MONSTER HUNTER (2020)

MONSTER HUNTER (2020)

(Action, Adventure, Monster) [PG-13]

This s--t is officially above my pay grade.

Given the movie climate regarding allowing people to actually go into theaters, MONSTER HUNTER took a relatively large gamble coming out when it did in December of 2020 (literally Christmas Day). Unfortunately as of the writing of this review, the movie did not make even a 3rd of its budget back, however, since every studio faced this issue in 2020 and parts of 2021 it doesn’t mean we won’t get a sequel at some point. Reviews on this thing run the gambit. You have people that we're fans of the video game that seem to have hated it and you have fans of movies and giant monsters that just freakin loved it. Was this movie any good? 

In this one, a special team of soldiers is sent on a mission to find the missing team "Bravo" in the middle of the desert. They discover some strange markers, then the tracks disappear. It doesn’t take long before the team finds themselves in a giant MAD MAX: FURY ROAD-type storm and they can’t escape. They end up trapped in an alternate world filled with gigantic subterranean monsters. Their weapons are useless so they must rely on their training and their Captain, Artemis (played by Milla Jovovich best known for the RESIDENT EVIL series)to survive. The team is located by a hunter from this strange world, can they work together to overcome incredible odds?

First off, let me say this is one of those movies that I had no idea TOHO was involved in. When I see TOHO involved with pretty much anything involving giant monsters, part of me just pre-freaks out because I absolutely love this type of stuff. Much to my surprise, not only did we get everything we saw in the previews, we got a lot of really crazy awesome stuff that we didn’t. I mention the previews because this is one of those movies that I probably would have just handed at least a 4 out of 7 rating just based on the previews being mind-blowing and actually showing up in the movie. 

Injected into the framework of this movie is an incredible script that moves at lightning speed. There is no time for long-winded explanations of what’s going on or for backstories, but we get plenty of that for a kaiju film anyway. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the unspoken humor and the stubbornness of both Captain Artemis and Hunter (played by Tony Jaa best known for the Ong-Bak series. The acting in this one is strong all around. Even the secondary characters don’t seem like they mailed it in and I loved seeing Ron Perlman (best known for HELLBOY) back in a giant big-budget flick. Milla Jovovich I will say isn’t getting out of the box with this. She is straight-up playing basically the same tough, “I will kick your teeth in and break your crap” bad a-s she did in RESIDENT EVIL and ULTRAVIOLET. 

The lighting and design work is impeccable and the effects are over the top amazing. This is an action flick so of course, Milla Jovovich is flying 50ft in the air and living, but who the heck cares man, this is a movie. You want real life, just go do real-life stuff, drive a car or milk a cow, or whatever. The contrast in the lights and darks camera work-wise is great and I loved the angles on a lot of the sequences. I guess you either like Paul W.S. Anderson’s directing style or you don’t. 

Critically I would probably have included the main soldier crew in more of the story because the chemistry with all of them is just really fantastic. I also could have done without some of the more gross creepy crawly stuff, but both are personal preferences. What we actually get in this thing is freaking phenomenal. I guess if you were looking for gameplay, maybe just play the game? I was looking for monster hunting, and that is what we got, (tons of it). These things are really really hard to take down…oh man, I get excited just thinking about this film. I should say that the version I watch did not contain the attempt at humor that got it banned in China. 

This movie is a mesmerizing heart-pounding fist pump of an action flick with giant stuff that will crush your toes. I loved it, and yes, it’s a really fun movie. For me, this is a solid 7 out of 7. 

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