Petrov Hunts a Sea Monster Under the Ice: Kraken Review

This Kraken review starts with a simple promise: a Russian submarine thriller that happily turns into a sea-monster movie. Directed by Nikolay Lebedev, the 2025 film mixes Cold War-style tension with creature-feature spectacle. It is big, loud and surprisingly watchable.

Kraken Review: The Story So Far (No Spoilers)

The Kraken plot begins in the Greenland Sea, where a Russian missile submarine disappears without a trace during a classified mission. Navy command sends a search vessel after it. The captain is Victor Voronin (Alexander Petrov), whose brother commands the missing boat.

The crew has two jobs: find the submarine and keep its secret weapon out of enemy hands. Meanwhile, a geological research operation at the North Pole disturbs something far older than any navy. The film cuts between the two threads until they begin to close in on each other.

That setup gives the story a clear engine. It is part rescue mission, part mystery, and part hunt for a creature that can camouflage itself and seems to think like a predator.

What Works in Kraken

The visuals are the headline. The underwater scenes feel expansive, and the film makes good use of dark water, ice and cramped submarine corridors to build dread. Audience reviewers have singled out the cinematography, and it is easy to see why.

The pacing helps too. At 134 minutes the film is long, but it keeps moving, trading between naval procedure, personal stakes and set-piece action. If you like action movie reviews that deliver scale, this one has plenty.

The monster idea is smart. Giving the Kraken an uncanny intelligence and a gift for camouflage turns every sonar ping into a small guessing game. That mystery element keeps the action from feeling like pure noise, and fans of mystery movie reviews will notice the effort.

Kraken Cast and Performances

The Kraken cast is led by Alexander Petrov as Victor Voronin. He plays the captain as a driven, worried man who mixes duty with family loyalty, which gives the rescue its emotional pull.

Aleksey Guskov appears as Rear Admiral Olshanskiy and Sergey Garmash as Admiral Belousov, bringing seasoned authority to the command scenes. Victor Dobronravov plays Aleksandr Voronin, the missing commander. Diana Pozharskaya (Dzhuliya) and Anton Rival (Oscar) round out the principal players.

One viewer praised the characters for having personal depth beyond a simple action flick. That is a fair reading: no one is deeply complex, but the actors give the roles more weight than the genre often demands.

Where Kraken Stumbles

The film leans on familiar ideas. Military brass with secrets, a sibling in peril and a monster that may be smarter than the humans are all well-worn parts. If you have seen a few submarine or creature movies, you will see some turns coming.

The runtime also asks for patience. The two storylines take a while to meet, and some of the briefing-room scenes slow the momentum. A tighter edit would have sharpened the tension.

The subtitled Russian dialogue is not a flaw in itself, but viewers who dislike reading may find the technical talk heavy going. The core story is still easy to follow.

Is Kraken Worth Watching?

Yes, if you want a big-screen-style monster adventure with strong visuals. Kraken does not reinvent the genre, but it delivers a confident mix of naval suspense and creature action that holds attention for most of its length.

Asking is Kraken worth watching also depends on taste. It is more crowd-pleasing than subtle, and it values spectacle over surprise. Viewers who accept that will find a solid, well-made ride. The Kraken release date was 17 April 2025, and the film is rated 7.2/10 by us, in line with its warm audience response. You can read more on its IMDb page for credits.

Who Will Enjoy Kraken

• Fans of submarine thrillers and deep-sea monster stories.

• Viewers who like international action films with strong cinematography.

• Anyone looking for a creature feature with a mystery at its core, similar to what you find in our adventure movie reviews.