowabout you, Jonathan, but I am detecting an

(06:07):
undercurrent of sarcasm in Cyrus Moore's answer,and I think it largely has to do with how the
appearance of Parallax on the screen. seemedto flood the entire shot with the appearance
of diarrhea. I mean, it's either that CyrusMoore really likes Green Lantern cinematographer
Diane Beebe, or he likes watching the toiletflush after he goes to the bathroom. It's one

(06:33):
of those two. Parallax aside, I don't thinkGreen Lantern had horrible cinematography,
right? Like the space scenes were pretty cool.I mean, the CG was. pretty bad in retrospect,
but the rest of the movie didn't look bad. Themost memorable scene to me in the movie was
when he flies on Owo for the first time. Thatwas a cool shot. Are you being sarcastic too?

(06:54):
I don't even know anymore. Our next honorablemention goes to Daniel Alonso, who said, Okay,
favorite cinematography for Marvel's has tobe Black Panther. I think they just used so
many beautiful colors. It's such a wonderfulfilm to watch. I mean, the shots are just fantastic.
Like when Killmonger is taking the throne forthe first time, when they're first entering

(07:16):
Wakanda, the way they use the sun, it is justmagnificent. How his suit is integrated in
every shot it's in. But my favorite is thatthe one hour and five second mark when they're
entering Wakanda, it just looks like a post.It looks like he got cut off a little bit there,
but he was gonna say how the shot looked likea postcard. And I went and I checked out the

(07:37):
one hour and five second mark in the Black Panthermovie and he's right. It looks like a postcard
for Wakanda. The scene is beautifully lit withthe sun perfectly silhouetting the mountainscapes
of the Wakandan terrain. It was gorgeous. RyanCoogler really did a good job of having his
director of photography differentiate betweenthe jungles of Wakanda and the cityscape of

(07:58):
South Korea. In particular, my favorite shotfrom that movie was actually the Jabari throne
room. when we see M'Baku sitting on his throneup in the mountain peaks of the Mountain Tribes
Village. It was a beautiful night shot. It justlooked incredible. The waterfall scene, that
was really well shot. So much of that movielooked just so good. I would actually say that

(08:18):
I liked the cinematography of Black Panther2 Wakanda Forever more than I did the first
Black Panther. There's just something aboutthe palette with the added turquoise colors
from Namor's tribe. Talokhan? Yeah. Especiallylike when they're fighting at night and stuff.
I thought that looked really cool. Yeah, thecinematography of both those films was pretty
on point, especially for a library of filmswithin Marvel Studios that aren't really known

(08:42):
for their cinematography. I'll still contendthat the best Marvel Studios cinematography
was in the Eternals film, or the first Guardians,one of those two. Yeah, same. But the winner
of this week's No Prize is Scott Camacho, whosaid... Of course, I'm gonna go with Zack Snyder's
Justice League with how the... character designsand the filter and every time the scenery change

(09:07):
between each character. My favorite shot willbe when the group is going to fight Superman
and you have the flash running in his speedand then you see Superman's eyes trained on
him and you get that oh shit moment. That isby far my best shot. Yeah, say what you want
about Zack Snyder in terms of his story decisions,but it's hard to deny the fact. that his movies

(09:32):
are like paintings. They look incredible. Yeah,you think about Watchmen, you think about 300,
of course, really well known for its cinematography.Even BBS had really good cinematography. Zach
Snyder is probably a better cinematographerthan a director, or at least how he directs
cinematographers. The blacks are on point, theway he lights his scenes are very moody. Everything

(09:56):
looks just really good. And he can really easilydifferentiate between settings like the nightmare
scene like underwater Atlantis, stuff like that.It all looks fantastic. And if you need any
proof of that, just look at the Joss Whedondirected cut of Justice League and compare
it to Zack Snyder's version. The cinematographyis like night and day and Zack Snyder's shots

(10:18):
are so much better than what Joss Whedon did.Yeah, definitely more epic for sure. So great
answer, Scotty. You win this week's No Prize.If you the listener want a shot at winning
your own No Prize. Stay tuned to later on inthis episode when we'll be asking another Question
of the Week. But now that that's done, on tothe news!

(10:42):
Alright, in a tiny bit of surprising news wegot this past week, we learned that Chris Evans
will be returning for Avengers Doomsday, andthat was confirmed by the wrap. Actually, we
got confirmation that a whole lot of actorswill be returning for Avengers Doomsday, but
I think Chris Evans is probably the only newsworthyone, because I figured that a lot of cast members
would be returning for that film, except forChris Evans, who seemingly retired from the

(11:06):
role at the end of Avengers Endgame, in thesame way like Robert Downey Jr. did, and Scarlett
Johansson, and stuff like that. So it'll beinteresting how they bring Evans back for the
role. Of course, the movie deals with the multiverse,allegedly, so they could be bringing back a
multiversal Chris Evans, kind of like how theydid in Deadpool and Wolverine, where he reprised
his role as the Human Torch. Or it could bean entirely new take on Captain America and

(11:30):
Steve Rogers. Yeah, of all the cast membersreturning, I agree that Chris Evans and Robert
Downey Jr. are definitely the most surprisingbecause it definitely felt like when they left
their roles... they left them on a really, reallyhigh note. Like their arcs were completely
finished. So for them to return is, yeah, themost shocking bit of news to come out of all

(11:51):
of the cast members who are returning, includinglike Haley Atwell, possibly Scarlett Johansson.
I'm sure a few others will be returning as well.Yeah, of course we know that Robert Downey
Jr. is coming back as the character of VictorVon Doom, AKA Dr. Doom. He's gonna be a multiversal
variant of Dr. Doom. And one of thebest theoriesthat I found circulating online, actually I

(12:12):
didn't find it. One of our listeners, TravisHerndon, sent me this rumor that all the original
Avengers cast are coming back as evil versionsof their characters. So like, we have infamous
Iron Man with Robert Dunny Jr. We could be gettingHydra Cap from the Secret Empire storyline
with Chris Evans, Maestro with the Hulk, evilversions of all the rest of the characters.

(12:32):
And I think that rumor is the best one I'veheard in... how it makes me accept the casting
of Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom a littlebit more. Because as listeners to this podcast
will know, I fucking hate the idea of RobertDowney Jr. playing Victor Von Doom. I want
the original Doom. I don't want some kind ofmultiversal riff on Victor Von Doom. I think

(12:53):
Victor Von Doom is a good enough villain todeserve his own unique casting. And it was
really exciting to speculate on who that couldhave been prior to our DJ's return. But nevertheless,
if he is coming back as the character, It wouldbe nice to have multiple iterations of that
to help kind of solidify that concept of theevil dark multiversal Avengers fighting against

(13:16):
Earth's heroes. Yeah, it almost seems like they'resetting up something like the crime syndicate
or maybe even a better comparison would be likethe dark multiverse. Like because of King's
actions or Loki's actions or whoever the fuck'sactions with the multiverse, there is a group
of evil versions of the Avengers out there inthe multiverse that come and attack our universe,

(13:39):
possibly. Yeah, that sounds pretty excitingto me. And I would definitely watch that. It
sounds like Marvel ripping off DC is what itsounds like. So yeah, it does sound exciting.
Because it's DC's idea. Because the Dark Avengersare definitely a thing within Marvel comics,
okay? So maybe just shut the fuck up. Yeah,but not in this way, not in like this dark
multiverse way. Well, maybe if DC would getits fucking act together. instead of rebooting

(14:03):
every five years and coming out with anothernew iteration for Superman, you guys would
have your shit together long enough to do somethinglike this. Maybe if Marvel was good, Kevin
Feige could steal ideas from his own comicsinstead of the DC comics. Maybe if DC comics
were good, the characters would be more successfulin their translation to film. Maybe I will

(14:24):
beat your ass next time I see you on the street.And maybe I'll be waiting for you. Good, good.
Throw it down. It'll be fun. This Chris Evansnews is really exciting guys. Avengers Doomsday
is slated for release on May 1st, 2026. Andthis news brings us to our question of the
week.

