Monster Hunter Movie Review: Shockingly True to the Source

Me, someone who likes to admit to having played 140 hours Monster Hunter World has been on board the Monster hunter Filming from the first few minutes. In the first scene we see a pirate ship gliding across a sea of ​​dunes. On board the ship, a woman peeks out of a candle-lit window with unsuitable binoculars. During the movie’s commercial flash, we knew things like the title monsters would look pretty accurate to their counterparts in the video game franchise, but I was amazed at the amount of detail and care that went into cribbing everyone Aspect of the identifiable style of the game.

The woman in the mismatched binoculars is known simply as The Handler, and while she has fewer lines than her chatty, cheerful counterpart in the game – this is essentially your tutorial guide Monster Hunter: world – Visually, they are close to doppelgangers. Her early appearance in the film felt short to me Monster hunter

The cinematic debut was made with a lot of love for the sometimes impenetrable franchise. This wasn’t just a movie made about Monster Hunter, it was an actual Monster Hunter movie.

This attention to detail is everywhere. After Milla Jovovich’s Captain Artemis and her Army Ranger team were drawn into the “Monster Hunter world” by a mysterious storm (sorry!), Every moment of the film feels prepared to reward fans. All clothing, clothing, armor, weapons, and hairstyles have been torn out of the games – except maybe Ron Perlman’s bad-bad-bad wig. The monsters themselves are top of the line CG spectacle, particularly the legendary Rathalos, the serial mascot that gets the final showdown. Writer and director Paul WS Anderson loves to approach (maybe even a little) the reflections in theirs also detailed) eyes as they chase Jovovich, her squad, and the hunter she meets, played by Tony Jaa.

The movie monsters are far more deadly than a video game power fantasy would suggest. Monster hunter isn’t afraid of dropping bodies in pretty gnarled ways, and the film’s long first act has the squad run from one dangerous animal to another while being picked up one by one. Anderson’s Resident Evil films were no stranger to bloody deaths, but there is at least one in Monster hunter

That felt unnecessarily gross to drive home to the point where monsters can break through modern armored vehicles like tissue paper. (The one-sided tank versus monster matchups, while mostly revealed in movie trailers, are some of the greatest fun moments in the movie.)

The only ways to defeat their enemies are, of course, traps, grappling hooks, and big-assed swords, all of which are equally loyal to their playmates, right down to the way Jaas Hunter wields his big sword and Jovovich wields the double blades. The largest large sword swings are even shot to pay tribute to their video game inspiration, often with dramatic wide-angle shots that show the scale between humans and animals.

In spite of Monster hunter Jovovich has a large cast on paper and only spends portions of the movie getting him out through evil monsters and building up their family tree as an action hero. Much of these moments are tropes that we saw before; She kisses a ring that says “forever” before cauterizing a wound on her leg with gunpowder and a torch. But the actress’s charisma brings the one-dimensional character to life, and once she teams up with Jaa, the couple’s language barrier doesn’t stop their chemistry. They learn to work together in the fights, and while a tight edit will reduce the impact of some of their lengthy brawls, the stunts are dramatic.

The entire film is easily in the story and characters section; Jovovich’s entire ranger team has names like “Ax”, “Marshall”, “Dash” and “Linc”. Anderson seems to be aware of this – the tropics felt as delicious as the action. Coupled with a reverence for the games, Monster hunterThe set pieces loaded with fan services were the perfect, pointless ointment for 2020. It’s hard to say if someone who doesn’t love the series will understand them, but their bombastic effect hardly lags during its hour and a half running. It’s a lucky member of this new class of video game films that were written with an obvious love for their lore, though it may not be able to stand up without a deep appreciation for the source material.

Monster hunter is in theaters now