The Sony wing of the MCU—the Spider-verse, to be more precise—continues its trudge toward the next blockbuster Spidey installment with the origin story of one of Peter Parker’s nemeses, who is positioned here as a hero in his own right; and that makes sense within the purview of the classic Marvel m.o. One thing that early fans of the comic books appreciated about Stan Lee’s vision was that both heroes and villains operated within complicated personality paradigms, unlike DC Comics characters, who lived in a decidedly Manichean world. Kraven is Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the son of Russian crime boss Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), who teaches both Sergei and his other son by a different mother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), how to hunt big game, skills that, in Sergei’s case, are enhanced to super powers after he is attacked by a lion in Africa and treated with a special potion by a local woman named Calypso (Ariana DeBose), who later becomes a high-powered London-based lawyer. As a source idea it isn’t much more imaginative than being bitten by a radioactive spider, but what’s really risible is that these super powers are never delineated beyond the usual bulging muscles and ability to run very fast without getting worn out. 

Kraven, the moniker Sergei adopts to carry out various special ops for whomever wants to hire him, is this shady character who lives off the grid and establishes a worldwide reputation as a badass, and true to the Marvel ethos his sore spot is his relations to his family, especially his father, who has become one of the biggest corporate criminals in the world, and Dmitri, who is trying to make a career as a musician under his father’s guidance and possesses a striking talent for mimicry. Nikolai’s own worst enemy is another Russian mafia boss who wants his “territory,” Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), whose moral compass is even more haywire than Nikolai’s, owing mainly to the fact that he himself has been dosed with another potion, one that turns him into a two-legged rhinoceros under stressful circumstances. He’s like the Hulk’s evil cognate. The Rhino, as he’s called, kidnaps Dmitri, thus drawing Sergei back into the family orbit, despite his hatred of his father, in order to save his brother, a task that leads to a lot of mass destruction in both town and country. 

At no point does Spider-man show up amidst this mayhem. He isn’t even mentioned, and the ending predictably keeps things open-ended so that a sequel is anticipated. Though better than the Venom series and light years ahead of Madame Web and Morbius, Kraven the Hunter is similarly coy about its place in the Spider-verse and thus feels even more like a (very expensive) holding gambit, but I really wonder if the next Spider-man movie will have room for all these other superhero-villains. I like the Spider-man movies fine, especially the animated ones, but I can’t see the series gaining anything compelling by incorporating these characters, who can’t even hold their own in movies that are only about them. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Marunouchi Piccadilly (050-6875-0075), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Shinjuku Piccadilly (95906861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Shibuya Cine Quinto (03-3477-5905), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Kraven the Hunter home page in Japanese