Review | Monster Hunter movie review: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa battle giant creatures in mediocre video game adaptation
- Monster Hunter follows a team of US Army Rangers as they are caught in a violent sandstorm and transported to a world plagued by giant monsters
- Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa look the part, but fans of the original game will feel underserved by the limitations of director Paul Anderson’s cinematic vision
2.5/5 stars
Jovovich plays Captain Natalie Artemis, who soon finds herself alone in this mysterious and hostile desert world. She encounters and forms an uneasy alliance with “Hunter”, an indigenous warrior (Thai martial arts star Tony Jaa) who is similarly cut off from his gang of marauding desert pirates.
Hunter teaches her how to navigate the terrain and battle his world’s many threats, as they venture across the wilderness in search of civilisation and a way home.
Anderson has cited Avatar and Raiders of the Lost Ark as inspirations for his adaptation, but the film is best summed up as Resident Evil meets Game of Thrones, and hews far closer to the raft of ’80s science-fiction and fantasy adventures that emerged in the wake of Star Wars, Mad Max and Conan the Barbarian.
Monster Hunter struggles to capture the clarity of vision achieved in any of those films, however. Creature designs are impressive throughout, but the film’s overall visual aesthetic is a confused and derivative hodgepodge, and audience enjoyment will depend upon their affection for the over-saturated genre.
Fans of the long-running and expansive video game series, meanwhile, are likely to feel underserved by the limitations of Anderson’s cinematic vision.
Jovovich yet again proves herself an assured action lead, totally at ease as a clear-headed gung-ho survivalist. Similarly, Jaa’s raw physicality is a perfect fit for Hunter’s feral expressiveness, especially when wielding a sword the size of a surfboard.