Kraven The Hunter movie review: Aaron Taylor-Johnson has a long way to go before he enters superhero heaven

And while Kraven is of Russian origin, it’s a welcome surprise how much Russia and Russian is there in this quintessential Hollywood blockbuster. The film neatly places its many Russian oligarchs such as Kraven’s father Nikolai (Crowe) in and around London, in mansions and at the heart of business centres, replicating real life.

Could there be too many of them? That is a question worth asking. And by zipping between at least four continents back and forth (America, Europe, Africa, Asia), is the film trying too hard to impress? That also is a question it should pause to ponder.

At the start, there is Nikolai, a father who peremptorily pulls his two sons out of an academy near New York, to deliver the news that their “weak in the mind” mother has killed herself, and flies them straight to Tanzania on a hunt for a legendary lion. That is what Nikolai perceives a real man should be doing. He sees shades of this only in Sergei (Taylor-Johnson); the younger Dmitri (Hechinger), who it is suggested is an illegitimate son, is the weakling Nikolai has already dismissed as a lost cause.

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Sergei is attacked and carried away by the aforementioned lion during the trip, and the beast for some reason decides not to kill him. Just in time for Calypso (a criminally underused DeBose) to turn up with a magic potion, passed down to her by her mystic grandmother just moments earlier – while they are having the kind of heart-to-heart chat that African afternoons, tents and gentle breeze in films lend themselves to. The potion and a drop of the lion’s blood that has mingled with Sergei’s turns him into Kraven the hunter, with all the survival, climbing and olfactory powers of animals.

However, unlike Nikolai or another Russian mobster such as Aleksei (Nivola), who don’t draw a line, Kraven hunts only the “bad people” – how he decides on them is a little vague, which may or may not be out of design.

Once we are out of family territory and into superhuman one, which requires a series of chases, fights and jumping out of things, the J C Chandor-directed film suffers from comparison. There is little we have not seen before or seen done better. A fight amidst charging wildebeests (a recurring animal in the film) and flying vehicles is special, though.

Taylor-Johnson, in his first such high-stakes solo lead, has a long way to enter superhero heaven. The shifty Hechinger is much better, leaving us on unsure ground as to what lies beneath his “weakness”. Nivola snarls just about enough to make us notice him, while Abbott as the “Foreigner” who has been chasing Kraven is the kind of maverick character who is an insult to our intelligence.

Which may be why Crowe does little but sleepwalk through his role.

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Adriana DeBose, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott

Director: J C Chandor

Rating: 2.5 stars