KRAVEN THE HUNTER

Name: KRAVEN THE HUNTER
Item: KRAVEN THE HUNTER
Author: Review

"Confronting a Dark Father"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

KRAVEN THE HUNTER is a violent origin story about a Marvel Comics supervillain. In the movie, however, Kraven is fighting murderous gangsters. As a boy, a legendary lion in Africa mauls Sergei Kravinoff. A young African girl named Calypso gives Sergei a magical potion, which gives him cat-like superpowers. Years later, Kraven has become estranged from his gangster father. When one of his father’s rivals kidnaps his younger brother, Dmitri, Kraven springs into action.

Unlike the comic books, the Kraven in KRAVEN THE HUNTER starts off as a vigilante fighting murderous gangsters. Also, the main plot has him fighting a gangster who’s kidnapped his younger brother. Thus, the movie has many fun scenes where Kraven uses his unique powers. However, KRAVEN THE HUNTER has some strong foul language, including about 15 “f” words and two strong profanities. It also has some very strong, bloody violence. In addition, the movie has two twists at the end that push Kraven toward evil than toward the good. Finally, the father in the story is a cold-hearted, evil man. So, KRAVEN THE HUNTER is excessive and ultimately unacceptable.

Content:

(PaPa, B, OO, LLL, VVV, N, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan worldview with pagan and moral elements where title character with superpowers hunts down murderous gangsters, but he often assassinates them, and the movie opens with him infiltrating a Russian prison to kill one such gangster, plus in the main plot the title character goes after a gangster (and rival to his cold-hearted gangster father), who’s kidnapped the title character’s beloved brother, title character and a friend of his battle the gangster and his evil henchmen in self-defense, but the friend’s grandmother shows the friend how to do Tarot cards when she’s a young girl in one scene and gives the friend a witchcraft potion that becomes the source of the title character’s super powers, and the movie’s ending has two twists that seem to push the title character toward evil than toward the good;

Foul Language:

At least 25 obscenities (a little more than half are “f” words), one profanity abusing the name of Jesus, and one strong profanity abusing the word God;

Violence:

Some very strong bloody violence includes images of bloody wounds such as title character stabs one villain in the neck several times, and there’s a closeup of the final knife thrust into the neck, lots of fighting, gangsters use machine guns in a nightclub trying to kill another gangster and his singer/musician son, large lion attacks boy and drags his body off, big fight scene at the climax, title character fights gangster supervillain who transforms into a human rhino so there’s a lot of throwing people around and against tucks and a jeep, human rhino tries to strangle title character to death, vehicles are tipped over when hitting human rhino villain, man hangs onto rope attached to flying helicopter and the rope drags the man though the ocean water in a bay, explosions, etc.;

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

Brief upper male nudity;

Alcohol Use:

Some alcohol use and older brother carries his drunken younger brother to bed;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or illegal drugs, but villain has an intravenous painkiller for when he turns into a humanoid rhino supervillain, and people are knocked unconscious with drugged darts; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Kidnapping, manipulation/deceit and title character’s father is a gangster and a bad father.

More Detail:

KRAVEN THE HUNTER is a violent origin story about a Marvel Comics supervillain who fights against a criminal underworld when his beloved younger brother is kidnapped by a rival gangster opposing his father, who’s also a gangster. KRAVEN THE HUNTER turns its supervillain into a vigilante who stops evil gangsters, so the character is not totally evil, unlike the comic books, but he does sometimes assassinate gangsters, and the ending has some twists showing Kraven traveling down a darker path.

The movie opens with Kraven infiltrating a Russian prison in Siberia and assassinating an evil gangster who’s a rival to Nikolai, Kraven’s gangster father. The story then cuts to Kraven, Sergei Kravinoff, as a young boy. Sergei and his younger brother, Dmitri, are on an African safari with their father.

Meanwhile, nearby, a young African girl named Calypso, is being schooled in witchcraft by her grandmother. Calypso is playing with her grandmother’s Tarot cards. It’s not a game, the grandmother says. She then teaches Calypso the meaning of laying down three cards. The third card Calypso lays down is Strength, a picture of a man and a lion. The grandmother then gives Calypso a herbal potion and tells the girl she’ll know when to use it.

Cut to Nikolai hunting a legendary lion, with Sergei and Dmitri following behind Nickolai and his hunters. Suddenly, the legendary lion appears in front of Sergei, who hesitates to shoot it. The lion attacks Sergei and carries him off. The lion leaves, however, and Calypso appears. She gives the potion to Sergei and leaves the Tarot card in his pocket.

Sergei survives the attack. However, when his father takes the boys back to their London mansion, he berates Sergei for hesitating to shoot the lion. You can’t be weak and take his place as head of his criminal empire, Nikolai tells Sergei. He reminds Sergei and Dmitri that their late mother was also weak. She was mentally ill and took her own life. Sergei hates his father for how he treated his mother and how he treats Dmitri, who’s clearly weaker than Sergei. So, Sergei runs away and returns to his mother’s rundown country house in Eastern Russia.

Cut to present day. Calypso’s potion has given Sergei powerful Spider-Man, cat-like powers. Estranged from his gangster father, Sergei makes it his life’s mission to hunt down international gangsters, often to kill them.

When one of his father’s rivals kidnaps Sergei’s brother, Dmitri, Kraven the Hunter springs into action.

MOVIEGUIDE® was pleasantly surprised that KRAVEN THE HUNTER didn’t turn Kraven into a total villain. In fact, in the Marvel comic books, Kraven is a supervillain who’s mission in life is to kill Spider-Man. Here, however, Kraven hunts down murderous gangsters. Also, he goes after a gangster who’s kidnapped his brother. The scenes where Karven is climbing walls and buildings are pretty exciting. Also, the family interactions in the movie are interesting and well acted.

However, KRAVEN THE HUNTER has some strong foul language, including about 15 “f” words and two strong profanities. It also has some very strong, bloody violence. In addition, the movie has two twists at the end that push Kraven toward evil than toward the good. Finally, the father in the story is a cold-hearted, evil man.

So, MOVIEGUIDE® rates KRAVEN THE HUNTER as excessive and ultimately unacceptable.