This is a DynaMic Network podcast. Hey guys, Marvelous Joe at the top of the episode to
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show!
Hi and welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films
and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based
battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. And in this episode,
we are going to be reviewing the latest Sony Spider-Man Universe film, Kraven the Hunter.
Jonathan liked the movie. I'm just gonna let you 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 films that 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
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, including the news that Chris Evans has been confirmed
by trades to return for Avengers Doomsday. So in 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. We also learned that Clayface is going to get
a film that is set for release on September 11th, 2026. And we also got a trailer for Harley
Quinn Season Five. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description. So feel free
to check out the show notes if you wanna skip ahead to a particular topic. Our artificially
intelligent duel simulator, AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. Why
hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic
duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic two-oh tier gives
you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic four tier gives you two bonus episodes each
month, and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly, the Diner Mike
podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny
and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you
simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com.
Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ and IK and thanks
to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys, be sure to tune into the other shows in the
DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action
heroes from film and television against each other. Hosts Scotty and Gilly are still taking
a break for the holidays, but they will be back next week with an episode on Christmas Day.
So Merry Christmas, guys. On the Senjou World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on
fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. This Thursday, Zach will reveal
who would win in a fight between Tsunade from Naruto and Unohana from Bleach. And on the
Console Combat podcast, host John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters.
Though in yesterday's episode, they reviewed Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2, with myself guesting
on that particular episode along with the Kamacho twins from Max Destruction, and the former
co-host of Max Destruction, Dustin Belcom. It was a great time. You guys should definitely
listen to that episode if you enjoyed the Sonic the Hedgehog films and are looking forward
to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 that's coming out in a few weeks. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click
the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows. in the DynaMic Podcast Network.
But with that out of the way, quick to the NO Prize! A NO Prize is an award Marvel used to
give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel NO Prize, is a digital award that we post on
Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last
week we asked you guys, what live action Marvel or DC film do you think had the best cinematography?
and what was your favorite shot? And this was coming off the news we received that Rob Hardy
was confirmed as the director of photography for 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. Our first honorable mention goes to Cyrus Moore,
who said, Hey guys, Cyrus Moore here. We got to go with Dion Beebe's greatest movie ever,
greatest cinematography. movie, greatest CGI movie, gotta go with the Green Lantern movie.
The most beautiful scene was Parallax. Oh, such a very powerful scene, so beautiful, couldn't
ask for a better movie. Yay. Now, I don't know about you, Jonathan, but I am detecting an
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. seemed to flood the entire shot with the appearance
of diarrhea. I mean, it's either that Cyrus Moore really likes Green Lantern cinematographer
Diane Beebe, or he likes watching the toilet flush after he goes to the bathroom. It's one
of those two. Parallax aside, I don't think Green 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. The most memorable scene to me in the movie was
when he flies on Owo for the first time. That was a cool shot. Are you being sarcastic too?
I don't even know anymore. Our next honorable mention goes to Daniel Alonso, who said, Okay,
favorite cinematography for Marvel's has to be Black Panther. I think they just used so
many beautiful colors. It's such a wonderful film to watch. I mean, the shots are just fantastic.
Like when Killmonger is taking the throne for the first time, when they're first entering
Wakanda, the way they use the sun, it is just magnificent. How his suit is integrated in
every shot it's in. But my favorite is that the 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 like a postcard. And I went and I checked out the
one hour and five second mark in the Black Panther movie and he's right. It looks like a postcard
for Wakanda. The scene is beautifully lit with the sun perfectly silhouetting the mountainscapes
of the Wakandan terrain. It was gorgeous. Ryan Coogler really did a good job of having his
director of photography differentiate between the jungles of Wakanda and the cityscape of
South Korea. In particular, my favorite shot from that movie was actually the Jabari throne
room. when we see M'Baku sitting on his throne up in the mountain peaks of the Mountain Tribes
Village. It was a beautiful night shot. It just looked incredible. The waterfall scene, that
was really well shot. So much of that movie looked just so good. I would actually say that
I liked the cinematography of Black Panther 2 Wakanda Forever more than I did the first
Black Panther. There's just something about the palette with the added turquoise colors
from Namor's tribe. Talokhan? Yeah. Especially like when they're fighting at night and stuff.
I thought that looked really cool. Yeah, the cinematography of both those films was pretty
on point, especially for a library of films within Marvel Studios that aren't really known
for their cinematography. I'll still contend that 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, who said... Of course, I'm gonna go with Zack Snyder's
Justice League with how the... character designs and the filter and every time the scenery change
between each character. My favorite shot will be when the group is going to fight Superman
and you have the flash running in his speed and then you see Superman's eyes trained on
him and you get that oh shit moment. That is by 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
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 cinematographer than a director, or at least how he directs
cinematographers. The blacks are on point, the way he lights his scenes are very moody. Everything
looks just really good. And he can really easily differentiate 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 Whedon directed cut of Justice League and compare
it to Zack Snyder's version. The cinematography is like night and day and Zack Snyder's shots
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 in this episode when we'll be asking another Question
of the Week. But now that that's done, on to the news!
