Monster Hunter Reviews

Monster Hunter is a fantasy/action film based on the popular video game franchise. When a military commander and her crew are teleported into a world filled with giant monsters, they must fight their way out as they search for their lost allies while trying to make it out alive themselves.In a distant land, a group of mismatched warriors aboard a pirate ship sails over a sea of sand. The ship is chased by scads of burrowing sandworm monsters.Meanwhile, on Earth, Captain Natalie Artemis (Milla Jovovich) leads a group of soldiers through the desert in search of their missing allies. As they stumble across a stone totem, they're confronted with a black storm cloud of unimaginable proportions, which sweeps them into an alternate universe.Unfortunately for the military, their weapons and tactical skills are nothing compared to the incredibly strong burrowing monster that they encounter. With most of their team dead in minutes, they realize that they must figure out a new way to take down this monstrosity. Only Artemis's masterful ability to flexibly adapt to this new environment spares her.Artemis is rescued by The Hunter (Tony Jaa) a monster hunter from the pirate ship who has been accidentally left behind in this desert wasteland. Neither of them is able to speak one another's languages. Quietly pitted against each other, they must eventually join forces to fight off the monsters who relentlessly pursue them.Eventually, Artemis and The Hunter make it out of the desert and deeper into the monster-infested world, which turns out to be quite beautiful, though deadly. They unite with other veteran monster hunters like Admiral (Ron Perlman) and a knife wielding humanoid cat to eventually battle bigger, stronger, and deadlier monsters. But will Artemis ever make it home alive? Directed and written for the screen by Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil) there's something to say about his dedication to crafting worlds out of video games which in themselves often have no plot. In that sense, Anderson has slightly evolved the Monster Hunter video game franchise, which is solely about killing and capturing powerful monsters, then crafting the best armor and weapons so that one's character can kill and capture even more powerful monsters.There are some elements of Monster Hunter that are breaks from a straight adaptation from the video game franchise, including bringing in multiple military bad boys. It may not be a creative choice, but this does allow the expendables to be killed off in gory ways that also allow the main character monster hunters to learn valuable lessons so that they are not killed.The special effects are not seamless, but gigantic and brash. In a film that relies on its effects as much this one, that can either be a huge hindrance or an opportunity for laughter. Contrasted with the film's major premise, which is that modern military tank and gun technology is not nearly as effective as the primitive technology of flaming swords and axes when you're trying to kill huge monsters, the effects and bodacious costumes are forgivable. While spectacle abounds with plenty of monsters to hunt, the uneven pacing and borderline tedious first act may be a deterrent for Monster Hunter, which is as creative as its title. Unsure of its identity as a campy yet serious action film, or a seriously campy escapist fantasy, the movie does the bare minimum by providing fans a solid dose of faithful recreation in literally hunting monsters, though it may not entice any outsiders to become fans.