(14:45):
If Avengers Doomsday is featuring an evil versionof Earth's Mightiest Heroes, what evil version
of a character do you most hope to see and why?Besides, you know, infamous Iron Man slash
Doctor Doom or whatever they're doing there.Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking
on the red microphone button in the bottom righthand corner of the screen which will prompt
you to leave us a voicemail. Your message couldbe up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to

(15:09):
leave your name in case we include you on thepodcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and
award that person a Dynamic Duel No prize thatwe'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer
before December 21st. In DC news, DC Studiosconfirmed this past week that a standalone
Clayface movie is being written by Mike Flanagan,a filmmaker who wrote, directed, and edited

(15:34):
Dr. Sleep, which was the sequel to Stanley Kubrick'sThe Shining. He has a background in horror,
he's even working on an upcoming Exorcist reboot.And I remember when we were reviewing Batman
the Kip Crusader animated series, we talkedabout how good the interpretation of Clayface
was, and how cool it would be to see that versionin live action. Well, it looks like we're getting

(15:56):
a version of Clayface, a horror version, onthe big screen, which is wild. I always wanted
to see a horror version of Clayface on the bigscreen. Ideally in a Batman movie, but I don't
mind a standalone movie either. No, I thinkif Kraven the Hunter and Morbius and fucking
Joker, Folly, I do have taught us anything isthat these characters are better served as

(16:20):
villains in movies starring the heroes. I don'twant to see Clayface in his own standalone
film because when the movie's done, I'm justgoing to be like, okay, so then when is this
character going to meet Batman? What I wantto see is them incorporate this version of
Clayface into a Batman film. What it seems likeWarner Brothers is starting to do is pull a
Sony. And they don't want to do that. I don'tknow. So you're bringing up things like Morbius

(16:44):
and Kraven and Joker Folio do, forgetting thefact that the first Joker movie was not bad.
The Penguin television series was really good.I think they could do Clayface really well.
And I think if they wanted to spin that intoMatt Reeves' Batman Universe, they absolutely
could. Don't make excuses for them. You knowwhat would have made the first Joker movie
even better? If we got to see that version ofthe Joker go up against Batman. Uh, maybe?

(17:08):
I mean, Bruce Wayne was in the movie. It was,you know, kind of Bruce Wayne's origin story
as well at the very end. I'm not saying I onlywant to see villains in their own standalone
films. I'm saying there are villains interestingenough that could have their own standalone
projects, like TV shows, like movies, and Iwould be excited to see that. Clayface is one

(17:28):
of those. does is confirm that we're not goingto be seeing Clayface anytime soon in either
the Batman Brave and the Bold film or Matt Reevesthe Batman universe. Well at least we're seeing
Clayface at all then because we could not havethis Clayface film and not see him period in
any of those projects. Well maybe they shouldjust put Clayface in a fucking Batman film.

(17:50):
Think about that. Well maybe they will. If thisis good. If this is like a really good version
and people really like it they'll put him inthe next Batman movie. They won't. You don't
know. We're not going to see Kraven in a Spider-Manfilm now anytime soon, which fucking sucks.
You want to see that version of Kraven in aSpider-Man film? No, but I want to see a version

(18:10):
of Kraven in a Spider-Man film. Like I said,they did a good job with the Penguin. I could
totally see them putting this version of Clayfacein a Batman movie if it's good. Why not? You're
an apologist is what you are. You're a pessimist.Piece of shit is what you are. I'm not a pessimist.
I'm a realist. But you don't know is the problem.Like you're saying all these bad things are

(18:33):
gonna happen. You don't know. I'm going by precedent.Oh, precedent like the Penguin? Okay. The Penguin
was in the fucking Batman movie. Yeah. I mean,who's to say Clayface can't be? I do. Okay.
It's not gonna happen. Head of DC Studios, JamesGunn. I didn't realize I was doing a podcast
with you. Yeah. And I just have to say, fuckyou, buddy. Geez. No one likes you. Damn! I'm

(18:59):
glad I proved you wrong on Twitter. Aw. I mean,Mike Flanagan, we don't know if he's gonna
direct the movie yet. There may be a strongchance that he will, considering he's directed
films like Dr. Sleep. But, you know, he's metwith James Gunn and Peter Sefferin. I would
not be surprised if his clay face, you know,if not tied into the Matt Reeves universe,
would be tied into James Gunn's universe, theDCU. You poor, naive bastard. Hey, let me have

(19:25):
hope, okay? Let me hope. The film even has arelease date they're this confident in it.
It's coming out on September 11th, 2026. Whichmeans that we'll probably get like casting
news within the next few months here. Whichis awesome. And actually it wasn't the only
DC project to get a release date. Dynamic Duo,the puppet movie of the various Robins, is

(19:49):
coming out June 30th, 2028. Holy shit, man.Yeah, it's gonna take them a long time to do
that stop motion animation. At that point, whybother? We're already gonna see Robin before
that with Brave and the Bold, so... I don'tknow, I don't know. DC fuckin' up. As usual.
Okay, so what, you're already saying that'sgonna be a bad movie? You don't know. I'm James

(20:11):
Gunn! I know! I'm telling you, it's gonna bebad, and then I'm fuckin' up. You're not my
real James Gunn! You're the one that said Iwas! Well guess what? I lied! Good, I don't
wanna be. I wanna be Kevin Feige. Why no Inother DC news we got the first official trailer
for Harley Quinn season 5 and it looks likethe girls are moving to metropolis because

(20:36):
Apparently giant rats have overtaken GothamCity and it's just a total crap hole Which
is nice to get like that change of scenery becausethey've been in Gotham City for four seasons
now and I think going to a place where we couldsee new characters, I guess a lot of Superman's
characters is Kinda interesting, I think. Yeah,for sure though. It looks like a lot of the
Gotham gang are tagging along with them, includingBane, King Shark, and Clayface. Oh, that's

(21:01):
right, Clayface. Speaking of which, just totack this onto the last bit of news, Alan Tudyk
voices Clayface in the Harley Quinn show. He'salso voicing Clayface in the Creature Commandos
show, which means he might be playing the liveaction version of Clayface. That might be interesting.
But yeah, he's back for season five of HarleyQuinn. It looks like the big bad this season

(21:22):
is going to be Brainiac, who is coming withthe pet monkey this time, it looks like, which
is kind of funny. It looks like Harley is goingto have to save Metropolis from Brainiac. Meanwhile,
Poison Ivy is going to be tackling the greenor something. Maybe the Enchantress, maybe
Lena Luthor. That's what it appears from thistrailer, at least. I wonder what kind of situation

(21:43):
they're going to put Superman in, in that he'snot able to respond to Brainiac's invasion.
and Metropolis is left with Harley Quinn tosave it. Well, we do get to see Superman in
this trailer, but maybe the involvement of theEnchantress and her magical abilities prevent
him from doing anything. That's just a guess.But speaking again of Alan Tudyk, he also voices
the Joker. He does a fantastic job with it.It looks like he's also in Metropolis. Who

(22:07):
knows if he's still trying to be a good guyor a bad guy or what in this new city, but
we also get Los Lane. So I'm sure she's gonnabe joining the girl group to help save the
day. Speaking of girl group, it looks like weget Goldilocks in this season coming off the
continuity of Kite Man Hell Yeah Season 1. Itappears Bane has finally settled down with
that dominatrix chick and they're raising Goldilockstogether. Yeah, they probably moved to Metropolis

(22:32):
because it's a better city to raise a kid thanGotham City I'm guessing. But I can't wait
for that. We reviewed Kite Man Season 1 recentlyon this show and it was pretty good. It was
a good setup for this season of Harley Quinn,which debuts real soon here on January on Max
and we will be reviewing it once the seasonends.