Alright, in a tiny bit of surprising news we got this past week, we learned that Chris Evans
will be returning for Avengers Doomsday, and that was confirmed by the wrap. Actually, we
got confirmation that a whole lot of actors will be returning for Avengers Doomsday, but
I think Chris Evans is probably the only newsworthy one, because I figured that a lot of cast members
would be returning for that film, except for Chris Evans, who seemingly retired from the
role at the end of Avengers Endgame, in the same way like Robert Downey Jr. did, and Scarlett
Johansson, and stuff like that. So it'll be interesting 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 they did in Deadpool and Wolverine, where he reprised
his role as the Human Torch. Or it could be an entirely new take on Captain America and
Steve Rogers. Yeah, of all the cast members returning, I agree that Chris Evans and Robert
Downey Jr. are definitely the most surprising because it definitely felt like when they left
their roles... they left them on a really, really high note. Like their arcs were completely
finished. So for them to return is, yeah, the most shocking bit of news to come out of all
of the cast members who are returning, including like 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 Victor Von Doom, AKA Dr. Doom. He's gonna be a multiversal
variant of Dr. Doom. And one of the- best theories that I found circulating online, actually I
didn't find it. One of our listeners, Travis Herndon, sent me this rumor that all the original
Avengers cast are coming back as evil versions of their characters. So like, we have infamous
Iron Man with Robert Dunny Jr. We could be getting Hydra Cap from the Secret Empire storyline
with Chris Evans, Maestro with the Hulk, evil versions of all the rest of the characters.
And I think that rumor is the best one I've heard in... how it makes me accept the casting
of Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom a little bit more. Because as listeners to this podcast
will know, I fucking hate the idea of Robert Downey Jr. playing Victor Von Doom. I want
the original Doom. I don't want some kind of multiversal riff on Victor Von Doom. I think
Victor Von Doom is a good enough villain to deserve his own unique casting. And it was
really exciting to speculate on who that could have been prior to our DJ's return. But nevertheless,
if he is coming back as the character, It would be nice to have multiple iterations of that
to help kind of solidify that concept of the evil dark multiversal Avengers fighting against
Earth's heroes. Yeah, it almost seems like they're setting up something like the crime syndicate
or maybe even a better comparison would be like the dark multiverse. Like because of King's
actions or Loki's actions or whoever the fuck's actions with the multiverse, there is a group
of evil versions of the Avengers out there in the multiverse that come and attack our universe,
possibly. Yeah, that sounds pretty exciting to me. And I would definitely watch that. It
sounds like Marvel ripping off DC is what it sounds like. So yeah, it does sound exciting.
Because it's DC's idea. Because the Dark Avengers are 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 get its fucking act together. instead of rebooting
every five years and coming out with another new iteration for Superman, you guys would
have your shit together long enough to do something like this. Maybe if Marvel was good, Kevin
Feige could steal ideas from his own comics instead of the DC comics. Maybe if DC comics
were good, the characters would be more successful in their translation to film. Maybe I will
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 Evans news is really exciting guys. Avengers Doomsday
is slated for release on May 1st, 2026. And this news brings us to our question of the
week.
If Avengers Doomsday is featuring an evil version of 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 right hand corner of the screen which will prompt
you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to
leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and
award that person a Dynamic Duel No prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer
before December 21st. In DC news, DC Studios confirmed this past week that a standalone
Clayface movie is being written by Mike Flanagan, a filmmaker who wrote, directed, and edited
Dr. Sleep, which was the sequel to Stanley Kubrick's The 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 talked about how good the interpretation of Clayface
was, and how cool it would be to see that version in live action. Well, it looks like we're getting
a version of Clayface, a horror version, on the big screen, which is wild. I always wanted
to see a horror version of Clayface on the big screen. Ideally in a Batman movie, but I don't
mind a standalone movie either. No, I think if Kraven the Hunter and Morbius and fucking
Joker, Folly, I do have taught us anything is that these characters are better served as
villains in movies starring the heroes. I don't want to see Clayface in his own standalone
film because when the movie's done, I'm just going to be like, okay, so then when is this
character going to meet Batman? What I want to see is them incorporate this version of
Clayface into a Batman film. What it seems like Warner Brothers is starting to do is pull a
Sony. And they don't want to do that. I don't know. So you're bringing up things like Morbius
and Kraven and Joker Folio do, forgetting the fact 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 into Matt Reeves' Batman Universe, they absolutely
could. Don't make excuses for them. You know what would have made the first Joker movie
even better? If we got to see that version of the Joker go up against Batman. Uh, maybe?
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 only want to see villains in their own standalone
films. I'm saying there are villains interesting enough that could have their own standalone
projects, like TV shows, like movies, and I would be excited to see that. Clayface is one
of those. does is confirm that we're not going to be seeing Clayface anytime soon in either
the Batman Brave and the Bold film or Matt Reeves the Batman universe. Well at least we're seeing
Clayface at all then because we could not have this Clayface film and not see him period in
any of those projects. Well maybe they should just put Clayface in a fucking Batman film.
Think about that. Well maybe they will. If this is good. If this is like a really good version
and people really like it they'll put him in the next Batman movie. They won't. You don't
know. We're not going to see Kraven in a Spider-Man film now anytime soon, which fucking sucks.
You want to see that version of Kraven in a Spider-Man film? No, but I want to see a version
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 Clayface in 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
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, James Gunn. I didn't realize I was doing a podcast
with you. Yeah. And I just have to say, fuck you, buddy. Geez. No one likes you. Damn! I'm
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 strong chance that he will, considering he's directed
films like Dr. Sleep. But, you know, he's met with 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, the DCU. You poor, naive bastard. Hey, let me have
hope, okay? Let me hope. The film even has a release date they're this confident in it.
It's coming out on September 11th, 2026. Which means that we'll probably get like casting
news within the next few months here. Which is 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
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, why bother? We're already gonna see Robin before
that with Brave and the Bold, so... I don't know, I don't know. DC fuckin' up. As usual.
