After Sony’s recent Marvel misfires on 2022’s Morbius and this year’s Madame Web, I wasn’t holding out too much hope for yet another Marvel villain origin story when I headed to the press screening of Kraven the Hunter. Its shuffling around the release schedule didn’t give me much hope, and word spread from someone at a rival studio that the exhibitor screening didn’t go well, also dampening my hopes.

But I always try to go into a movie with an open mind, and in this case, although Kraven is a well-known villain in the comic book world and has popped up here and there, a starring movie wasn’t top of my list.

That said, I had a surprisingly good time with this ultraviolent R-rated telling of how a Russian kid, Sergei Kravinoff, grows up to become a fearsome hunter — not of animals, who he spiritually embraces,...