Monster Hunter 2020 Film Review

 

Video game fans the master of making video game movies is back with yet another adaptation of a video game franchise. I don't know what it is about writer , producer and director Paul W.S. Anderson but he seems to like making video game movies and alot of them are really freaking bad and alot of them just like this film star his wife Milla Jovovich  and so here is my review of the film adaptation of Monster Hunter with the film also being called "Monster Hunter" enjoy.

The plot of the film is an army captain and her squad and teleported to a world filled with monsters and they have to try an find a way back home before the monsters kill them. To say that the plot of this film is weak as all hell would be an insult to weak stories because yeah the plot of this film has no effect on the actual film and is barely present hell what I just described could be best described as the film's premise and not the actual plot of the film but it's the closest thing to an actual story that this freaking film has.

Starring in this film is the star of alot of Paul W.S. Anderson films and the person who is also his wife Milla Jovovich as Captain Natalie Artemis. Also starring in this film is Tony Jaa as The Hunter , Clifford "T.I." Harris, Jr. as Link and Ron Perlman as Admiral. While there are other actors listed what isn't listed on either the film's IMDB page or the film's Wikipedia page is who there playing and so i've chosen not to include there names in this part of the review.

If you've seen alot of the video game movies that Paul W.S. Anderson has made then you'll know that they aren't known for having good acting. Which is sadly true here since while Milla Jovovich does a passable job as she always does what she brings to the film is the same thing she brings to every role she's played and as for the rest of the actors just like Milla Jovovich they to do a passable job which for some of these actors simply isn't good enough.

Doing the CGI effects for this film are Mr. X who did the effects for all except the first live action Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil film. Honestly I liked the CGI in this film true it's not as good as the CGI in other movies but judging the effects in this film just on their own merit the effects in this film hold up really good with all of the actors looking exactly where ever a creature is and the fact that the CGI creatures in this film look like they were actually there on set.

This film was somewhat of a passion project for writer , director and producer Paul W.S. Anderson as he himself became a fan of the games after playing them in 2008 and actively sought after the film rights to the Monster Hunter franchise. As such I can't really say that he's not a true fan of the franchise (hell i'm not even a fan of the games) since he did actively go after the film rights before any major studio or producer sought them and so he truly does believe that there is a potential for a huge film franchise and I can't blame him because on paper this could make a really cool dumb action movie franchise but the films still need to be good which this film sadly isn't in my opinion.

This film is based on the video game franchise also called Monster Hunter which started with the 2004 Playstation 2 game which was also called Monster Hunter. I fully admit that I haven't played or even heard of the video games as such I cannot say is this film is an accurate representation of the games but I can say that after seeing this film I don't want to play the games just because the film didn't make me want to play the games which is what i feel a good adaptation should do it should make you want to check out the source material and this film didn't do that for me personally.

Now try as I might there is no way in hell I could review this film and not talk about the recent controversy that it found itself it. To put it simply the controversy boils down to the fact that one of the characters very early on in the film makes a reference to the "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees" playground chant while I myself didn't find the joke offensive the fact that the Chinese company releasing the film and the fact that those involved with making the film apologised over what is meant as a joke to me isn't right yes there will be some people that won't find the joke funny and offensive but you can say about any joke and if terms of context the reference in question is clearly meant as a joke and is something that wasn't meant to be taken as seriously as it was.

The film has a mercifully short running time of one hour and thirty one minuets and thirty seven seconds. Which while it is thankfully short the film somehow feels alot longer then that and alot of that might be because of the fact that there's so little story as such scenes just feel longer because you have no reason to care about the characters and you have no reason to want to see them succeed instead all your doing is waiting for the next cool looking creature to appear or the next cool looking action scene to take place.

Now then boys and girls this is an action film and so it only makes sense that I now talk about the action that's in the film. In all honesty the action in the film for me is where the film shines best which given the director Paul W.S. Anderson and the fact that the film stars his wife Milla Jovovich shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since these two are known for creating cool action sequences and yeah the same is true here and honestly I would recommend the film just for the fact that you get to see Milla Jovovich kick monster butt but cool action sequences don't make for a good movie.

Overall this film is as bad as everyone thought that it would be but again given the director's track record can you really be surprised. Yes there are some good things to be found in this film but there's alot more bad thins to be found in the film as well and the reason as to why i've not covered any character development is simple there is none as such this film gets a 4.5 out of 10 from this Milla Jovovich fan.

All of the images that I used in this review were gathered from either Wikipedia or from Google Images. Honestly I have no choice but to recommend that you use Google Images if you want images from this film just because right now they are the only website with alot of images from the film but I will say that shockingly Wikipedia has a very high quality version of the film's poster and the original games cover if you want to use any of those images that is.