KRAVEN THE HUNTER

Here's the honest picture. This one surprised us on a couple of counts — and still can't be recommended. Marvel turned a comic-book supervillain into a vigilante who hunts murderous gangsters rather than an outright monster, and the film builds a genuinely interesting, well-acted family drama around him. The action, especially the wall-climbing and building-scaling sequences, is exciting.

But the costs pile up fast. There's harsh, frequent foul language — around 25 obscenities, more than half of them "f" words, plus abuse of the names of Jesus and God. The violence is very strong and bloody, including repeated stabbings shot in closeup. The hero's superpowers come straight out of witchcraft — Tarot cards and a magic potion. And the ending twists him toward evil rather than good.

So our answer is simple: skip it. There's craft here, but the profanity, the bloodshed, and the occult foundation put it past the line, and no viewer in your household comes out ahead.

As a boy on an African safari, Sergei Kravinoff is mauled by a legendary lion — and survives, changed. A young girl named Calypso reaches him with a potion that leaves him with cat-like superhuman powers.

Years later, Sergei has become Kraven, estranged from his cold-hearted gangster father and waging his own war on the criminal underworld. Then one of his father's rivals kidnaps his beloved younger brother, Dmitri — and Kraven the Hunter springs into action.

Three stars, and here's what earns them. The film is more entertaining than expected. Reworking a comic-book supervillain into a vigilante who takes down gangsters gives the story a sturdier spine than a straight villain origin would, and the action delivers — the sequences of Kraven scaling walls and buildings are a real kick.

The bigger surprise is the human material. The family interactions are interesting and genuinely well acted, from the wounded relationship between Kraven and his brother to the shadow cast by their father. There's a real movie here, competently made. It's the content, not the craft, that sinks it — which is exactly why the three stars stand and the verdict still doesn't.

This is a mixed film with a pagan center and some moral instincts poking through. Kraven hunts murderous gangsters and battles a kidnapper in defense of his brother — there's a rough justice at work, and the movie deserves credit for not making its lead a total monster. Family loyalty drives the whole plot. Those are real, if buried, virtues.

But the pagan elements dominate. Kraven's very powers come from the occult: a grandmother teaches young Calypso to read Tarot cards — insisting it's "not a game" — and gives her a witchcraft potion that later becomes the source of his abilities. And the hero doesn't merely fight evil; he often assassinates his targets, and the story's two closing twists push him toward evil rather than good. That's not a small stumble — it's the direction the film ultimately points.

The father, meanwhile, is a cold-hearted, evil man, a portrait of what fatherhood should never be. The movie feels the wound of a son raised by such a man without offering the healing such a wound needs.

Underneath it all is a longing for a father who protects rather than devours — a longing Scripture answers not in vengeance but in a Father who runs to meet his children: "when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion" (Luke 15:20). And where Kraven takes justice into his own bloodied hands, we're told, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19).

There's real craft here — exciting action and a well-acted family story that's better than you'd expect. But the harsh profanity, the bloody killings, the occult source of the hero's powers, and an ending that turns him toward evil make it excessive and, in the end, unacceptable. So our answer is the one we started with: skip it. Looking for something the whole household can enjoy instead? Try our latest family-friendly picks.