The funniest part of the Kraven movie is that they turned The Rhino into some dweeb who has to inject himself with juice in order to get strong. The only explanation given for this is that some scientist in New York experimented on him just so they could get that tenuous Spider-Man connection.
He doesn't inject himself with juice to get strong, he injects himself with juice to suppress his "powers" and look/feel normal. And that was actually a namedrop for The Jackal, in another instance of scattershot exposition dump/frantic attempt to establish a shared universe.
I actually don't mind the take
if he wasn't a jobber, and really liked Alessandro Nivola's performance when it wasn't getting mangled in post or
whatever the fuck that final fight was. I also, as a combat sports fan, really liked how their physicality and approach to their fight reflected on the characters and how they approach problems throughout the rest of the story. It felt like there was actually some thought put into that. Like I said, I feel like they probably could have assembled a good movie out of what they shot if they were willing to cut unnecessary shit like Calypso's
entire existence, chill out with the extended universe references and just trust the audience to put things together without being handheld the whole way.
I was pretty excited when Sony and Disney agreed to shake hands, but the more I reflect on it, especially after rewatching the Holland trilogy not too long ago... it's been a shit show. I like Holland's take on the character better than Maguire's or Garfield's, but he hasn't been allowed to be in a Spider-Man story. It's like the character has no room to breathe or organically develop because it's being pulled in two directions by two sinking franchises trying to establish as many connections as possible to tie him to them, like, oh I dunno...
The Spider-Man IP has Parker luck at this point.
