In Sony’s latest bid to get you to buy some tickets to see Kraven the Hunter, it’s released the first eight minutes online for you to watch completely for free.
Do you also find it a bit odd that it’s becoming a bit of a trend to release the opening section of a film online ahead of its release? Smile 2 did that prior to its release in cinemas, though it at least had some fun with it as you had to use your webcam and smile the entire time to watch it. But now Sony has also decided to take part in that trend with the first eight minutes of the upcoming Marvel flick Kraven the Hunter, the latest attempt to get you to give the film a chance.
The film is only 10 days away from releasing in cinemas, and considering the film is predicted to take home $20-$25 million at the box office on its opening weekend – that would be worse than Morbius’ $39 million opening, by the way – I can only imagine this was done to try and convince people to go and watch it.
You can check it out for yourself above, the clip opens with lead actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson referring to it as his holiday season gift to you, which kind of makes it feel like when you get a gift from that one uncle you don’t really know all that well but he feels a bit obligated to get you something but it just ends up being tat you’ll inevitably throw away.
The clip itself is… fine. It’s fine! It starts off with Kraven being taken to prison before eventually brutally murdering some guys and making his escape. It’s a bit of a contextless opening, one you can only hope eventually makes more sense as the film goes on, but if it was meant to inspire confidence, for me it’s failed. Maybe when you actually start making Spider-Man films again Sony you’ll give people a reason to watch your live-action Spider-Verse films! Just a thought.