Kraven The Hunter Footage Showed Off His Classic Suit, A Rhino, And A Guaranteed R Rating
A huge component of the Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation at CinemaCon 2023 involved the studio’s commitment to Spider-Man and the properties associated with his universe. Sony Pictures Animation dedicated a chunk of time to showing those in attendance extended footage from "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." We already consider its predecessor, "Into the Spider-Verse," one of the best Spider-Man movies ever made. In addition to that tease for the upcoming animated release, Sony showed us a sizzle reel for the upcoming "Kraven the Hunter," which cast Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the lead role as one of Spidey’s classic baddies. And here’s what we saw!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 Hey guys, I'm Sean O'Connell. I'm the managing editor at CinemaBlend here in Las Vegas for CinemaCon 2023,
00:06 where we just came out of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Panel.
00:09 I specifically want to talk to you guys about the sizzle reel that they showed for the upcoming
00:14 Spider-Man offshoot movie, Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
00:18 The reason why I want to talk about it is because I don't anticipate this footage making its way online anytime soon.
00:24 They made it clear that it was very much for the people that were in the Coliseum here at Caesar's Palace.
00:29 So I want to give you as quick of a description as I can to sort of let you guys know what you're in store for
00:34 when Kraven the Hunter comes to theaters later this year.
00:37 The main point that they wanted to emphasize is that Kraven is going to be R-rated.
00:41 And based on the violence that I saw in this trailer or sizzle reel, it is easy to see how.
00:47 Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a hunter, essentially a lethal hunter. I don't know much about his backstory.
00:53 It's definitely going to be very different from what we've seen in the comics,
00:56 where Kraven the Hunter comes to New York City in order to track down Spider-Man,
01:00 because there is no version of Spider-Man that we were able to see in this footage.
01:05 But we do see a relationship that he has with his father, who's being played by Russell Crowe.
01:09 Of course, it's an anti-hero with daddy issues, who is going against these armies of different soldiers
01:16 that, based on the footage, I can't quite tell why they are at odds.
01:20 We just basically see Aaron Taylor-Johnson mowing down dudes left and right.
01:24 At one point, he bites off some dude's nose and spits it out towards the camera.
01:28 He kills guys with spears and a... what are those? Harpoon guns that shoot right through people.
01:36 He pins some dude to the wall by shooting at it.
01:38 It looks like it's going to be one of the most violent comic book movies made,
01:42 probably outside of the Deadpool franchise or maybe even The Punisher.
01:46 That's the type of level of violence that it's at.
01:48 There are some really interesting things that happened over the course of the sizzle reel, too,
01:52 that I want to focus on. One particular is Craven's signature outfit.
01:56 We never really see Aaron Taylor-Johnson wearing the suit.
01:59 Craven, as you guys know, if you've read the comics or seen pictures of him before,
02:03 he has this sort of animalistic suit that looks like it's leopard skin.
02:08 It's got big bushels on the shoulders. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, at one point, does hold that costume up.
02:15 I anticipate we're going to get to see him wearing it at some point in the movie.
02:18 Because otherwise, he's wearing kind of a stripped-down, almost leather, kind of outside-in-the-jungle outfit
02:26 with a bunch of straps that are really, really tight that allows him to move quickly through the jungle.
02:31 He does seem to have some sort of athletic prowess that allows him to sort of spring off of walls
02:36 and move through the jungle in a Tarzan-type way, but not exactly Tarzan.
02:41 It's still pretty grounded, and it's not really exaggerated in any way, shape, or form.
02:45 He looks like he's moving exactly like Craven the Hunter.
02:48 The other bit that I want to emphasize, though, is that there is another classic Spider-Man villain
02:52 who's going to show up in this movie, and it's the rhino.
02:55 It's the very end of the sizzle reel where they're introducing another character who is talking to Craven,
03:00 and he's off-screen. He says to him that, "They call me the rhino."
03:04 And you look down at his hand, and his hand starts to cover with these scaly, thick, gray, rhinoceros skin
03:13 that's not the exoskeleton that Paul Giamatti wears in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
03:17 It is nothing like that at all. It looks almost like a mutation or something genetic that's starting to take over his skin,
03:23 which makes me believe that we're going to get to see some sort of comic-accurate version of the rhino in this movie.
03:29 Now, we had heard already that the chameleon is going to be an important part of this movie as well, too,
03:34 another classic villain that traces back to Craven.
03:36 There are no signs of him that I could see in this footage.
03:39 It was primarily Craven going against all of these sort of faceless soldiers in the way that he's taking them out,
03:44 talking to a brother figure, I believe, because they were talking about their shared relationship with their father,
03:50 and then the introduction of the rhino.
03:52 So Craven doesn't come out until later this year.
03:54 I anticipate we're going to hear a lot more about it as we get closer to the film's release date,
03:58 maybe some footage coming to New York Comic-Con in October,
04:01 and hopefully a trailer that drops online soon because I want you guys to be able to see what we saw.
04:06 But I hope that description at least gets you excited for Craven because my anticipation level
04:10 was kind of like at a 4 or 5 out of 10 based on the way that Morbius played and how the Venom franchise, I think,
04:17 got a little bit better, but the first Venom was still a little bit cheesy.
04:20 This one looks like it's going to be really something special and unique,
04:23 and while I think it's definitely going to miss having Spider-Man involved,
04:26 I definitely want to see what they're going to do with Craven and maybe tie it into the Spider-Man universe later on.
04:31 We're going to be reporting from CinemaCon 2023 here in Las Vegas all week,
04:35 so make sure you keep it right here on CinemaBlend for the latest news and footage reactions.
04:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]