(22:57):
But I think that does it for all the news forthis episode, so let's go ahead and move on
to our main event, where we review the latestSony Spider-Man universe film, Kraven the Hunter.

(23:21):
Kraven the Hunter was directed by J.C. Chandorand stars Aaron Taylor Johnson and Russell
Crowe. The film is the latest in a series ofSpider-Man adjacent films produced by Sony,
which includes other films such as The VenomTrilogy, Morbius, and Madame Web. The quality
of Sony's Spider-Man Universe movies have rangedfrom absolutely watchable to entirely pointless.

(23:45):
The big question in my mind was where wouldKraven the Hunter fall in that spectrum? Because
I and most people I think didn't have high expectationsfor this film just given Sony's track record.
We knew it wouldn't be great. But if you haven'tseen the movie yet, first off here's a spoiler
warning, but second off here's your answer regardingits quality. I would say it falls squarely

(24:05):
in the middle of Sony's Spider-Man Universefilms. And I think if one had to rank all the
movies, not including the MCU Spider-Man filmsor the animated Spider-Verse films, I think
most people would put Venom at the top of thelist and Madame Web at the bottom. And the
Venom sequels, Morbius and Kraven the Hunter,arranged in some fashion in the middle. Yeah,

(24:27):
I definitely liked it more than Morbius. I definitelyliked it more than Madame Web. I am not a big
Venom guy. I didn't really care for the lastone too much, definitely didn't like the second
one, and you liked the first one a lot morethan me. I would actually say I liked this
Kraven movie as much as the first Venom movie.Well, I think this review will basically be

(24:47):
a breakdown in why you are wrong, and I betyou by the end of this review, your list will
change. Well, I largely feel like I liked thismovie more than you did because the characters
are more sacred to you than they are to me.That's exactly it. Like before I even get into
what the film is, I want to speak briefly onwhat the film should have been as a fan of

(25:09):
the comic book character. Because the biggestmistake Kraven the Hunter makes is that it
fails to recognize who the character is andhis appeal as a Spider-Man villain from the
comic books. You know, the guy that they haveup on the screen here, like he has the same
powers as Kraven the Hunter and he has the lookand the name. But if the writers and director
knew anything else about Kraven, the film wouldn'thave had one. the organized crime elements,

(25:35):
two, the weird daddy drama, three, the vigilantejustice elements, and four, the rescue mission
that was the plot's primary conflict. And yeah,people may say that Kraven did, for a time
in the comics, turn into a hunter of hunterswhere he killed poachers and whatnot, but that's
not what this origin film should have been.Kraven's not like Morbius, who is a good guy

(25:57):
beset by a terrible curse, and Kraven's notlike Venom. who is a corrupted symbiote who
actually wants to be good. Kraven's an assholein the comic books. He's prideful, he's resentful.
You know, the crux of the comic book character'smotivation is his anger at the loss of his
family's nobility when they were forced to fleeRussia for America during the Soviet Revolution

(26:19):
when he was a child. You know, it was this disdainthat drove him to kill, traveling the globe,
becoming the world's greatest hunter. This movieshould have been like a treasure hunt film
in the vein of Indiana Jones or a national treasuremeets the most dangerous game. It should have
been about a guy who grew bored with killing,who sought the ultimate quarry, like a super

(26:41):
powered mercenary from Russia called the Rhinoor something like that. You know, have him
seek out, find the Rhino, get defeated, learna lesson in humility, recover, get powers,
then win in a final showdown. you know, bagginghis ultimate prize, and then end his life because
he had nothing else to live for, just like Kraven'slast hunt storyline from the comics. It could
have been poetic, it could have been complex,but adventurous and still fun. Instead, we

(27:07):
got whatever this story was, about a Russiancrime family heir turned animal-powered vigilante
assassin with mystical lions in the mix, anda science experiment gone wrong villain with
his superpowered catheter and IV bag. Therewere so many times during the course of this
film where I was like, what the fuck are theydoing? Of all the choices the movie could have

(27:28):
made, why did they make those? It was just reallypuzzling. Not going to lie, your most dangerous
game concept is fantastic. Like, I kind of wishyou would have done that as like a bonus episode
pitch for our patrons, which we tend to do sometimes.Like when we feel like we have a really good
idea for a movie, we'll record it and then uploadit as a bonus episode. I think that storyline

(27:50):
sounds fantastic. Well, I might still writethat story one day and maybe post it on our
Discord channel or something. But that's reallywhat the movie should have been. I don't know
what this was. In my research for this film,I learned that the writers of Kraven the Hunter,
Art Markham and Matt Holloway, also wrote PunisherWarzone, which didn't surprise me because I

(28:10):
feel like both films were trying to evoke thetestosterone-fueled late 80s, early 90s action
films. That's fascinating because I actuallythought... that this movie should have gone
a little bit harder are on the action and beenmore like Punisher Warzone. Because I feel
like all the hardcore violence stuff we saw,we already got from the trailers. From the
Red Band trailers, yeah. I'll say at least PunisherWarzone got the characterization of Frank Castle

(28:34):
right. And at least Punisher Warzone used practicaleffects like the best 80s and 90s action films
did. I feel like I would have enjoyed or atleast respected Kraven the Hunter so much more.
if he wasn't occasionally a CGI character bouncingaround like Gumby in some shots. And the Rhino
special effects and like the animal specialeffects, they were a lot more rough than they

(28:56):
should have been for a film with this tone.They just need to stop trying to do the Rhino
in live action because they can't get it right.Yeah, for sure. Poor guy has not been done
justice. Speaking of action though, I'll givethe film credit where credit is due. If you
overlook the special effects, the film... doeshave some really well shot action. You know,

(29:17):
the prison escape into the snow storm, the chasethrough London, the forest attack on Rhino's
men. Those are all fantastic action set pieces.At its best, Kraven the Hunter evoked other
great actioners like Predator, Extraction, oreven Captain America the Winter Soldier. For
my money, this film had better action than anyother Sony Spider-Man universe film, and probably

(29:38):
honestly the best practical action since Shang-Chiand the Legend of the Ten Rings. Yeah. And
therefore I can see why casual viewers who don'tknow or care about the source material would
probably like this film more than me and rateit higher. To me, this film reminded me somewhat
of like a Captain America film just in termsof his like super soldier-esque power set or

(30:01):
maybe like Black Panther with the car chase.Yeah. In that sense, it felt a little redundant
to me. Like I don't feel like I saw anythingeven action wise that I hadn't already seen
before. That said, It's still pretty cool tosee. Yeah, I mean, well, like Kraven the Hunter
doesn't have the most original power set inthe comic books either. What really makes him
unique was the driving force behind his actionsin trying to prove himself as a hunter, which

