Kraven the Hunter received an underwhelming response from Marvel fans, but months after the film debuted in theaters, it’s run into a bit of an embarrassing snafu as new viewers tune in on Netflix, where it’s now streaming.
The Spider-Man spinoff tells Sergei Kravinoff’s (Arron Taylor-Johnson) story and explains how he became one of the greatest villains in the Marvel Universe. His backstory dives into his struggles navigating his complex relationship with his gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), and how it led to him becoming the infamous Kraven.
The film had significant stars and was action-packed, but it did not seem enough to please fans and critics. Disappointed fans weren’t finished with their poor opinions of the film after it debuted in theaters; they now point out some of the befuddling CGI work in the movie’s final cut.
In a scene with Sergei, Calypso (Ariana DeBose) is caught looking unnatural when her mouth and eyes appear to be computerized to alter the scene. Fans noticed the poor patch-up job and discussed it across multiple platforms, from TikTok to Twitter.
Did Sony edit Ariana DeBose’s face in Kraven the Hunter?
Kraven The Hunter was recently added to Netflix, sparking an uptick in fans recognizing what they think is poor editing.
Slash Film previously reported that the scene that created this buzz takes place when Calypso revives the young Kraven with a potion, which leads to some dialogue between the two back at her lair. During this exchange, her half of the dialogue begins to look strange because the bottom half of her face seems different from the top. If you’re watching on Netflix, it takes place around an hour-and-a-half into the film.
Additionally, the way she blinks in the scene appears very unrealistic, and users on TikTok and Reddit compared it to the viral YouTube video “Annoying Orange” from years ago.
User @Riedyarberry posted a TikTok in which he pointed out that the exact moment fans could see the CGI work was poorly done.
Barstool Sports added that this is not the first instance of poor editing by Sony. Another failure within the Sonyverse was Madame Web, which Barstool deemed as having some of the worst ADR issues (dialogue/mouth not lining up) ever seen in a wide-release movie.
Multiple fans across X were in disbelief at how such a large company like Sony would cut corners by superimposing Debose’s mouth onto a still image.
I remember sitting in the cinema and thinking “surely that’s not a still image of Ariana DeBose they’ve they’d CGI-d a mouth onto”. Been eagerly awaiting the digital release to get a better look at it.
Sweet jesus
— Richard (@frontastic) January 15, 2025
Shortly after Kraven‘s release, departing Sony CEO Tony Vinciquerra commented on why he believes their recent projects were not as successful as expected, per The Los Angeles Times.
“For some reason, the press decided that they didn’t want us making these films out of Kraven and Madame Web, and the critics just destroyed them. They also did it with Venom, but the audience loved Venom and made Venom a massive hit. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason,” Vinciquerra said in late 2024.
Interestingly, Vinciquerra did not mention problems within production but instead saw the failures as a result of premeditated opinions on the films.
It’s easy to say poor Kraven has been put through the review ringer. Hopefully, for the sake of all those involved, fans will no longer catch anything else they can criticize.
