Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the titular hero in Kraven The Hunter, the sixth attempt in Sony's sputtering efforts to stock enemies for Spider-Man in movies that don't feature the webslinger. It's stuck in time, a callback to years ago when convoluted superhero origin stories were hot, and studios were dusting off even the poorest IP to tell stories.

On the sliding scale of the Sony Spider-Man Universe (which, in case you’ve forgotten, doesn’t actually include Spider-Man), your choices are “so inept its funny,” “just kind of a slog,” or “the first two Venom flicks.

Kraven the Hunter may have a worse opening weekend at the domestic box office than Madame Web. Kraven the Hunter is now playing in United States theaters courtesy of Sony Pictures. Potentially the last film to be set within Sony’s Spider-man Universe,

In retrospect, 2024 could have been the year for Sony's Spider-Man Universe (an accepted moniker despite the fact that the beloved wall-crawler never actually appears in any of the films). With the Marvel Cinematic Universe releasing only one blockbuster due to the Hollywood labor battles in 2023,

The War of the Rohirrim,” “Creature Commandos” and “Dream Productions.”

Kraven the Hunter” really doesn’t work. It is, however, more diverting in the ways it doesn’t work than “Madame Web” and the very, very not-good “Morbius.” Like those two, this one’s a Sony Marvel origin story,