(30:24):
this movie got none of that. None of that. Inaddition to the action, though, another thing
that this film does well is that even thoughthey totally got the characters wrong from
the comics, whether it's Kraven Rhino or NikolaiKravinov. At least they took the time to develop
the characters because their motivations werepretty well established. Some might even say

(30:44):
that they spent too much time reiterating certaincharacter beats, but I think the payoffs in
the end were all well earned from Nikolai'sdeath to Chameleon's betrayal. Yeah, maybe
not so much with Calypso. I mean, we did geta brief bit with her when she was a child,
but you know, learning how she became so goodwith the bow and stuff like that, it was like,

(31:04):
okay, sure, off screen stuff. It's fine. Yeah.Oh, for sure. Actually, since we're talking
about the characters, let's get into our characterbreakdown. First, let's talk about Kraven the
Hunter, aka Sergei Kravenov, played by AaronTaylor Johnson. As I've said before, I don't
really recognize this characterization of Kravenfrom the comic books, but I'll say that Aaron
Taylor Johnson really owned the character asportrayed here. Like, the dude exuded strength

(31:28):
and intrigue and charisma, and his acting...is completely transformative when you look
at his other comic book performances like Quicksilveror Kick-Ass. There's no doubt in my mind that
this guy is a star, despite the fact that heseems unable to draw a box office as a lead.
I think what he really requires is a franchiselike 007 James Bond to catapult him beyond

(31:51):
his current career status, and I hope at thevery least Kraven the Hunter serves as a vehicle
to show his capabilities as a physical actionstar. because I am rooting for him to be the
next James Bond. Really? I was kind of hopingfor Henry Cavill. I mean, he could do it too,
but I think Aaron Taylor Johnson is more interestingthan Henry Cavill, who's a little bit generic,

(32:11):
I would say. Wow, okay. No, yeah, I've beena fan of Aaron Taylor Johnson since his kick-ass
days. I don't remember seeing him in anythingprior to that, but yeah, he's always killed
anything he's been in, whether it's this, whetherit's something like bullet train. which he
was phenomenal in terms of action. He's definitelya star, yeah, I agree. In terms of Kraven's

(32:32):
character arc, he grew up highly resentful ofhis father and he spent the whole film trying
to take down men like him and protect innocentvictims like wildlife or his brother, Dimitri.
The irony and tragedy is that in trying to denouncehis father, Kraven became the exact man his
father wanted him to be. He played right intoNikolai's hands, taking out the Rhino. And

(32:54):
for all his assertion that he was a good guy,he failed to be there for his brother Dimitri,
abandoning him, only to later be surprised byhis brother's hunger for power. The lesson
that he needed to learn was that with greatpower must come a lack of apathy. You know,
with great power must come not being a totaldick. But really, he didn't learn that until

(33:16):
the last minute of the movie, because he wasmostly static for much of the runtime after
the first act. Yeah, he learned this lessonat the end of the film, but we're not going
to see the consequences of that. We're not goingto get to see him grow from that because I
really doubt they're going to make a sequelto this movie. Oh, no, this movie is bombing
at the box office, which is no surprise. Itgot the worst cinema score of any Sony Spider-Man

(33:38):
universe film, including Madame Web. It's probablygoing to be one of Sony's biggest flops and
will likely result in either a reboot on Sony'sbehalf or maybe hopefully. Is it too much to
wish for them to sell the rights to Spider-Manback to Marvel? Who knows? We'll see. But yet,
to your point, this movie set up a lot of stuffin its final moments for an upcoming sequel

(34:02):
that will most certainly never happen. And it'snot the only film that's done that. You take
a look at Morbius. It's like, what is happeningwith that? Absolutely nothing. Sony really
dropped the ball. They really just need to stopmaking movies about Spider-Man characters that
no one cares about. People want to see thesemovies with Spider-Man. And you could also
make the same argument for films like Clayface,like who wants to see a Clayface movie without

(34:25):
Batman? Not me. But then I'm still hoping that,you know, that'll lead into something with
Batman, because I don't want just a Clayfacemovie where he never interacts with Batman.
And it was the same for Kraven. That was thepoint I was trying to make earlier, man. But
yeah, see, I have hope with the Sony Spider-Manstuff. I don't have hope because Sony owns

(34:46):
the rights to these Spider-Man characters. That'sthe difference. Yeah, that's true. That's true,
that's a big difference. Let's go ahead andmove on to Nikolai Kravinov, played by Russell
Crowe. Now I don't know what the fuck has happenedto Russell Crowe in the last decade, but why
else would he take on roles like this one andZeus from Thor, Love and Thunder? I just, I
didn't like his performance here. It seemedham-fisted and more like a caricature of a

(35:10):
Russian mobster. But you know, even worse thanthat, Nikolai was nothing like this in the
comic books. He wasn't a drug runner. Therewas no Kravinov. crime family. They just made
him a mobster in the movie. It's like they tooknotes from an entirely different script or
something. And to have such an original characterhave such bearing on an actually well-known

(35:31):
established character I think is bizarre. It'slike inventing a cousin Archie for Peter Parker
who was the primary influence for him becominga web-slinging hero, you know? It's just weird.
I didn't like it. Yeah, I wonder if they weretrying to like squeeze the kink pen into this
movie. Then at the last minute they're like,uh, just, just make it his father. The Kraven

(35:53):
story should not have anything to do with daddyissues or a father. It should have just been
the character, the father's an afterthoughtin his story. It's ridiculous. But say you
didn't know the comic books. Say like you throwall of that out the window. Is it still that
bad? Um, no, it's not as bad if you don't knowthe comic books. I'll say that, but I don't
have that luxury. And so I'm just pissed off.I'm crushed with this. Beautiful knowledge.

(36:19):
Let's go to move on to Chameleon, AKA DmitriKravinov, played by Fred Hetchinger. This is
my first time seeing Fred Hetchinger in anything.I haven't seen the new Gladiator film yet.
So I'm not 100% sure what to think of his performancebecause, you know, like the Chameleon has been
such a frankly Chameleon in the comic booksthat his personality has never been quite consistent.

(36:40):
I thought in the movie, Dmitri came across asvery meek and maybe too much of a damsel and
distress. But in the comic books, Chameleonhas been everything from meek and mentally
unstable to cunning and a criminal genius. Youknow, even his twist at the very end, you could
say that it came out of left field, but thatwas still being keeping with the character
from the comic books. I actually really likewhat they did with the Chameleon here. I never

(37:03):
thought he was an interesting Spider-Man villain,but I cared for Demetri in this film, and the
twist at the end was kind of heartbreaking.It was. Yeah, like I said, I think those character
payoffs at the end were well-learned. It wasinteresting because Dimitri didn't really realize
until the very end that Kraven was more likehis father than he realized, like a ruthless

(37:24):
killer. And likewise, Kraven, who always thoughtthat his brother Dimitri was innocent, learned
that his brother actually did crave power andwould follow in his father's footsteps if given
the chance. Yeah, as it turned out, some ofhis father's influences, you know, pushing
him to be strong and ambitious and stuff likethat actually did stick. I do like how that

(37:45):
all played out. I do wish that instead of tryingto set up a sequel, that the filmmakers just
made the chameleon the primary villain manipulatingevents from the shadows, because as it was,
I think the chameleon twists at the end wasjust a little bit too late and a little bit
goofy, too, with the special effects. Oh, thatwas fucking terrible. Holy cow. just like a

(38:06):
really short, scrawny Aaron Taylor Johnson allof a sudden. I was like, what? What? Stupid.
Yeah, and then when he turned his face white,so he has the look from the comic books that
like blank white face, you know, that was kindof ridiculous looking, a little bit too shiny
in the special effects, a little bit too computeranimated. And then he went back to his normal

(38:27):
face. It was all bizarre. You know what I thoughtthey were going to do? And I actually got really
excited when I was watching the movie, whenKraven's father hands him the box saying, look
what they did to my boy. I thought instead ofa finger, they were gonna hand him his nose.
And I thought that was going to be like thewhole justification for the look of the chameleon.

