Netflix debuts the final Sony non-Spidey Spiderverse movie this Thursday

Netflix brings Kraven the Hunter to your home this Thursday. Allow him to enter at your own risk, as this appears to be the film that killed not only Spider-Man but also the non-Spider-Man Spider-Verse.

Sony's Spider-Man films were, on the whole, a pretty solid group. They got much better once they finally accepted assistance from Marvel Studios, beginning with Spider-Man: Homecoming. But those Spider-verse movies without Spidey? I mean, the first Venom was okay, but after that? Yeesh. And they got yeeshier as they went along.

Let me put it this way. The reputation of these movies is so bad that Netflix has been essentially dumping them onto their schedule. Venom: The Last Dance debuted on February 25th with little advance notice at all. The streaming giant did the same with Madame Web nearly a year ago, on May 14th. Both films performed much better on streaming than they did at movie theaters. When you can watch a train wreck for free, you're gonna watch it, right?

Netflix adds the Sony killer, Kraven the Hunter

Now, nothing official has come out regarding Sony Pictures Entertainment's decision on their stand-alone Spiderverse movies sans Spider-Man. Multiple sources, including Forbes, have reported that this latest Spidey-less spinoff has finally killed off Sony's attempt at a franchise. Just to clarify, we're talking about the live-action films, and definitely not the terrific animated films, Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse.

Those movies have plenty of Spider-Men and Spider-Women, Spider-People, and Spider-Creatures. No, we're talking about the movies that Sony thought would bring in fans of the character without actually having Spider-Man appear. That way, they wouldn't have to split the proceeds with Marvel. It worked for the first film, Venom.

That's largely because Sony did a terrible job with the character in their first portrayal, Spider-Man 3. You remember Emo Peter Parker, right? He was much more terrifying than Venom. Yeah. Anyway, they could hardly have done worse with the character than that. Having Tom Hardy portray his host Eddie Brock was the only real asset of the three Venom movies as they progressively got worse.

Then Sony decided to really foul the Spider-nest with Morbius. Hey, it earned a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 15 percent, so at least a few critics could tolerate it. Comic book movies tend to be critically overlooked, but it only got a 5.1 rating on imdb.com, and that's based on the public's response. Morbius was utter trash.

Hey, when you've started a losing streak, why stop? Sony then unleashed the horrifically, unconscionably bad Madame Web. Amazingly, it scored even lower on Rotten Tomatoes than Morbius, with just 11 percent of critics reporting it as watchable.

I assume they were all consuming copious amounts of edibles. It only managed a 4.0 rating on imdb.com. If Morbius was trash - and it was - Madame Web was trash that had been left out in the street during a six-week sanitation worker strike.

That brings us to Sony's latest offense to cinema. Okay, truthfully, I'm happy to report that Kraven the Hunter is a return to form for Sony Pictures. Oh, no, not the form of Spider-Man: No Way Home, sorry. Oh, god, no. I meant Morbius. Kraven earned an identical Rotten Tomatoes score as the ultra-cheesy vampire flick, 15 percent. The good news is the imdb.com score jumped all the way to 5.4. Maybe you can see why it improved from the trailer:

For those unfamiliar with the Spider-Man character, Kraven was one of Spider-Man's earliest villains. That's a core problem for these films, as Sony insists on trying to shoehorn villains into the role of heroes, or at least anti-heroes. Yes, Venom has been both in the comics for years, and even Morbius is often portrayed as an anti-hero.

The character of Madame Web is a hero, but the film is so awful that she'd be more interesting if she was an inanimate object. That would match the effort Dakota Johnson put into the role.

Here, Kraven is no longer bent on killing Spider-Man. That would be far more interesting and far more expensive for Sony Pictures. Instead, he goes after poachers and drug dealers because that has about a six percent relationship to anything the character ever did in comics.

I don't care if the film industry wants to put their own spin on source material, but there should be more than the name and costume there. Otherwise, it's strictly a cash grab based on name recognition. Oops, did I leave that comment in? It's a good thing that Netflix has about 7,000 other titles to watch, right?

As for Kraven the Hunter, well, at least Aaron Taylor-Johnson tried to make a good movie. As with so many superhero films, they tried to cram far too many characters into one film. It's almost impossible to believe that director J.C. Chandor also brought us A Most Violent Year. You'd be much better off waiting until that comes back to Netflix. But if you must, watch Venom: the Last Dance or Madame Web right now. Then, Thursday, you can complete the scouring of your soul with Kraven the Hunter.

More Netflix news and reviews: