A Review of “Monster Hunter (2020)”

 

Monster Hunter is a movie based on the video game franchise of the same name. I didn’t have high expectations for this because it’s a video game movie and also because it was directed by Paul W.S Anderson who directed all the garbage Resident Evil movies. I do want people to note that I am not a big Monster Hunter fan as I have only played one game in the franchise ever. This review comes from someone with minimal knowledge of the games, so I do apologize beforehand if I get anything wrong. The Synopsis is “When Lt. Artemis and her loyal soldiers are transported from our world to the new one, the unflappable lieutenant receives the shock of her life. In a desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers and unstoppable, terrifying attacks, Artemis teams up with a mysterious hunter who has found a way to fight back”. So does this movie provide the fun monster-hunting or is it another movie to add to the bad video game movie adaptions?

First of all the monsters itself look great visually. The CGI for these monsters, a talking cat as well, look good and the action scenes involving the monsters are a lot of fun to watch. The dialogue between the main characters Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and Hunter (Tony Jaa) is pretty silly but quite fun. Both of them can’t speak the same language as each other, so there are some awkward interactions, but it gave me some chuckles. Tony Jaa himself gives a lovable performance and is the best part of the movie.

The story for the two acts is mostly about Artemis surviving and trying to get home. It’s simple and works for the movie. The third act introduces a proper plot that explains how someone from the real world went to the monster world. The main characters have to go to the sky tower and stop the portal. However, the ending is honestly unforgivable as it ends anti-climatically. The movie doesn’t even end with a resolution of the sky tower and portal, they don’t even get to the sky tower!

The characters are all forgettable. The main characters themselves barely have enough depth or enough backstory for us to even care. Most of the supporting characters such as the real-world characters are there to just die and that’s it. You don’t know any of their names or enough about their personality either to even care that they die. There are some supporting characters in the monster hunter world as well, but they are also just there to die as well.

The editing of the action sequences is still quite bad. He does a lot of quick cuts and reaction shots for just a second with lots of slow motion. The director has always done this and continues here even though he has legendary martial artist Tony Jaa. The score is also very repetitive and generic with this techno thump to it all the time. The first two acts of this movie are just set in a desert and it looks so visually plain and boring. I don’t play Monster Hunter but I know for sure they had visually interesting areas but this movie does not convey this.

I also have some nitpicks in this movie. I don’t understand how the real world guns and tech can’t deal any damage to the monsters but a sword or a bow with a bomb attach to it can? I also don’t get why this movie started with a quote? “It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses. New worlds are hidden of which we are totally unaware”. It doesn’t add anything to the movie and we don’t even know who says this as it doesn’t state it.

Overall, this movie is just a typical terrible video game adaption. I’m honestly surprised the studio and CAPCOM keep letting this director make movies based on their games. There is some mindless action with some cool looking monsters which might be all some people want. However, I want more from these type of movies and I want them to do the video game it’s based on justice. Unfortunately, this one is not the case.