(38:47):
Like they cut off his nose and shaved his headand his eyebrows or something like that. Totally
didn't go that route, but I thought it wouldhave been cool if they did. That would have
been pretty severe if they did that. I'm kindof glad they didn't, because I don't need like
a ground to take on the chameleon, but I alsodon't necessarily need a CGI faced chameleon.
It should look practical, but you know, it shouldbe a mask. Okay, okay. I don't know if listeners

(39:10):
are too familiar with the chameleon as a Spider-Manvillain, but one of these days we'll get a
duel episode in with him for sure. Maybe againstsomeone like Hard Target from DC. Let's go
ahead and move on to Rhino, aka Alexei Sitsovich,played by Alessandro Nivola. Alessandro Nivola
was probably a better actor than this moviecalled for, but his personality for the Rhino

(39:31):
was way off. And I think he was too smart tobe the same character from the comics. Like,
as you said earlier, they can't get the rhinoright on film, it seems like. Because previously
the character was played by Paul Giamatti. AndI think that brief look at him was actually
a little bit more accurate personality wise,but Giamatti's performance was horrible. And
like the rhino suit was way off base in thatmovie. Like they were really going for like

(39:54):
the Transformers thing around that time. Right.Yeah. But here. It's not really that much better
at all. You know, it wasn't a suit. He was likea rhino-human hybrid, and it was like a medical
condition given to Alexei by the Jackal in aneffort to increase his strength, which could
be managed through an intravenous port in hisside. Okay, it was the Jackal. I was wondering

(40:16):
who the scientist was. That is kind of cool.Yeah, Miles Warren, that was the doctor that
they referenced in the movie. And I thoughtthat was pretty cool because the Jackal has
been hugely influential in Spider-Man's lifebehind the scenes. In the comic books, you
know, Alexei was a hired thug who was dumb enoughto volunteer for KGB scientific experiments
with gamma radiation, which made him strong,and then they gave him an indestructible suit.

(40:40):
And he was always kind of known for being dimwittedand whatnot. Here they made him a rival crime
lord, which again, you know, probably worksbetter for people who don't. the comic books,
but I think a lot of comic book fans will justbe kind of puzzled by this portrayal of the
character. Especially the whole Rhino-humanhybrid thing too. Yeah, you mentioned that
Russell Crowe was like a caricature earlier.I totally felt that way with this performance

(41:06):
for the Rhino. It felt just so artificial tome. Well, to me, Nivola's performance as Alexi
didn't seem like a caricature because it wasa little bit more subdued than Russell Crowe's
performance, you know, who really went all inon the scenery chewing. I didn't think that
at all. I think the reverse of that. I thoughtRussell Crowe's performance was subdued and
kind of lazy and, you know, he was just kindof cashing in a paycheck. But with this Alexi

(41:29):
actor guy, I thought he made the most out of,you know, the dog and just like grabbing the
counter like screaming silently and stuff. Itwas just weird. That was really fucking weird.
I didn't like his power set either. Like theway they... portrayed it, how it was controlled
with the IV pack that went into the port inhis side. It was so stupid, because it's like,

(41:50):
he was trying to make a deal with those mobsters,and he like, showed them his powers, they shot
him, and he proved that he was invulnerable,so they got all scared of him. But like, couldn't
you just shoot him when he doesn't have thefucking rhino skin? Or shoot him in the head,
like before he fully transforms, because thatshit took forever. Exactly, it took a while
for him to turn into the rhino, like 30 seconds,you know? That's plenty of time. to kill the

(42:14):
guy before he becomes a destructible. So weird.Such a weird device. Let's go ahead and move
on to Calypso Azili, played by Ariana DeBose.I thought that was a solid casting choice.
I thought Ariana brought pretty solid nuanceto an otherwise generic role. In the comics,
Calypso is a voodoo priestess who loved Kravenand gave him the potion to increase his longevity

(42:35):
and physicality. But she was more manipulativeand villainous in the comics, not like the
goody two-shoes she is in this film. You know,the movie did allude to some secrets about
her past, but it was done horribly. It was like,oh, you just happened to have an extra healing
potion on you despite saying you didn't. OK.Oh, you're just secretly a badass with a crossbow,
but you don't want to give us any hint as towhy. OK. All right. Sure. I feel like there

(42:59):
was more to her character in the film that wasactually cut. And that was why they clearly
had to ADR some line changes with her scenesand stuff. Oh, my God. It's probably why even
though she had clairvoyance as a kid. She didn'thave any of that stuff as an adult, unless
you want to attribute the deus ex machina ofher killing the foreigner as a result of her

(43:19):
clairvoyance, which I think you almost haveto in order for that scene to not feel cheap.
The ADR in this film and the CG mouth movementwas almost as bad as the Henry Cavill mustache
in Justice League debacle. Yeah. Oh, for sure.You know, they did a lot of weird ADR stuff
with the dialogue in Madam Web as well, so itmakes me think that you have a solid case of

(43:44):
studio interference just fucking shit up thatthey have to kind of clean up and post with
some last minute dialogue changes. We'll probablyalso get a Calypso duel somewhere down the
line. I think one of our executive producers,Devin Davis, suggested the idea of putting
Calypso against Papa Midnight, who was in theConstantine film, being that they're both voodoo.
practitioners and I thought that was a solididea. Yeah, totally. Let's go to move on to

(44:09):
Foreigner, played by Christopher Abbott. Now,Foreigner has no other name because that's
all he's known as in the comic books. I've alwaysthought he's one of the lamest ass supervillains
of all time. He was married to Silver Sable,so he's an Eastern European mercenary. But
I wanna ask you, Jonathan, what do you thinkhis power is? Was it like hypnosis via like

(44:32):
eye contact? Yeah, okay, so you got it. I wasreally taken back by how the movie portrayed
his ability, but essentially he can put peopleinto a 10 second hypnotic trance, which makes
people think that he has super speed. But hereit seemed like it was only a three second trance
and they portrayed his movements almost as ifhe did have super speed. It was really weird.

(44:54):
Well, I think they wanted to give the audiencethe same kind of perception as anyone who was
hypnotized by him. I'm wondering why he hadto like count down the trance every time out
loud. Like every single fucking time he usedhis power. It was really bizarre. It's like
one of those things, just like the rhino. It'slike, before he counts down to one, just shoot
him in the head. It was always just like slowmotion bullet time. One, two, three. But they

(45:21):
did that like six or seven times in the movie.I think it could have been pretty clear what
was going on without the counting. Yeah, I agree.What was your impression of the foreigner?
I was just like, I wonder how this is a translationfrom the comics, because this is kind of bizarre.
I don't know anything about the foreigner, andI'm kind of wondering why they decided to include
him in a Kraven movie. Is he a Kraven villain,or is he like a Spider-Man villain? He's a

(45:47):
Spider-Man villain. He's very much tied intothe Silver Sable corner of the Spider-Man world,
which is largely set in Eastern Europe. Youknow, she's the leader of some Caria. I do
think that they should have given Foreigneran accent, not Russian necessarily, but some
kind of like Eastern European accent. I thinkthat would have been more in keeping with the
character and would have helped sell his nameas the Foreigner a little bit better, you know?