Okay, so what, you're already saying that's gonna be a bad movie? You don't know. I'm James
Gunn! I know! I'm telling you, it's gonna be bad, and then I'm fuckin' up. You're not my
real James Gunn! You're the one that said I was! Well guess what? I lied! Good, I don't
wanna be. I wanna be Kevin Feige. Why no In other DC news we got the first official trailer
for Harley Quinn season 5 and it looks like the girls are moving to metropolis because
Apparently giant rats have overtaken Gotham City and it's just a total crap hole Which
is nice to get like that change of scenery because they've been in Gotham City for four seasons
now and I think going to a place where we could see 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, including Bane, King Shark, and Clayface. Oh, that's
right, Clayface. Speaking of which, just to tack this onto the last bit of news, Alan Tudyk
voices Clayface in the Harley Quinn show. He's also voicing Clayface in the Creature Commandos
show, which means he might be playing the live action version of Clayface. That might be interesting.
But yeah, he's back for season five of Harley Quinn. It looks like the big bad this season
is going to be Brainiac, who is coming with the pet monkey this time, it looks like, which
is kind of funny. It looks like Harley is going to have to save Metropolis from Brainiac. Meanwhile,
Poison Ivy is going to be tackling the green or something. Maybe the Enchantress, maybe
Lena Luthor. That's what it appears from this trailer, at least. I wonder what kind of situation
they're going to put Superman in, in that he's not able to respond to Brainiac's invasion.
and Metropolis is left with Harley Quinn to save it. Well, we do get to see Superman in
this trailer, but maybe the involvement of the Enchantress 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
knows if he's still trying to be a good guy or a bad guy or what in this new city, but
we also get Los Lane. So I'm sure she's gonna be joining the girl group to help save the
day. Speaking of girl group, it looks like we get Goldilocks in this season coming off the
continuity of Kite Man Hell Yeah Season 1. It appears Bane has finally settled down with
that dominatrix chick and they're raising Goldilocks together. Yeah, they probably moved to Metropolis
because it's a better city to raise a kid than Gotham City I'm guessing. But I can't wait
for that. We reviewed Kite Man Season 1 recently on 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 season ends.
But I think that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and move on
to our main event, where we review the latest Sony Spider-Man universe film, Kraven the Hunter.
Kraven the Hunter was directed by J.C. Chandor and stars Aaron Taylor Johnson and Russell
Crowe. The film is the latest in a series of Spider-Man adjacent films produced by Sony,
which includes other films such as The Venom Trilogy, Morbius, and Madame Web. The quality
of Sony's Spider-Man Universe movies have ranged from absolutely watchable to entirely pointless.
The big question in my mind was where would Kraven the Hunter fall in that spectrum? Because
I and most people I think didn't have high expectations for this film just given Sony's track record.
We knew it wouldn't be great. But if you haven't seen the movie yet, first off here's a spoiler
warning, but second off here's your answer regarding its quality. I would say it falls squarely
in the middle of Sony's Spider-Man Universe films. And I think if one had to rank all the
movies, not including the MCU Spider-Man films or the animated Spider-Verse films, I think
most people would put Venom at the top of the list and Madame Web at the bottom. And the
Venom sequels, Morbius and Kraven the Hunter, arranged in some fashion in the middle. Yeah,
I definitely liked it more than Morbius. I definitely liked it more than Madame Web. I am not a big
Venom guy. I didn't really care for the last one too much, definitely didn't like the second
one, and you liked the first one a lot more than 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
a breakdown in why you are wrong, and I bet you by the end of this review, your list will
change. Well, I largely feel like I liked this movie 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 on what the film should have been as a fan of
the comic book character. Because the biggest mistake Kraven the Hunter makes is that it
fails to recognize who the character is and his appeal as a Spider-Man villain from the
comic books. You know, the guy that they have up on the screen here, like he has the same
powers as Kraven the Hunter and he has the look and the name. But if the writers and director
knew anything else about Kraven, the film wouldn't have had one. the organized crime elements,
two, the weird daddy drama, three, the vigilante justice 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 hunters where 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
beset by a terrible curse, and Kraven's not like Venom. who is a corrupted symbiote who
actually wants to be good. Kraven's an asshole in the comic books. He's prideful, he's resentful.
You know, the crux of the comic book character's motivation is his anger at the loss of his
family's nobility when they were forced to flee Russia for America during the Soviet Revolution
when he was a child. You know, it was this disdain that drove him to kill, traveling the globe,
becoming the world's greatest hunter. This movie should have been like a treasure hunt film
in the vein of Indiana Jones or a national treasure meets the most dangerous game. It should have
been about a guy who grew bored with killing, who sought the ultimate quarry, like a super
powered mercenary from Russia called the Rhino or something like that. You know, have him
seek out, find the Rhino, get defeated, learn a lesson in humility, recover, get powers,
then win in a final showdown. you know, bagging his ultimate prize, and then end his life because
he had nothing else to live for, just like Kraven's last hunt storyline from the comics. It could
have been poetic, it could have been complex, but adventurous and still fun. Instead, we
got whatever this story was, about a Russian crime family heir turned animal-powered vigilante
assassin with mystical lions in the mix, and a science experiment gone wrong villain with
his superpowered catheter and IV bag. There were so many times during the course of this
film where I was like, what the fuck are they doing? Of all the choices the movie could have
made, why did they make those? It was just really puzzling. Not going to lie, your most dangerous
game concept is fantastic. Like, I kind of wish you 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 upload it as a bonus episode. I think that storyline
sounds fantastic. Well, I might still write that story one day and maybe post it on our
Discord channel or something. But that's really what 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 Punisher Warzone, which didn't surprise me because I
feel like both films were trying to evoke the testosterone-fueled late 80s, early 90s action
films. That's fascinating because I actually thought... that this movie should have gone
a little bit harder are on the action and been more 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 Punisher Warzone got the characterization of Frank Castle
right. And at least Punisher Warzone used practical effects like the best 80s and 90s action films
did. I feel like I would have enjoyed or at least respected Kraven the Hunter so much more.
