Monster Hunter (2020) Review
“To kill a monster, you need a monster.”
I’m pretty unfamiliar with Paul W.S. Anderson’s filmography. I’ve seen the original Resident Evil when I was a kid and enjoyed it for what it was; though it never was a favorite of mine by any regard. Ever since then, Anderson has been making CGI-Driven action oriented schlock for any sucker that falls for them — to varying levels of failure. Death Race was probably my favorite of the bunch growing up but I’m pretty skeptical even revisiting it now. And with the exception of Pompeii, his films are genuine box office hits so producers keep letting him get away with these consistently critically-panned films; the money hits. And with Mila Jovovich by his side, as spouse and muse, this couple has been making heads turn for years while mainstream audiences continue to eat them up.
If Monster Hunter released during a time where there was no pandemic, I guarantee that it would have made back all its money — and more. However, given Anderson’s track record, I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether or not it would have made the movie any better. For someone who has been making video game adaptations for so long, you think that he would have at least have some sort of respect for the source material instead of mashing a bunch of generic plots together for a shameless cash-in. Then again — why not? It’s been working for him so far.
I’m definitely a casual enjoyer of the beloved Monster Hunter series, so though I have only pumped a mere dozens of hours into Monster Hunter: World, I can safely say that this is not a movie for fans in the slightest. But, beyond that, it fails horribly at creating its own engaging story world/narrative as well — lacking on both fronts. The film begins with US Army Captain Natalie Artemis (Jovovich) and crew on a recon mission within the desert before a portal teleports them all to a world where humans and monsters “co-exist” (The New World). The film sets up nothing to chew on and kicks you straight into the action. Though that may work with some action movies, such as Mad Max: Fury Road for example, this one it just feels pointlessly chaotic with terribly choreographed CGI sequences sandwiched in between. There is nothing more to the story than what you see on-screen; and what’s on-screen really ain’t pretty. As each of her crewmates start to die off one-by-one, including T.I. (Yes, T.I.), Artemis eventually has to team up with an inhabitant of The New World (Tony Jaa) — a Hunter. What plays out next is an extremely contrived enemies-to-friends sequence where they both realize they must cooperate to survive. And somehow, even being from different dimensions, Hunter is able to communicate to Artemis that she must reach The Sky Tower if she wants to get back to her world. Soon, the pair is rescued by The Admiral (Ron Perlman) who, for better or worse, gives the most memorable performance in the whole movie. Turns out, there’s a fearsome beast (Rathalos) guarding The Sky Tower so our new friend duo must team up with The Admiral and his crew to defeat the Rathalos so Artemis can return home. Anyways, the monster ends up teleporting back to our world where Artemis and her new friends defeat him while the military shows up with futile efforts. The film sort of ends off on a cliffhanger where it’s implied Artemis is now a full-fledged Monster Hunter and she must return to The New World in order to destroy The Sky Tower permanently in order for no monsters to ever be teleported to Earth again.
Yeah. It’s a whole bunch of generic blockbuster plotpoints infused together to create an absolute headache of movie by all degrees. There are some decent action moments but they are way too few and far between for them to amount to anything. The only props I can really give here is the design of the monsters which are modeled beautifully — and with some hard bright lighting, the action scenes can look pretty solid as well. That may be enough to satisfy some but the schtick gets tiresome sooner than I expected and left me craving for the film to slow down and develop at least a singular character to care about.
Oddly enough, I do want to check out Anderson’s Resident Evil movies now. But for now, I’m going to get back to playing Monster Hunter: Rise.
