possible franchise. So, they turned Kraven into a vigilante, whose targets are various criminal organizations. That same premise was the basis for all versions of the Equalizer franchise.

In the movie, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is Sergei Kravinoff, the son of Russian mob boss Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe). As a teenager, Sergei is badly mauled by a lion while on safari with his father in Africa. A strange girl named Calypso finds his mangled body and treats him, spilling a drop of the lion’s blood into his body. This causes Sergei’s DNA to mutate, eventually turning him into Kraven. The rejuvenated Sergei has great strength and speed and heightened senses. Plus, he can bond with various wild animals. Young Kraven makes his mission in life wreaking havoc on poachers, mobsters, and other evildoers.

Kraven is still going after mobsters, particularly one of his father’s rivals, Aleksei (Alessandro Nivola). To get leverage on Nikolai, Alexsei orders his goons to kidnap Kraven’s younger brother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger). Kraven teams up with the adult Calypso (Ariana DuBose), who is now a London lawyer, to find Dmitri. However, Alexsei has some weapons of his own. He has a mutation that hardens his skin and makes him almost impervious to weapons. The self-described Rhino also hires a professional assassin called “The Foreigner” (Christopher Abbott), with his own gimmick. The Foreigner can disappear and reappear some distance away, seemingly instantaneously.

As you might guess from the names bandied about in this review, like Rhino, Calypso, and The Foreigner, these characters appeared in Spider-Man comic stories, so Sony has the rights to them. (A different version of Rhino appeared briefly in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where Paul Giamatti played the character.) I haven’t even mentioned another comic book character who plays a significant role in Kraven the Hunter as well. All these characters vie for screen time with unsatisfactory results. The Foreigner fares worst in the film. He has no superpowers in the comics, and his “disappearance” is a matter of hypnotizing a foe. Here, it’s less clear how he pulls off the trick. Further, his other abilities, which made him a formidable enemy of Spider-Man, are not developed in the movie.

Kraven the Hunter has plenty of action scenes, but several of them are very similar-looking wildebeest stampedes. The showdown between Kraven and Rhino is fairly well-staged, as is an eight-minute opening sequence in a Russian prison. Kraven allows himself to be imprisoned there (by killing another prisoner and taking his place) so he can get close to a mob boss serving time. He kills the gangster and several flunkies before making his escape across the Siberian tundra. Kraven runs on all fours during that scene and pounces like an animal. He also climbs up the sides of the walls. He showcased some fantastic abilities in that sequence, but, for the most part, Kraven comes across as a fitter, more sadistic version of Batman. (I also couldn’t get the image out of my mind of Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the action movie actor in last summer’s The Fall Guy.)

Russell Crowe steals the show whenever he is on screen. He overacts to great effect as the domineering father figure who keeps trying to push Kraven into becoming his idea of a better man. Crowe realizes the ridiculous nature of the script but keeps his performance just this side of total silliness. He commands the screen far more than Aaron Taylor-Johnson or the various villains in the movie. Taylor-Johnson looks the part of Kraven, but he never connects emotionally with any of the other characters. That includes Calypso, who appears to be a potential romantic interest. Unfortunately, Ariana DuBose has no chemistry with Taylor-Johnson.

Kraven the Hunter would make a decent streaming movie on Disney Plus (if the rights issues could be worked out) or some other streaming service. But on the big screen, it’s just bland, except for the moments when Russell Crowe is on screen. Also, trying to cram too many comic book characters into the two-hour movie results in a confusing plot and wasting a couple of potentially good franchise characters. However, I don’t think the powers that be at Sony need to worry about a franchise. Kraven the Hunter never bags its target audience.