'Monster Hunter' Review
PG-13: Sequences of creature action and violence throughout
Runtime: 1 Hr and 39 Minutes
Production Companies: Screen Gems, Constantin Film, Tencent Pictures, Toho, Impact Pictures
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa, Tip "T.I." Harris, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung, Ron Perlman
Release Date: December 18, 2020
When Lt. Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her elite unit are transported through a portal from our world to a new world, they are in for the shock of their lives. In her desperate attempt to get home, the brave lieutenant encounters a mysterious hunter (Tony Jaa), whose unique skills have allowed him to survive in this hostile land. Faced with relentless and terrifying attacks from the monsters, the warriors team up to fight back and find a way home.
Sometimes what you see is what you get. If a movie looks like middle-of-the-road corny trash in its own marketing, then you can expect just that from the final product. Whenever you see or hear the name Paul W.S. Anderson, chances are you’re about to receive a below-average action movie with cool VFX that doubles as a blatant vehicle for his wife Milla Jovovich. Anderson is one of the only directors who knows how to make bad movies, consistent with his mediocrity, but at the same time, can make the love of his life look cool as an action star. If nobody got Milla Jovovich, just know that her husband got her and he’ll go out of his way to piss off thousands of video game fans to prove it.
For what it’s worth, the creature designs and visual effects are really great. Granted, they lack color to fully resemble the creatures of the Monster Hunter world. It may be a PG-13 film, but the creature kills are graphic, brutal, and effective. The first act of the film deliberately plays like a horror movie and you know who the final girl is gonna be just by reading the director’s name. As far as the story goes, I was digging the horror angle where it’s set on Lt. Artemis (Milla Jovovich) having to team up with the quiet but skillful The Hunter (Tony Jaa) to survive this monster world. There was so much potential for material between Artemis and The Hunter, yet the script does nothing with those opportunities.
What is Hollywood's obsession with forcing an American military crew in adaptations where they don’t belong? Monster Hunter is a fantasy game, yet the film focuses on a U.S. Army crew who gets transported to another world full of deadly monsters. Whenever a movie involves fighting monsters, some sort of soldier — here we have U.S. rangers in charge of a U.N. military crew because we don’t wanna have international markets roll their eyes at America — must be the center of attention. Movies such as Kong: Skull Island and Rampage made sense because… well, the U.S government was involved in handling the big monsters that were wreaking havoc. With Monster Hunter, a property that doesn’t warrant any sort of militaristic shit, it feels as if Paul W.S. Anderson copied Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ notes on Kong but forgot to add personality to any of the characters. I can understand creative liberties when adapting a property to film, but from the get-go, this is a major stretch that alienates fans of the game in order to appeal to a general audience. Hell, even the general audience will be underwhelmed due to the horrendous dialogue. Artemis and her crew lack personality as they spew out cringe-worthy lines that sound like they were written by a bot. One can only get so much mileage from countless shots of soldiers shooting at monsters with their rifles as the monster takes little to no damage. Granted, none of these soldiers last long in terms of screen time because… well, just look at who got first billing.
As mentioned earlier, I like the look of the monsters… whenever the camera isn’t moving all over the goddamn place. The first half of the film plays like Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, but with the sloppy editing of Mile 22. Holy shit, this is ADD editing at its finest. As much as I wanted to get invested in this film — as much as I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt during the action sequences — the shitty one-cut-per-second editing style and dizzying camera movements were too damn manic. For the Capcom fans who were underwhelmed by the streak of mediocrity with the Resident Evil movies: as I said, what you see is what you get. I have not played any of the Monster Hunter games, but I can tell that this film did a disservice to the fans narrative-wise. It’s a basic, flavorless trek through the Monster Hunter world that only has its brief moments of fun… just what you’d expect from the same dude who made the Resident Evil movies. Compared to 2016’s output of trash video game movie adaptations, this is on the same playing field as Warcraft. It’s not the absolute worst, but it gets too far up its own ass sacrificing the three-act structure in an attempt to set up a sequel that will realistically never happen.