(46:09):
I take it they're not making the Silver Sablemovie anymore if he is dead now? A Silver Sable
movie was rumored, but I don't believe it'sin any sort of active development with Sony.
because the latest news from sources was thatSony is kind of taking a break on the Spider-Man
spin-off films. Holy shit, it's about time.Yeah. It's like, fool me once with Morbius.

(46:32):
Shame on you. Fool me twice with Madame Web.Shame on me. Fool me three times with Kraven?
Fucking stop. You gotta go. You gotta go atthat point. Strike three, you're out. It's
so surprising that Sony decided to release threeSpider-Man universe films in 2024. It's just
crazy. You would think if the reason that they'remaking these movies is just to hold on to the

(46:52):
rights of Spider-Man, they would delay the releaseof these films until like the very last minute.
Right. Exactly. It's almost like they're tryingto get rid of the rights for Spider-Man. It's
almost like they're dumb.

(47:13):
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(47:36):
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(48:00):
Let's go ahead and move into our story highlights.Sergei Kravinov is transported to a Russian
prison where, calling himself Kraven the Hunter,he murders an imprisoned crime boss named Samin
Chorni. He escapes the prison into the Russiantundra where he flees via a chartered plane.
I want to know who his pilot was, like theywere all mysterious with that, like it was

(48:20):
going to be some big reveal or easter egg andit just turned into a big ol' nothing burger.
It was Madame Webb. I think Devin Davis, oneof our producers, speculated that it could
have been Silver Sable, but I don't know aboutthat. It's one of those things where that had
to have been revealed in an earlier cut of thefilm. But when they were like shifting things
around due to studio intervention, then yeah,maybe it could have been Silver Sable. That's

(48:42):
as good a guess as any. I think the film startedoff really promising with the prison escape
action scene and him running into that big stormcloud. I thought that was a pretty cool shot.
One thing I didn't get is when he's like eyesglowed at the wolf and the wolf was like, oh
shit, bro, sorry, then like ran away. They neverplayed up on that again. Well, they kind of

(49:03):
insinuate that he has some kind of rapport withanimals. And when he's using his powers, his
eyes turn into like a lion's eyes. He can'tspeak with animals directly. You know, I don't
think it's as clear cut as that, but he caninfluence them in some way. So which is somewhat
in keeping with the comic books, like he doesn'thave animal communication powers. but he can

(49:24):
easily train animals and he does use a lot oftrained animals in his battles with Spider-Man.
So then why the hell did that leopard attackhim at the end of the movie? I don't fucking
know man, I think they were insinuating thatthe leopard was playing with him, but I couldn't
quite be sure. He did get the leopard to attackRhino's men at the end, so you never know.
Did he? Yeah. Are that the leopard just didthat because they were in his territory? I

(49:46):
don't think so, because they also look at thewater buffalo. Oh, okay. That's highly coincidental.
for all those animals to be attacking theseguys. That's fair. In a flashback to 16 years
ago, a teenage Sergey and his brother Dmitriare picked up from St. Michael's Academy in
New York by their crime lord, Father Nikolai.He informs the boys that their mother committed

(50:06):
suicide and that in response, they're goingto hunt a lion named Tsar in Africa. In Ghana,
a young girl named Calypso learns from her grandmotherthat she is descended from a line of voodoo
priestesses and gives her a healing potion.telling her that she would know when to use
it. This is when the film started getting badfor me. I think with the weird plot choice
of, you know, we'll go on a hunt instead ofgoing to a funeral and the scene with young

(50:30):
Calypso and her grandmother was pretty cringe-worthy.Yeah, the grandmother's voice was not the grandmother's
voice. That was some other actress, like 100%.During the Kravinov's hunting expedition, Nikolai
is approached by Alexei Sitsovich, who triesto offer a business arrangement with him, but
is rejected for his perceived weakness. Sergeistumbles upon Tsar, but refuses to shoot him.

(50:53):
However, Nikolai shoots the lion who attacksand carries Sergei away. Calypso leaves a family
safari trip and stumbles upon Sergei's woundedbody. She gives him the Voodoo Potion and alerts
medical responders who take Sergei to a hospitalwhere he dies, but is revived by the potion,
which gives him special powers. I wanna knowwhat the fuck this scene with the lion is all

(51:14):
about. Like the way the lion acted, it madeit seem like Kraven was some kind of predestined
warrior chosen either by the Loa or by natureitself or something like that. But we never
learned for what purpose. Like it couldn't possiblybe that this lion just wanted all these crime
bosses off the map, right? Something was fadedthere and we have no reason why. He was the

(51:36):
chosen one, Joseph. Okay, go on. He's a resultof thousands of years of ancient prophecy among
the lion community. to carry on the mantle ofthe lion. And do what? Fucking kill mobsters,
I don't know. Exactly, who knows? I don't thinkthis movie would do well in a rewatch because
as soon as you see the lion being gentle withKraven and whatnot, you're gonna be like, well,

(52:01):
why though? We never learned why. I think whatthey were going for was that Kraven was supposed
to be some champion of nature, like defendingthem against poachers and from man itself.
But they didn't really follow through with that,beyond the poaching thing. Yeah, there were
a couple scenes where he went after poachers,but that wasn't like his primary goal. Like,

(52:22):
his primary goal was to go after men he perceivedas evil. Like, the guy in the Russian Gulag,
he wasn't a poacher, right? But he went throughall this effort just to kill the guy. No, he
was a weapons dealer. Right, exactly. And hisfather was a drug runner. You don't know how
drugs affect the lion community, bro. Okay,alright. That lion's parents were killed by

(52:44):
druggies one night. In Crime Alley? Crime-staringGetty. The Kravinovs travel back to their home
in London, where Sergei finds a note from hismom stating that she couldn't bear Nikolai's
abuse anymore. Nikolai chastises Sergei forfailing to shoot Tsar, revealing the lion's
head mounted on his wall. Sergei runs away fromhome, saying goodbye to his brother Dmitri,

(53:05):
and travels to his mother's family's old estatein the Siberian forest, which she calls home.
There he discovers a group of poachers takingthe horns of a group of wild buffalo and he
kills them in anger What was your reaction toseeing the lion head mounted on the wall? Cuz
I was shocked when I saw that I was like youBastards, that was a cool ass lion. That was
a huge lion man. Yeah, that head was massiveI really don't like the idea of trophy hunting

(53:30):
in general like you're not gonna eat lion meat,right? So like why kill the fucking lion? The
only reason I think you should kill a lion isif it's self-defense if it's trying to kill
you Otherwise, just leave the lion alone. Justfucking leave the lion alone. That's what I'm
saying. Back in the present day, Kraven returnshome from the Russian prison and kills another

(53:51):
group of poachers near his home. He tracks theirleader to London where he reveals a list of
names of crime bosses he intends to kill. Hemeets with Calypso, now an attorney working
out of London, and thanks her for saving himall those years ago and asks for her help in
locating the names on his list. Now, was Alexi'sname on this list? I was kind of confused by
that. Allegedly, allegedly, that's what Alexihas led to believe. We never know for certain