if he wasn't occasionally a CGI character bouncing around like Gumby in some shots. And the Rhino
special effects and like the animal special effects, they were a lot more rough than they
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 give the film credit where credit is due. If you
overlook the special effects, the film... does have some really well shot action. You know,
the prison escape into the snow storm, the chase through 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, or even Captain America the Winter Soldier. For
my money, this film had better action than any other Sony Spider-Man universe film, and probably
honestly the best practical action since Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Yeah. And
therefore I can see why casual viewers who don't know or care about the source material would
probably like this film more than me and rate it higher. To me, this film reminded me somewhat
of like a Captain America film just in terms of his like super soldier-esque power set or
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 anything even action wise that I hadn't already seen
before. That said, It's still pretty cool to see. Yeah, I mean, well, like Kraven the Hunter
doesn't have the most original power set in the comic books either. What really makes him
unique was the driving force behind his actions in trying to prove himself as a hunter, which
this movie got none of that. None of that. In addition to the action, though, another thing
that this film does well is that even though they totally got the characters wrong from
the comics, whether it's Kraven Rhino or Nikolai Kravinov. At least they took the time to develop
the characters because their motivations were pretty well established. Some might even say
that they spent too much time reiterating certain character beats, but I think the payoffs in
the end were all well earned from Nikolai's death to Chameleon's betrayal. Yeah, maybe
not so much with Calypso. I mean, we did get a brief bit with her when she was a child,
but you know, learning how she became so good with the bow and stuff like that, it was like,
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 character breakdown. First, let's talk about Kraven the
Hunter, aka Sergei Kravenov, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson. As I've said before, I don't
really recognize this characterization of Kraven from the comic books, but I'll say that Aaron
Taylor Johnson really owned the character as portrayed here. Like, the dude exuded strength
and intrigue and charisma, and his acting... is completely transformative when you look
at his other comic book performances like Quicksilver or Kick-Ass. There's no doubt in my mind that
this guy is a star, despite the fact that he seems unable to draw a box office as a lead.
I think what he really requires is a franchise like 007 James Bond to catapult him beyond
his current career status, and I hope at the very least Kraven the Hunter serves as a vehicle
to show his capabilities as a physical action star. because I am rooting for him to be the
next James Bond. Really? I was kind of hoping for Henry Cavill. I mean, he could do it too,
but I think Aaron Taylor Johnson is more interesting than Henry Cavill, who's a little bit generic,
I would say. Wow, okay. No, yeah, I've been a fan of Aaron Taylor Johnson since his kick-ass
days. I don't remember seeing him in anything prior to that, but yeah, he's always killed
anything he's been in, whether it's this, whether it's something like bullet train. which he
was phenomenal in terms of action. He's definitely a star, yeah, I agree. In terms of Kraven's
character arc, he grew up highly resentful of his father and he spent the whole film trying
to take down men like him and protect innocent victims like wildlife or his brother, Dimitri.
The irony and tragedy is that in trying to denounce his father, Kraven became the exact man his
father wanted him to be. He played right into Nikolai's hands, taking out the Rhino. And
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 by his brother's hunger for power. The lesson
that he needed to learn was that with great power must come a lack of apathy. You know,
with great power must come not being a total dick. But really, he didn't learn that until
the last minute of the movie, because he was mostly static for much of the runtime after
the first act. Yeah, he learned this lesson at the end of the film, but we're not going
to see the consequences of that. We're not going to get to see him grow from that because I
really doubt they're going to make a sequel to this movie. Oh, no, this movie is bombing
at the box office, which is no surprise. It got the worst cinema score of any Sony Spider-Man
universe film, including Madame Web. It's probably going to be one of Sony's biggest flops and
will likely result in either a reboot on Sony's behalf or maybe hopefully. Is it too much to
wish for them to sell the rights to Spider-Man back to Marvel? Who knows? We'll see. But yet,
to your point, this movie set up a lot of stuff in its final moments for an upcoming sequel
that will most certainly never happen. And it's not the only film that's done that. You take
a look at Morbius. It's like, what is happening with that? Absolutely nothing. Sony really
dropped the ball. They really just need to stop making movies about Spider-Man characters that
no one cares about. People want to see these movies with Spider-Man. And you could also
make the same argument for films like Clayface, like who wants to see a Clayface movie without
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 Clayface movie where he never interacts with Batman.
And it was the same for Kraven. That was the point I was trying to make earlier, man. But
yeah, see, I have hope with the Sony Spider-Man stuff. I don't have hope because Sony owns
the rights to these Spider-Man characters. That's the difference. Yeah, that's true. That's true,
that's a big difference. Let's go ahead and move on to Nikolai Kravinov, played by Russell
Crowe. Now I don't know what the fuck has happened to Russell Crowe in the last decade, but why
else would he take on roles like this one and Zeus from Thor, Love and Thunder? I just, I
didn't like his performance here. It seemed ham-fisted and more like a caricature of a
Russian mobster. But you know, even worse than that, Nikolai was nothing like this in the
comic books. He wasn't a drug runner. There was no Kravinov. crime family. They just made
him a mobster in the movie. It's like they took notes from an entirely different script or
something. And to have such an original character have such bearing on an actually well-known
established character I think is bizarre. It's like inventing a cousin Archie for Peter Parker
who was the primary influence for him becoming a web-slinging hero, you know? It's just weird.
