Monster Hunter: Film Review

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, Some CGI creatures, A lot of sand
Director: Paul W S Anderson

Resident Evil director Paul W S Anderson gets his hands on another Capcom gaming franchise with the idea of turning it into a long-running cinema series.

Jovovich plays Lt Artemis, the leader of a team searching for another military team which went AWOL in the desert, leaving nothing behind. When Artemis and her team are swept up in an electrical storm, they find themselves transported to another dimension, where ships surf the sand and nasty creatures lurk at every moment waiting to take them out...

A lack of characterisation, some solidly executed CGI sequences, and some low key cultural racism masquerading as bonding permeate a large proportion of Monster Hunter, a film that narratively is merely the sum of its parts and nothing more.

Held together by the finest of narrative strands, the film basically delivers little on the character front, robbing of you feeling anything as various members are picked off early on. Thankfully, Jovovich proves to be a strong bedfellow for the action as it unfolds as she executes the video game script mentality that lurches from one set piece to the next.

At times, Monster Hunter feels like an extended VFX reel, complete with repetitive directorial choices such as cameras swirling and drone shots from up on high. Normally, these wouldn't be an issue for a film such as this, given basically, one knows what to expect from a solidly executed action cum leave your brain at the door piece.

But with character being stretched so thin, you can't help but pick up on the film's fallacies and shortcomings. There's little meat on the bones outside of some well-choreographed fight scenes and some nicely shot action.

Which is a shame because some of the early set pieces evoke some incredible atmospherics guaranteed to be nightmare fuel for some (even if they are Aliens rip-offs).

Jovovich is solid enough, and Jaa's part is almost culturally insensitive, a foreigner whose interaction with the white saviour is little more than grunting (even if this becomes largely redundant later on as the wider narrative reveals itself) - even if this is a Chinese co-production (or aimed to satiate the market), there's much to be done on the writing for the character - regardless of how many cool slow mo shots they get.

Ultimately, Monster Hunter may be a three star affair, but it's a disappointing one at that. Frustratingly hinting at a sequel that would be streaming bound, its narrative webs dangle by the slightest of threads, and even though it's solidly executed, there's a tantalising feeling that there could have been more to the Monster Hunter than a parade of video-game style cinematic levels.