(54:16):
whether that's true or not. I'm inclined tobelieve that, yeah, Alexi's name was on that
list. But the movie made a big mistake in notactually showing that. That's ridiculous, because
that was the whole motivation of the primaryantagonist. Exactly. You're not going to show
that. What the hell was it all for then? I haveno idea. Alexi's henchmen, too. He was like,

(54:37):
Yeah, you're probably on that list. I'm like,you're gonna go through all this for a probably?
For real, it's like calm down. You may havenothing to worry about. Meanwhile, Alexei Sisyvich,
now a crime boss going by the name of Rhino,learns of Kraven the Hunter from video footage
of his Russian prison escape. Trying to allocatepower, he reveals to a group of mobsters that
he can turn his skin as durable as a Rhino,due to genetic experimentation. He and his

(55:01):
men make a move against Nikolai Kravinov ata lounge, which Dmitri owns, and performs that
as a singer. When the attempt fails, Rhino hiresa mercenary called the foreigner who has the
ability to put people into a temporary trance.So it's weird because the Rhino wanted to partner
with Nikolai. Yeah, 16 years ago. But it's likeif he's going after Nikolai, why is Nikolai

(55:25):
sending him footage of his son? I have no ideawhy. Yeah, it doesn't make sense at all, because
it's like either they're working together orthey're working against each other, right?
If they're working against each other, why?is Nikolai helping Rhino out with the footage
of his son. You could say that he's just tryingto get his son onto the Rhino's trail because
he knows that his son can kill the Rhino, butif the Rhino knew that the video footage was

(55:51):
from his sworn enemy, why would he trust it?Why would he use it? It's all bizarre. Kraven
visits his brother Dimitri for his birthdayand spends the night outside after a night
of drinking. The next morning, Kraven findsthat his brother was kidnapped from his bed
and he pursues Rhino's men through the streetsof London. They escape his pursuit in a helicopter
and Kraven asks Calypso for help finding them.Calypso's source leads Kraven to a Turkish

(56:15):
monastery, however Calypso's source is revealedto be manipulated by the foreigner. I loved
the London chase scene. I thought that was probablythe highlight action set piece of the film.
It had loads of adrenaline. I like the parkourelements, you know, and the helicopter escape
thing was really well done. A lot of the actionin the movie was a lot cooler than I thought

(56:35):
it would be based on the trailers. Like I thoughtit was gonna be kind of goofy with him like
running on all fours in certain scenes and stufflike that, but I thought it was edited really
well. For sure. I remember from the trailersI thought the action was gonna be real gimmicky
with him using like bear traps to snap dude'sheads off and stuff like that. But no, I loved
all that. trap stuff, which is a later scene,but the action in general was just top notch.

(56:59):
Speaking of action and set pieces, Kraven ambushesRhino's men in Turkey, but it turns out to
be a trap and the monastery is blown up witha rocket launcher. Rhino tells the kidnapped
Dimitri that his brother is dead and offersto partner with him against his father Nikolai's
crime ring, but Dimitri refuses. Kraven survivesthe trap and brings Calypso to his home in
Serbia to protect her from Rhino's men.

(57:25):
pieces of the monastery that were falling ontop of them. Yeah, what the hell was that about?
They should have shown how he survived that.You can't just do that on screen. You can't
just cheat like that. Exactly. We see like thepieces falling on top of him. The audience
is fairly certain that this guy is buried inthis rubble, but like the next time you see
the shot, he's just completely fine and outsideof it. When Kraven brought Calypso to his home

(57:48):
in the Serbian forest and he's attacked by thatI thought her reaction to that whole event
was really strange too. She just seems not shockedby it at all. I don't know if you noticed that.
She was like, I'll just let him die. It's fine.Yeah. She like takes a step back and she's
like, Oh, what? Okay. Preach of this, like shereally hadn't seen him do too much, right?

(58:10):
Like, was she aware of his powers? Yeah. Well,I think she knew that he was physically capable,
but I don't think she had seen him in actionyet by that point at Kraven's home. Kraven
and Calypso discuss their next steps, but Rhinofinds them first thanks to a phone call from
Dimitri and the foreigners' detective work intothe local flora. Kraven makes short work of

(58:30):
Rhino's men in the forest, but is tranquilizedand beaten by the foreigner. However, Calypso
kills the foreigner with a bow and arrow beforethe villain can deliver his kill shot, and
she heals Kraven with another potion she had.I did think it was cool that his fear was spiders,
just as like a nod to Spider-Man. Yeah. I mean,it doesn't- makes sense outside the context

(58:52):
of Spider-Man, you know, otherwise, why is hisfear of spiders? They never really established
that. It just seems kind of random. No, theydid because his mother was afraid of spiders.
Geez, I don't even remember that. Yeah, shewas like schizophrenic. She saw spiders on
the walls. And so I think they kind of tiedhis fear of spiders into her fear of spiders.

(59:12):
Maybe he was afraid that he was like her andwould also see spiders. Well that's pretty
cool then. Too bad we'll never see Kraven goup against Spider-Man or have that have any
sort of payoff whatsoever. Maybe. I wouldn'tbe surprised if they brought these guys back
for Secret Wars. They won't. You never know.That line with Calypso about how she's like,
you're not the only one with secrets was themost throwaway line in cinematic history, I

(59:35):
feel like. For sure. As Rhino escapes with Demetriin an armored convoy, Kraven steers a herd
of water buffalo to attack and flip his trucks.Rhino transforms into his animal form and goes
toe to toe with Kraven. Kraven impales Rhinowith a metal rod into his intravenous port
on his side, killing him. With his dying breath,Rhino reveals that he received the prison escape

(59:56):
footage from Nikolai, whom Kraven learns usedhim to take his enemies out. Kraven kills his
father in northern Russia using an enraged grizzlybear. I mean, can you really say that he killed
his father? I mean, he took the ammo away fromhim, but it was kind of second-hand murder.
I think he lured the grizzly bear to his father'slocation. Okay. I wasn't clear about that.

(01:00:19):
But I could see how you could make that argument.He's sneaky in that way. You know, he has deniability
if it's a bear attack. But no, I totally thinkhe killed his father. I thought the way he
took the rhino out was a little bit cheap. Likeof course his port on his side would be a weak
spot for Kraven to exploit because otherwiseRhino was just wiping the floor with Kraven.

(01:00:41):
It was his exhaust port. His Death Star Exhaustport. Exactly, yeah. That whole device with
the intravenous backpack and everything likethat, it was just all set up for this killing
blow. And I thought it was too convenient. Oh,100%. Yeah, absolutely. They should have had
him go after his eyes or something like that,you know? Like, the chameleon didn't need an
intravenous port in order to transform his appearance.Why couldn't the rhino just transform into

(01:01:05):
his rhino hybrid form without the IV drip? Becausethe riders suck? Exactly, exactly. One year
later, back in London, Kraven visits his brotherfor his birthday and learns that Dimitri is
taken over the Kravenov crime ring. Dimitrireveals he visited the same doctor as Rhino
in New York who gave him the ability to shapeshift and is now going by the chameleon. Dimitri

(01:01:26):
tells Kraven that Nikolai left him a gift backhome where Kraven finds a vest made from Tsar
the Lion. He puts it on and looks at himselfin the mirror. I want to know what the fuck
kind of ending that was. Like I think they weregoing for maybe like a contemplative Godfather
2 type ending. but it kind of played out morelike a weird Calvin Klein ad. He's like, whoa,

(01:01:48):
check out myself in the mirror sitting downwith my vest open. He like strikes a pose and
everything like that. Just a really weird wayto end a movie. Kind of plative about what?
That he was wearing a vest made of the lionwho attacked him when he was young? It's like,
I don't get what like the big gotcha was fromhis father. It wasn't. So he didn't need to
be that contemplative.