I didn't like it. Yeah, I wonder if they were trying 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
story should not have anything to do with daddy issues or a father. It should have just been
the character, the father's an afterthought in his story. It's ridiculous. But say you
didn't know the comic books. Say like you throw all of that out the window. Is it still that
bad? Um, no, it's not as bad if you don't know the 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.
Let's go to move on to Chameleon, AKA Dmitri Kravinov, 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 performance because, you know, like the Chameleon has been
such a frankly Chameleon in the comic books that his personality has never been quite consistent.
I thought in the movie, Dmitri came across as very meek and maybe too much of a damsel and
distress. But in the comic books, Chameleon has been everything from meek and mentally
unstable to cunning and a criminal genius. You know, even his twist at the very end, you could
say that it came out of left field, but that was still being keeping with the character
from the comic books. I actually really like what they did with the Chameleon here. I never
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 was interesting because Dimitri didn't really realize
until the very end that Kraven was more like his father than he realized, like a ruthless
killer. And likewise, Kraven, who always thought that his brother Dimitri was innocent, learned
that his brother actually did crave power and would follow in his father's footsteps if given
the chance. Yeah, as it turned out, some of his father's influences, you know, pushing
him to be strong and ambitious and stuff like that actually did stick. I do like how that
all played out. I do wish that instead of trying to set up a sequel, that the filmmakers just
made the chameleon the primary villain manipulating events from the shadows, because as it was,
I think the chameleon twists at the end was just a little bit too late and a little bit
goofy, too, with the special effects. Oh, that was fucking terrible. Holy cow. just like a
really short, scrawny Aaron Taylor Johnson all of 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 kind of ridiculous looking, a little bit too shiny
in the special effects, a little bit too computer animated. And then he went back to his normal
face. It was all bizarre. You know what I thought they were going to do? And I actually got really
excited when I was watching the movie, when Kraven's father hands him the box saying, look
what they did to my boy. I thought instead of a finger, they were gonna hand him his nose.
And I thought that was going to be like the whole justification for the look of the chameleon.
Like they cut off his nose and shaved his head and his eyebrows or something like that. Totally
didn't go that route, but I thought it would have been cool if they did. That would have
been pretty severe if they did that. I'm kind of glad they didn't, because I don't need like
a ground to take on the chameleon, but I also don't necessarily need a CGI faced chameleon.
It should look practical, but you know, it should be a mask. Okay, okay. I don't know if listeners
are too familiar with the chameleon as a Spider-Man villain, but one of these days we'll get a
duel episode in with him for sure. Maybe against someone 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 movie called for, but his personality for the Rhino
was way off. And I think he was too smart to be the same character from the comics. Like,
as you said earlier, they can't get the rhino right on film, it seems like. Because previously
the character was played by Paul Giamatti. And I 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 that movie. Like they were really going for like
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 like a rhino-human hybrid, and it was like a medical
condition given to Alexei by the Jackal in an effort to increase his strength, which could
be managed through an intravenous port in his side. Okay, it was the Jackal. I was wondering
who the scientist was. That is kind of cool. Yeah, Miles Warren, that was the doctor that
they referenced in the movie. And I thought that was pretty cool because the Jackal has
been hugely influential in Spider-Man's life behind the scenes. In the comic books, you
know, Alexei was a hired thug who was dumb enough to volunteer for KGB scientific experiments
with gamma radiation, which made him strong, and then they gave him an indestructible suit.
And he was always kind of known for being dimwitted and whatnot. Here they made him a rival crime
lord, which again, you know, probably works better for people who don't. the comic books,
but I think a lot of comic book fans will just be kind of puzzled by this portrayal of the
character. Especially the whole Rhino-human hybrid thing too. Yeah, you mentioned that
Russell Crowe was like a caricature earlier. I totally felt that way with this performance
for the Rhino. It felt just so artificial to me. Well, to me, Nivola's performance as Alexi
didn't seem like a caricature because it was a little bit more subdued than Russell Crowe's
performance, you know, who really went all in on the scenery chewing. I didn't think that
at all. I think the reverse of that. I thought Russell Crowe's performance was subdued and
kind of lazy and, you know, he was just kind of cashing in a paycheck. But with this Alexi
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. It was just weird. That was really fucking weird.
I didn't like his power set either. Like the way they... portrayed it, how it was controlled
with the IV pack that went into the port in his side. It was so stupid, because it's like,
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 the fucking rhino skin? Or shoot him in the head,
like before he fully transforms, because that shit 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
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 nuance to an otherwise generic role. In the comics,
Calypso is a voodoo priestess who loved Kraven and gave him the potion to increase his longevity
and physicality. But she was more manipulative and 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 to why. OK. All right. Sure. I feel like there
was more to her character in the film that was actually cut. And that was why they clearly
had to ADR some line changes with her scenes and stuff. Oh, my God. It's probably why even
though she had clairvoyance as a kid. She didn't have any of that stuff as an adult, unless
you want to attribute the deus ex machina of her killing the foreigner as a result of her
clairvoyance, which I think you almost have to in order for that scene to not feel cheap.
The ADR in this film and the CG mouth movement was 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 it makes me think that you have a solid case of
studio interference just fucking shit up that they have to kind of clean up and post with
some last minute dialogue changes. We'll probably also 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 the Constantine film, being that they're both voodoo.
practitioners and I thought that was a solid idea. Yeah, totally. Let's go to move on to
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 always thought 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 think his power is? Was it like hypnosis via like
eye contact? Yeah, okay, so you got it. I was really taken back by how the movie portrayed
his ability, but essentially he can put people into a 10 second hypnotic trance, which makes
people think that he has super speed. But here it seemed like it was only a three second trance
and they portrayed his movements almost as if he did have super speed. It was really weird.
