‘KRAVEN THE HUNTER’: “Kraven the Hunter” is a Marvel movie from Sony, which has been churning out stand-alones for various obscure Spider-Man characters, like “Venom” and “Madame Web.” So, think slightly goofy, pretty campy and somewhat self-aware about the silliness of the whole endeavor. But if the surprisingly successful “Venom” films are highest on the scale of knowing humor, “Kraven the Hunter” is the lowest. The character of Kraven is a foe of Spider-Man from the comic books who has an affinity for animal print and is so charming, he’s more of an antihero than a supervillain. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his abdominal muscles slither into Kraven’s leathers for the film, an origin story for the character that is much like Spider-Man’s: a boy has a near-death experience with a deadly animal, and through various magic and mysticism, receives specific qualities from that animal that compose his superpowers. Privileged but sad teen Sergei Kravinoff (Levi Miller) is attacked by a lion on a hunting safari with his Russian gangster father Nikolai (Russell Crowe). He’s revived by a mysterious potion-wielding ally, and then runs away from home, taking to the wilds of eastern Russia, where he lives in a yurt and hunts bad guys for sport, shedding Kravinoff and taking on the name of Kraven, aka “The Hunter.” There’s a certain pleasurable kind of entertainment to be had in watching Taylor-Johnson (or his stunt double) grapple with a speeding minivan or parkour around “London,” and the star has enough charisma to just barely hold this thing together. But aside from the obvious unintentional humor, the quality of “Kraven the Hunter” is severely lacking. But perhaps that’s all the recommendation you need for some dumb fun at the movies. 2:07. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

‘MOANA 2’: Without much in the song department or much useful story tension, “Moana 2” does its job just well enough to get by on looks. The open-air, open-water expanse of the rousing 2016 animated “Moana” was a big part of its success, and that much is handled with photorealistic panache in the follow-up, which is directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller. Memorable, though? No. “Moana 2” feels like a corporate mission accomplished, rather than a really good idea for a sequel. It begins like every other musical sequel in existence: Five minutes of joy and serenity, followed immediately by disruption and danger. This time, Moana (voiced again by Auli’i Cravalho) must put her wayfinding skills to the test, with the help of demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson again), and bring together the various, far-flung Pacific Islanders so that it’s not all “Samoa first!” isolationism. “Moana 2” comes down firmly in favor of the collective over the individual, as well in favor of the environmental protection of the oceans. Will kids care whether they’re getting a real, juicy story this time? Who knows? We’re getting a live-action “Moana” movie in summer 2026. I hope that one truly takes us somewhere other than where we’ve already been, scenic wonders notwithstanding. 1:40. 2 1/2 stars. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

‘SEPTEMBER 5’: “September 5” tackles the slippery madness of live television reporting, essentially invented by the ABC Sports team during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where a hostage situation unfolded in the Olympic Village and ended in tragedy. There’s a trio of decision-makers running the show, played the terrific threesome of Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge, Ben Chaplin as Marvin Bader and John Magaro as Geoff Mason, our ostensible lead, as we follow him throughout the day. Geoff, a young upstart, is suddenly thrust into the highest-pressure live-television directing situation of all time as it becomes clear that a group of Palestinian commandos known as Black September have taken the Israeli Olympic team hostage in their apartments in the Olympic Village. Improvising on the fly, the team — normally used to covering sports — has to weigh their competitive desire to own the story, represented by the hard-charging Roone, with the cautious temperance of Marvin, who urges restraint in case they broadcast violence to concerned families watching at home. Much of the appeal of “September 5” lies in simply watching people who are very good at their jobs do them well. Avoiding any significant comment on the longtime conflict between Israel and Palestine, “September 5” is tightly focused on how television news systems work and how this unique moment supercharged its evolution. While it is a thrilling, compulsively compelling watch, a good old-fashioned character ensemble piece, the message at hand is about the burden of responsibility in telling a story like this and the catastrophic mistakes that can happen in these moments too. 1:35. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh

‘WICKED’: Actor Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) tops the list of reasons the first part of a two-part film adaptation of the musical “Wicked” likely will extend the good fortune that has paved this story’s road from the beginning. It’s quite a zigzag lineage: from L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” adventures to MGM’s 1939 movie musical to Gregory Maguire’s increasingly raunchy quartet of “Wicked” bestsellers to the more acceptably edgy 2003 Broadway musical smasheroo. The movie, directed by Jon M. Chu, accommodates a little camp, a lot of “Wizard of Oz” throwbacks and plenty of Easter eggs. Ariana Grande is good, too, as Glinda, the pampered entry-level witch and social clique bait of Shiz University who is repelled by and attracted to the intriguing magnetism and enviable sorcery of her green-toned roommate. Because they have plenty of time and only an act’s worth of structure to deal with, the writers pull a few strands from Maguire’s books; expand the interaction between Elphaba and her favored, not-green sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), also attending Shiz; depict Elphaba’s tutoring sessions in some detail with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh); and generally air out the pace of things. The movie feels alternately hectic and languid, and while it’s fun to see Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, he and Yeoh manage gravitas of differing varieties without much urgency. Too often, though, the magic in “Wicked” remains stubbornly unmagical. And whenever Erivo isn’t around to make us believe, and take the mechanics of “Wicked” to heart, “Part I” reveals what’s behind the curtain, an adequate set-up for the second act. 2:41. 2 stars. — Michael Phillips

‘Y2K’: “Saturday Night Live” alum Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut “Y2K” makes for a fascinating test case for Gen Z’s appetite for all things 2000s. His comedic sensibility, honed through throwback TV parodies on “SNL,” is at once broad and hyper-specific. In the nostalgia piece “Y2K,” he hits the big sign posts that will delight the younger generation craving the simpler times of a pre-9/11 world, but he also gets granular with late ’90s music, fashion and culture in a way that you could only understand if you actually lived through it. Jaedan Martell plays Eli, a dorky kid who loves his ebullient best friend Danny (Julian Dennison) and has a crush on Laura (Rachel Zegler), whom he hopes to kiss at the big 1999-2000 New Year’s Eve party after he finds out she has broken up with her college boyfriend (Mason Gooding). But in a bit of revisionist history, the Y2K bug is real — so real, in fact, that every electronic device and appliance bands together into freakish robotic monsters in order to kill the teens, enslave the parents and achieve “the singularity.” The surface pleasures of “Y2K” are outlandish fun, but plot-wise the film is structurally unsound. While it cribs formulas and pieces from already all-too familiar genres, it’s too loose in how scenes flow into each other or how the story progresses from A to B. Still, there’s also something kind of profound in contemplating the year 2000, even if it is refracted through this silly lens. 1:31. 2 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh

RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.