(01:02:12):
He was just like his father, Nikolai, maybe,and maybe contemplating his brother's turn,
but it was a strange ending. Also, I think therewas a deleted scene here somewhere because
this was the only shot we see of Kraven wearinghis lion vest, but in the trailers for the
movie, we had a shot of him in the forest carryinga torch wearing the same lion's vest. So like

(01:02:33):
there was supposed to be a whole scene afterthis, I think, that just got cut. Yeah, I think
it was probably meant to be an after creditsscene that they just decided to nix. Maybe
he like goes into a cave and he strikes up thetorch and he looks at the ceiling of the cave
and he sees Morbius hanging upside down or someshit. That'd have been funny. And Morbius is
like, I'm about to Morb. It's Morbin time. Butyeah, there are no end credit scenes or mid

(01:02:59):
credit scenes for this movie. It just ends andis likely Sony's way of just kind of like,
you know, cutting this whole franchise off inan attempt to not lose more money because that's
what these movies are doing. I guess Venom ismaking them money. but Madame Webb and Kraven
the Hunter certainly is not going to earn themany profits. Which is another reason why it's
weird that Sony didn't stagger these releases,because film studios are always looking for

(01:03:22):
good years in terms of revenue, so if they figuredthat Kraven was going to do bad, like just
push it to the next fiscal year when he won'thave to deal with that. Well, sometimes fiscal
years end in June, First of all, and secondof all, I don't think they knew that Kraven
the Hunter was going to do poorly at the boxoffice. We all knew! They legitimately think
that every time they make a movie, they're goingto profit off of it. If that was the case,

(01:03:45):
they would have left that end teaser scene then.I mean, that was probably a change made at
the 11th hour when they realized that this franchiseisn't going anywhere and that they should probably
rethink what they're doing with it and justfocus on the next Spider-Man movie. Maybe.
I don't know. Who knows? No one knows. In all,I can totally see where people might like this
film more than me. Again, it has great action,and if you're not particularly invested in

(01:04:08):
the source material, you're probably fine withthe characterizations as portrayed here. However,
I am cursed with the burden of knowledge, anddespite Aaron Taylor Johnson's charisma and
his prowess in the role, the film's well-craftedaction is staggered by the puzzling character
choices and unbalanced plotting. I'm givingthe film two and a half stars out of five,

(01:04:31):
a rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In the end,I just don't recommend the movie. I don't think
there's any reason to see it, especially ifyou're a fan of these characters from the comics.
I do think two and a half stars is a littleharsh. That's the same rating we gave Joker
Follyard due. And I think there's a lot morereasons to not like Joker than Kraven that

(01:04:51):
said, again, I'm not like a huge fan of thecharacter of Kraven, where I think his story
from the comics is something sacred. I wouldgive it three stars, I think just one half
star above that, but it is your review. Yeah,well, I think you rate DC films too high to
begin with. I have more standards, I think,than you do. I don't want to rate this film
as high as I did Morbius, which I think wasalso not a great film, but at least they got

(01:05:16):
the characterization of the comic book characterright in Michael Morbius. To me... Kraven the
Hunter was more along the lines of quality ofVenom Let There Be Carnage. It was better than
Madame Web, but I think they're pretty closeto each other. Really, at the end of the day,
this film is Kraven in name only. That's mybiggest gripe with it. You're giving it the
same rating as Madame Web. Right. But it wasbetter than Madame Web. But it's also not as

(01:05:39):
good as Morbius. It is way better than Morbius.Morbius fucking sucked. What did I just say?
The Morbius film was closer to what a Morbiusfilm should be. than the Kraven film was to
what a Kraven film should be. The only problemI have with that is that Morbius was way goofier
than Kraven was. Like with Kraven, I feel likethe actors at least took everything seriously.

(01:06:02):
Even with minor characters like the foreigner,I didn't mind as much. Like that could have
been a lot more goofy. And I appreciate it whenfilmmakers take the tone of the story seriously.
Maybe not the source material seriously, butit shouldn't be intentionally silly. And I
don't think this was. I don't mind intentionallysilly, I don't think goofiness equates to quality.
Look at Venom, there's some intentionally goofymoments in Venom, but that's also in keeping

(01:06:24):
with the comic books on that character. Tonedoes not dictate quality. I think adheres to
the source material and story plotting playa larger role in dictating quality. I don't
know if I agree with that, because I think tonesometimes can dictate quality. You take a look
at the first Joker movie, like that was verydifferent from anything like the comics, but
it was still a really well made movie. But thatwas also like an Elseworlds riff, like clearly

(01:06:48):
not the comic book character. Like they wentway out of left field with that one. I think
this Kraven the Hunter movie was supposed tobe an adaptation of the comic book character
unlike Joker, which you know, we learned inJoker 2 that wasn't even the real fucking Joker.
I don't know what your argument is. Stan I'msaying let this be an adaptation and don't
be so beholden to... A treasure hunt film likethe most dangerous game meets national treasure.

(01:07:14):
That's what this film should have been. Thismovie was nothing like that. You can keep arguing,
but that's what I wanted as a fan. And that'swhat I think fans would have supported. And
I think you're seeing now at the box officethat people are not supporting this film and
they're not liking it with the poorest cinemascore out of any of the Sony Spider-Man universe
films and like a 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes.You've mentioned before early on in the podcast,

(01:07:37):
I would say that you will rate a film lowerif you can envision a better story. And I,
well, I think you've definitely come up witha better story just in like your five second
pitch that you did. I think you also want toexamine the film as it is, not as it necessarily
could have been. Oh, I did. I did. And you heardit all here. Okay. All right. You're my friend

(01:08:00):
are not only cursed with knowledge, but alsojust damn good story sense and high standards.
Woe is me.
But that does it for this review guys, HG9Khelp close this out. Thanks for listening to
Dynamic duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicduel.comand follow us on Instagram at dynamicduelpodcast.

(01:08:24):
You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.comslash dynamicduel and joining a tier that works
for you, or by rating and reviewing Dynamicduel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser
or on our website. Don't forget to listen tothe other shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network,
including Max Destruction, Senjou World andConsole Combat. Our next episode is going to

(01:08:46):
be our yearly charity duel episode. Again, guys,we are donating 10% of the proceeds we make
in our dynamic duel shop to stand up to cancer.And we're going to pit Ace the Bat-Hound, Batman's
dog, against Dogpool, who is Deadpool's dog.Or rather a multiversal variant of Deadpool,
as he is in the movies and the comics. So lookforward to that next week. But that does it

(01:09:10):
for this episode. We want to give a big thanksto our executive producers, Ken Johnson. John
Straszky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, MiggyMathingian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner,
Levi Yaiten, Austin Wieselowski, AJ Dunkerley,Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew
Shunk, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis, Joseph Kersting,Josh Leiner, and Mike Williams for helping

(01:09:32):
make this podcast possible. And we'll talk toyou guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.
I am Kraven, a good Sony film.

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