Well, I think they wanted to give the audience the same kind of perception as anyone who was
hypnotized by him. I'm wondering why he had to like count down the trance every time out
loud. Like every single fucking time he used his power. It was really bizarre. It's like
one of those things, just like the rhino. It's like, before he counts down to one, just shoot
him in the head. It was always just like slow motion bullet time. One, two, three. But they
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 translation from the comics, because this is kind of bizarre.
I don't know anything about the foreigner, and I'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
Spider-Man villain. He's very much tied into the Silver Sable corner of the Spider-Man world,
which is largely set in Eastern Europe. You know, she's the leader of some Caria. I do
think that they should have given Foreigner an accent, not Russian necessarily, but some
kind of like Eastern European accent. I think that would have been more in keeping with the
character and would have helped sell his name as the Foreigner a little bit better, you know?
I take it they're not making the Silver Sable movie anymore if he is dead now? A Silver Sable
movie was rumored, but I don't believe it's in any sort of active development with Sony.
because the latest news from sources was that Sony 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.
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 at that point. Strike three, you're out. It's
so surprising that Sony decided to release three Spider-Man universe films in 2024. It's just
crazy. You would think if the reason that they're making these movies is just to hold on to the
rights of Spider-Man, they would delay the release of these films until like the very last minute.
Right. Exactly. It's almost like they're trying to get rid of the rights for Spider-Man. It's
almost like they're dumb.
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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 Russian tundra where he flees via a chartered plane.
I want to know who his pilot was, like they were all mysterious with that, like it was
going to be some big reveal or easter egg and it just turned into a big ol' nothing burger.
It was Madame Webb. I think Devin Davis, one of our producers, speculated that it could
have been Silver Sable, but I don't know about that. It's one of those things where that had
to have been revealed in an earlier cut of the film. But when they were like shifting things
around due to studio intervention, then yeah, maybe it could have been Silver Sable. That's
as good a guess as any. I think the film started off really promising with the prison escape
action scene and him running into that big storm cloud. I thought that was a pretty cool shot.
One thing I didn't get is when he's like eyes glowed at the wolf and the wolf was like, oh
shit, bro, sorry, then like ran away. They never played up on that again. Well, they kind of
insinuate that he has some kind of rapport with animals. And when he's using his powers, his
eyes turn into like a lion's eyes. He can't speak with animals directly. You know, I don't
think it's as clear cut as that, but he can influence them in some way. So which is somewhat
in keeping with the comic books, like he doesn't have animal communication powers. but he can
easily train animals and he does use a lot of trained animals in his battles with Spider-Man.
So then why the hell did that leopard attack him at the end of the movie? I don't fucking
know man, I think they were insinuating that the leopard was playing with him, but I couldn't
quite be sure. He did get the leopard to attack Rhino's men at the end, so you never know.
Did he? Yeah. Are that the leopard just did that because they were in his territory? I
don't think so, because they also look at the water buffalo. Oh, okay. That's highly coincidental.
for all those animals to be attacking these guys. That's fair. In a flashback to 16 years
ago, a teenage Sergey and his brother Dmitri are picked up from St. Michael's Academy in
New York by their crime lord, Father Nikolai. He informs the boys that their mother committed
suicide and that in response, they're going to hunt a lion named Tsar in Africa. In Ghana,
a young girl named Calypso learns from her grandmother that 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 bad for me. I think with the weird plot choice
of, you know, we'll go on a hunt instead of going to a funeral and the scene with young
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 tries to offer a business arrangement with him, but
is rejected for his perceived weakness. Sergei stumbles upon Tsar, but refuses to shoot him.
However, Nikolai shoots the lion who attacks and carries Sergei away. Calypso leaves a family
safari trip and stumbles upon Sergei's wounded body. She gives him the Voodoo Potion and alerts
medical responders who take Sergei to a hospital where he dies, but is revived by the potion,
which gives him special powers. I wanna know what the fuck this scene with the lion is all
about. Like the way the lion acted, it made it seem like Kraven was some kind of predestined
warrior chosen either by the Loa or by nature itself or something like that. But we never
learned for what purpose. Like it couldn't possibly be that this lion just wanted all these crime
bosses off the map, right? Something was faded there and we have no reason why. He was the
chosen one, Joseph. Okay, go on. He's a result of thousands of years of ancient prophecy among
the lion community. to carry on the mantle of the lion. And do what? Fucking kill mobsters,
I don't know. Exactly, who knows? I don't think this movie would do well in a rewatch because
as soon as you see the lion being gentle with Kraven and whatnot, you're gonna be like, well,
why though? We never learned why. I think what they were going for was that Kraven was supposed
to be some champion of nature, like defending them 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,
his primary goal was to go after men he perceived as evil. Like, the guy in the Russian Gulag,
he wasn't a poacher, right? But he went through all this effort just to kill the guy. No, he
was a weapons dealer. Right, exactly. And his father was a drug runner. You don't know how
drugs affect the lion community, bro. Okay, alright. That lion's parents were killed by
druggies one night. In Crime Alley? Crime-staring Getty. The Kravinovs travel back to their home
in London, where Sergei finds a note from his mom stating that she couldn't bear Nikolai's
abuse anymore. Nikolai chastises Sergei for failing to shoot Tsar, revealing the lion's
head mounted on his wall. Sergei runs away from home, saying goodbye to his brother Dmitri,
and travels to his mother's family's old estate in the Siberian forest, which she calls home.
