Kraven the Hunter is now streaming on Netflix and subscribers are flocking to it. The film may have been the final nail in the coffin for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, but there are inferior Marvel movies out there. Heck, there are inferior movies within the same continuity like Morbius and Madame Web. At the very least, Kraven the Hunter had some ambition going for it and a, well, game performance by Aaron Taylor Johnson as the titular Marvel character. It’s a combination of silly and action packed, and some would argue there are worse things for a movie to be. While watching it, the viewer may even be reminded of similar fun and, admittedly, better movies they’ve seen in the past. For us, what follows are the first three that sprang to mind.
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Naturally, if you’re going to watch Kraven the Hunter you should watch, and likely already have watched, the Venom trilogy, Morbius, and Madame Web. From a Keanu Reeves-led quadrilogy to another Aaron Taylor-Johnson superhero flick, these are the movies to watch after Kraven the Hunter.
John Wick
After checking out Kraven the Hunter, the viewer would do well to check out not only John Wick, but its three sequels. Like Mission: Impossible, it’s one of the very few film franchises that only got better as it progressed. The complexity of the fluid choreography was improved, the villains grew a bit more in-depth, and Keanu Reeves was always there to make the audience stand up and cheer.
Like Kraven the Hunter, John Wick is a tale of revenge. But whereas Kraven was taking on villains like the Rhino, Chameleon, and his father for trying to kill him, Wick is (in the first film, at least) after the man who killed his dog. And, after that is done, the father of that man. And then, once that’s done, someone who has called in a debt only to betray him, then the High Table’s Adjudicator, and then the High Table itself. Talk about a case of similarly escalating stakes.
Stream the first three John Wick movies on AMC+ and John Wick: Chapter 4 for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
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Kick-Ass
Before Aaron Taylor-Johnson was playing Kraven, or even Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he was Kick-Ass. And, to this day, the first Kick-Ass movie is the best comic book adaptation in which he’s ever appeared. It may very well be one of the best comic book movies ever made.
This is mostly because, like its source material, it flies in the face of convention for the genre. In fact, its superheroes aren’t even all that super…they’re just regular people. Kick-Ass is also graced with airtight direction by Matthew Vaughn (who went on to direct the similarly excellent X-Men: First Class and Kingsman: The Secret Service), a cheeky script, and style to spare. But it’s also an actor’s movie, with Taylor-Johnson anchoring it well with convincing naivete, Nicolas Cage bringing his signature goofball element, and Mark Strong making for an excellent gangster villain. But, at the end of the day, this movie belongs to Chloë Grace Moretz, who knocks the role of the foul-mouthed, tail-kicking Hit-Girl out of the park.
Stream Kick-Ass on Peacock.
Predator
One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s very best star vehicles, Predator is the ultimate hunter vs. hunted movie. The Yautja may be the only hunter out there who makes Kraven look like an amateur. Of course, his advanced alien equipment can’t help but give him a certain edge. There are many keys to the appeal of John McTiernan’s action classic (released just one year before he helmed Die Hard). For one, it’s sublimely paced, with three distinct acts, each one more entertaining than the last.
The first is a paramilitary rescue team traversing the Central American jungle under the guise of completing a ruse of a mission and then finding out that mission was a ruse to cut short a Soviet-provided weapons transaction. The second act is that paramilitary rescue team learning that, while they’re all more than a little experienced in combat, they’re still now going up against something the likes of which very few have ever seen. And those who have seen it didn’t live to talk about it. And save for Schwarzenegger’s Dutch, each member of the team being picked off one-by-one. As for the third? That’s when the hunter becomes the hunted.
Stream Predator on Hulu.