There he discovers a group of poachers taking the horns of a group of wild buffalo and he
kills them in anger What was your reaction to seeing the lion head mounted on the wall? Cuz
I was shocked when I saw that I was like you Bastards, that was a cool ass lion. That was
a huge lion man. Yeah, that head was massive I really don't like the idea of trophy hunting
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 is if it's self-defense if it's trying to kill
you Otherwise, just leave the lion alone. Just fucking leave the lion alone. That's what I'm
saying. Back in the present day, Kraven returns home from the Russian prison and kills another
group of poachers near his home. He tracks their leader to London where he reveals a list of
names of crime bosses he intends to kill. He meets with Calypso, now an attorney working
out of London, and thanks her for saving him all those years ago and asks for her help in
locating the names on his list. Now, was Alexi's name on this list? I was kind of confused by
that. Allegedly, allegedly, that's what Alexi has led to believe. We never know for certain
whether that's true or not. I'm inclined to believe that, yeah, Alexi's name was on that
list. But the movie made a big mistake in not actually showing that. That's ridiculous, because
that was the whole motivation of the primary antagonist. Exactly. You're not going to show
that. What the hell was it all for then? I have no idea. Alexi's henchmen, too. He was like,
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 have nothing 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 allocate power, 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
men make a move against Nikolai Kravinov at a lounge, which Dmitri owns, and performs that
as a singer. When the attempt fails, Rhino hires a 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 like if he's going after Nikolai, why is Nikolai
sending him footage of his son? I have no idea why. Yeah, it doesn't make sense at all, because
it's like either they're working together or they'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 trying to get his son onto the Rhino's trail because
he knows that his son can kill the Rhino, but if the Rhino knew that the video footage was
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 birthday and spends the night outside after a night
of drinking. The next morning, Kraven finds that his brother was kidnapped from his bed
and he pursues Rhino's men through the streets of London. They escape his pursuit in a helicopter
and Kraven asks Calypso for help finding them. Calypso's source leads Kraven to a Turkish
monastery, however Calypso's source is revealed to be manipulated by the foreigner. I loved
the London chase scene. I thought that was probably the highlight action set piece of the film.
It had loads of adrenaline. I like the parkour elements, you know, and the helicopter escape
thing was really well done. A lot of the action in the movie was a lot cooler than I thought
it would be based on the trailers. Like I thought it was gonna be kind of goofy with him like
running on all fours in certain scenes and stuff like that, but I thought it was edited really
well. For sure. I remember from the trailers I thought the action was gonna be real gimmicky
with him using like bear traps to snap dude's heads 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.
Speaking of action and set pieces, Kraven ambushes Rhino's men in Turkey, but it turns out to
be a trap and the monastery is blown up with a rocket launcher. Rhino tells the kidnapped
Dimitri that his brother is dead and offers to partner with him against his father Nikolai's
crime ring, but Dimitri refuses. Kraven survives the trap and brings Calypso to his home in
Serbia to protect her from Rhino's men.
pieces of the monastery that were falling on top 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 the pieces falling on top of him. The audience
is fairly certain that this guy is buried in this rubble, but like the next time you see
the shot, he's just completely fine and outside of it. When Kraven brought Calypso to his home
in the Serbian forest and he's attacked by that I thought her reaction to that whole event
was really strange too. She just seems not shocked by 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 she really hadn't seen him do too much, right?
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 action yet by that point at Kraven's home. Kraven
and Calypso discuss their next steps, but Rhino finds them first thanks to a phone call from
Dimitri and the foreigners' detective work into the local flora. Kraven makes short work of
Rhino's men in the forest, but is tranquilized and beaten by the foreigner. However, Calypso
kills the foreigner with a bow and arrow before the 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
of Spider-Man, you know, otherwise, why is his fear of spiders? They never really established
that. It just seems kind of random. No, they did because his mother was afraid of spiders.
Geez, I don't even remember that. Yeah, she was like schizophrenic. She saw spiders on
the walls. And so I think they kind of tied his fear of spiders into her fear of spiders.
Maybe he was afraid that he was like her and would also see spiders. Well that's pretty
cool then. Too bad we'll never see Kraven go up against Spider-Man or have that have any
sort of payoff whatsoever. Maybe. I wouldn't be 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 the most throwaway line in cinematic history, I
feel like. For sure. As Rhino escapes with Demetri in 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 Rhino with a metal rod into his intravenous port
on his side, killing him. With his dying breath, Rhino reveals that he received the prison escape
footage from Nikolai, whom Kraven learns used him to take his enemies out. Kraven kills his
father in northern Russia using an enraged grizzly bear. I mean, can you really say that he killed
his father? I mean, he took the ammo away from him, but it was kind of second-hand murder.
I think he lured the grizzly bear to his father's location. Okay. I wasn't clear about that.
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 think he killed his father. I thought the way he
took the rhino out was a little bit cheap. Like of course his port on his side would be a weak
spot for Kraven to exploit because otherwise Rhino was just wiping the floor with Kraven.
It was his exhaust port. His Death Star Exhaust port. Exactly, yeah. That whole device with
the intravenous backpack and everything like that, 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
his rhino hybrid form without the IV drip? Because the riders suck? Exactly, exactly. One year
later, back in London, Kraven visits his brother for his birthday and learns that Dimitri is
taken over the Kravenov crime ring. Dimitri reveals he visited the same doctor as Rhino
in New York who gave him the ability to shape shift and is now going by the chameleon. Dimitri
tells Kraven that Nikolai left him a gift back home where Kraven finds a vest made from Tsar
the Lion. He puts it on and looks at himself in the mirror. I want to know what the fuck
kind of ending that was. Like I think they were going for maybe like a contemplative Godfather
2 type ending. but it kind of played out more like a weird Calvin Klein ad. He's like, whoa,
check out myself in the mirror sitting down with my vest open. He like strikes a pose and
everything like that. Just a really weird way to end a movie. Kind of plative about what?
That he was wearing a vest made of the lion who attacked him when he was young? It's like,
I don't get what like the big gotcha was from his father. It wasn't. So he didn't need to
be that contemplative.
He was just like his father, Nikolai, maybe, and maybe contemplating his brother's turn,
but it was a strange ending. Also, I think there was a deleted scene here somewhere because
this was the only shot we see of Kraven wearing his lion vest, but in the trailers for the
movie, we had a shot of him in the forest carrying a torch wearing the same lion's vest. So like
there was supposed to be a whole scene after this, I think, that just got cut. Yeah, I think
it was probably meant to be an after credits scene that they just decided to nix. Maybe
he like goes into a cave and he strikes up the torch and he looks at the ceiling of the cave
and he sees Morbius hanging upside down or some shit. That'd have been funny. And Morbius is
like, I'm about to Morb. It's Morbin time. But yeah, there are no end credit scenes or mid
credit scenes for this movie. It just ends and is likely Sony's way of just kind of like,
you know, cutting this whole franchise off in an attempt to not lose more money because that's
what these movies are doing. I guess Venom is making them money. but Madame Webb and Kraven
the Hunter certainly is not going to earn them any profits. Which is another reason why it's
weird that Sony didn't stagger these releases, because film studios are always looking for
good years in terms of revenue, so if they figured that Kraven was going to do bad, like just
push it to the next fiscal year when he won't have to deal with that. Well, sometimes fiscal
years end in June, First of all, and second of all, I don't think they knew that Kraven
the Hunter was going to do poorly at the box office. We all knew! They legitimately think
that every time they make a movie, they're going to profit off of it. If that was the case,
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 franchise isn't going anywhere and that they should probably
rethink what they're doing with it and just focus 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
the source material, you're probably fine with the characterizations as portrayed here. However,
I am cursed with the burden of knowledge, and despite Aaron Taylor Johnson's charisma and
his prowess in the role, the film's well-crafted action is staggered by the puzzling character
choices and unbalanced plotting. I'm giving the film two and a half stars out of five,
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 if you're a fan of these characters from the comics.
I do think two and a half stars is a little harsh. That's the same rating we gave Joker
Follyard due. And I think there's a lot more reasons to not like Joker than Kraven that
said, again, I'm not like a huge fan of the character of Kraven, where I think his story
from the comics is something sacred. I would give 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 was also not a great film, but at least they got
the characterization of the comic book character right in Michael Morbius. To me... Kraven the
Hunter was more along the lines of quality of Venom Let There Be Carnage. It was better than
Madame Web, but I think they're pretty close to each other. Really, at the end of the day,
this film is Kraven in name only. That's my biggest gripe with it. You're giving it the
same rating as Madame Web. Right. But it was better than Madame Web. But it's also not as
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 Morbius film should be. than the Kraven film was to
what a Kraven film should be. The only problem I have with that is that Morbius was way goofier
than Kraven was. Like with Kraven, I feel like the actors at least took everything seriously.
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 when filmmakers take the tone of the story seriously.
Maybe not the source material seriously, but it shouldn't be intentionally silly. And I
don't think this was. I don't mind intentionally silly, I don't think goofiness equates to quality.
Look at Venom, there's some intentionally goofy moments in Venom, but that's also in keeping
with the comic books on that character. Tone does not dictate quality. I think adheres to
the source material and story plotting play a larger role in dictating quality. I don't
know if I agree with that, because I think tone sometimes can dictate quality. You take a look
at the first Joker movie, like that was very different from anything like the comics, but
it was still a really well made movie. But that was also like an Elseworlds riff, like clearly
not the comic book character. Like they went way out of left field with that one. I think
this Kraven the Hunter movie was supposed to be an adaptation of the comic book character
unlike Joker, which you know, we learned in Joker 2 that wasn't even the real fucking Joker.
I don't know what your argument is. Stan I'm saying let this be an adaptation and don't
be so beholden to... A treasure hunt film like the most dangerous game meets national treasure.
That's what this film should have been. This movie was nothing like that. You can keep arguing,
but that's what I wanted as a fan. And that's what I think fans would have supported. And
I think you're seeing now at the box office that people are not supporting this film and
they're not liking it with the poorest cinema score 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,
I would say that you will rate a film lower if you can envision a better story. And I,
well, I think you've definitely come up with a better story just in like your five second
pitch that you did. I think you also want to examine the film as it is, not as it necessarily
could have been. Oh, I did. I did. And you heard it all here. Okay. All right. You're my friend
are not only cursed with knowledge, but also just damn good story sense and high standards.
Woe is me.
But that does it for this review guys, HG9K help close this out. Thanks for listening to
Dynamic duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicduel.com and follow us on Instagram at dynamicduelpodcast.
You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicduel and joining a tier that works
for you, or by rating and reviewing Dynamic duel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser
or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network,
including Max Destruction, Senjou World and Console Combat. Our next episode is going to
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 look forward to that next week. But that does it
for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, Ken Johnson. John
Straszky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy Mathingian, 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
make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.
I am Kraven, a good Sony film.