It appears that this movie is either quite hated or quite liked. I guess it is not that surprising though given that it is based on a video game with a very strong following so if the movie is deviating from canon, and I understand that it does, it will not matter how good or bad a movie is.
Well, I have never played the game so I am not burdened with Monster Hunter canon so I have to say that I very much liked this movie. It does not really hurt that I quite like Milla Jovovich as well of course. Ron Perlman is also a favourite of mine and I really wish that he would have been in more of the movie. As it was he was only present briefly at the beginning and then a little bit at the end.
Anyway, this is a fantasy, action movie of my liking. Clash of cultures, huge monsters and lots and lots of shooting, slicing, kicking and stabbing action. The story is rather simple but not really bad at all. The ships navigating the sand was a bit weird and those huge weapons they were dragging around a bit silly but then those are part of the canon.
At first I got a bit annoyed by Artemis and Hunter starting to fight each other and thought, oh no, not another one of those silly, illogical stories again, but that sorted itself out rather quickly. And the bait jokes were rather funny actually.
The CGI and the monsters were great, as far as I am concerned. When I first saw the diablos I thought that they had kind of copied the sandworms from Dune but when they, or it rather since we only got to see one actually emerge, it was quite different.
The part where Artemis is thrown back to Earth and followed by the big fire breathing beastie is probably not liked at all by the fans of the video games since it is probably not very canon but I definitely liked it. I whish they would have done a bit more surprise, what the f… and mayhem scenes there actually.
The ending didn’t really leave that much of a conclusion but, unlike what some people seems to feel, I didn’t think it was a bad ending. It certainly prepared the field for a sequel and I for one really hope one will come.
Its exactly what I expected: A solid action movie.
Kind of like the whole Resident Evil Series - Not memorable, but definitely watchable.
AND: Mila is just great! She was born for these kind of roles - watching her I want to be her (until my brain realizes that I would be a woman :) )
Would have been better without the real world transplant though or if they at least were there to take trophies.
The thing I missed most were the iconic guns from the game.
Kind of difficult to predict if there is a chance for a part 2 with cinemas in big parts of the world shut down - Anderson's movies always have low ratings because they are never great but at the same time decent enough for people to also watch the sequels.
I definitely would.
People watching this and expecting a big ass storyline will be disappointed but I can't feel sorry for them - Its broadly advertised as a W.S. Anderson movie - The only thing he made that had a real story was Resident Evil and it took a few movies to realize that there was actually more than "Everything has gone to shit"...
"What", he said confusedly?
So confused here. HOLY SNAP, that was Tony Jaa? I thought he looked familiar I really need to watch more of his modern movies. This movie is so weird. First of all I was laughing when I said they were going to do that thing where someone from the real world lands in a fantasy realm. Why? It feels like the laziest thing of all time? Just make characters IN that world. Is this what modern fantasy films are all going to be? Portal movies? Everything doesn't have to be what if this fantasy world was Narnia.
If everyone is going to die at least it wasn't as bad as watching everyone die in Skyline or Rogue. This was a little better. But it's still the same lazy cast of people you can barely separate dying in the first half of the first act. I saw a comment mentioning the choreography and it is fair decent but the editing is atrocious. I at one point saw FOUR edits for someone falling to the ground. Like do you know who Milla Jovovich is? She can handle a fight scene why film it like you're filming a rapper fighting (Will Smith, Queen Latifa). It's not necessary. And her partner of Tony freaking Jaa. Forget handling a fight scene. Jaa could probably handle a real fight. This makes the editing in the fight scene even worse.
There's a thing in two language movies that I always find interesting. The English speaking one always talks. Milla talks a lot just casual conversation while Jaa's character is just silent most of the time occasionally dropping in a few words in his language or when he learns an English word. At least Milla does technically learn some of his language too. Mostly monster names but still I'll count it. I do kinda feel like a hardened Warrior vs an injured Ranger should have had a stronger dynamic in favor of the hardened Warrior who knows the area. But at least he put up a good fight.
I don't know anything about the Monster Hunter franchise but I can see it's clearly about hunting beasts and using their pieces to make weapons to hunt bigger beasts. Honestly it's a hard thing to translate and it did okay with that. It would have gone better without less of the characters fighting and trying to bond so hard. Heck just make everyone speak English and focus on the hunting imo. In act three we meet new characters like Ron Pealman who can speak English because he... studied a language no one speaks. Has the idioms down right and everything. It's weird.
I think MH works best when it's Monster Hunting. But there's so much Portal Fantasy World that they have to squeeze in that it pushes out the Monster Hunting. If this wasn't a portal movie the world could have been more likely, there would have been a better focus on how monsters hunt monsters. I wouldn't have to wonder how she took a carapace and turned it into a flak vest with no tools. And I wouldn't have been shocked by the anthropomorphic cat.
I almost vomited. I wanted to like this and was actually in the mood for something stupid but this honestly crossed the line in idiocy. Paul W.S. Anderson of Resident Evil fame wrote this crap. Since it had lots of money and lots of hands in the pie I will give him the benefit of the doubt and blame the Chinese studios for bastardizing the script. It is ludacris. Mila Jovovich, who is married to Paul Anderson, should really rethink her career and perhaps her marriage. Tony Jaa should become a bit more choosey in the roles he takes on; I was a fan but now... hmmm. Ron Perlman should wear a wig all the time.
There is no real reason to see this movie. The plot is predictable (I even predicted the ending, the ending dialog and the CG cat (believe that or not). The dialog is forced and projecting (I hate that) and the attempt at humor weak. Mila likes to half smile a lot for one annoying reason or another. The editing is atrocious in some scenes! Barf!. The CG isn't bad at all though so, if you need one redeeming factor you got one.
Please stop making movies Mr. Anderson.
As others have noted, this is basically Paul W.S. Anderson's attempt to set up a new franchise for his wife Mila Jovovich, now her role in the Resident Evil franchise has played out, and is being rebooted WITHOUT her, which of course will probably doom it to failure. Hollywood has very few original ideas anymore, so, if they aren't making a sequel, they're copying some older property and just amping up the FX for a cash grab.
This wasn't that bad, as, it's always fun to see Mila in her element, and Tony Jaa has really been underutilized until recently. Once again the trope is proven true that (usually) black folks in Sci Fi films equal TOS Redshirts, but then, it WAS just T.I. and Megan Good, so..., meh.
Ron Perlman and his magnificent blond hairpiece do an adequate job as the wizened Leader of the "other world" folks tasked with closing the portal betwixt our world and the next, lest Smaug escape Erebor and destroys all Middle Earth.
Could have been a fun one off, but, the clumsy, hackneyed ..."to be continued" (hopefully) ending was more suited to a made for TV series season ender, than a major motion picture, in spite of the awesome fighting Ninja kitty.
Ooooh, was that Sauron lurking under that grim reaper cloak at the (very) end, or, perhaps he who shall not be named? I get my tropes and memes confused sometimes.
It's an OK watch if you're not doing anything one afternoon during lockdown. But, if the do greenlight another chapter, perhaps they can flesh things out a bit more between the actiony bits.
Review by Oen386BlockedParent2021-02-18T19:48:15Z
I can explain the first half of the movie in three sentences.
An old style pirate ship sailing across a desert is attacked by monsters in the sand, and a crew member falls off. Cut to two army units looking for a missing squad, and are magically transported to the desert seen earlier. In this desert world all but one member dies (cue action/sci-fi deaths), and the lone survivor partners with the lost crew member from the pirate ship.
That's about 50 minutes of the movie, with almost no explanation of how anything relates or why we should care about any of the characters. It's just nonstop action, which might sound awesome, but there are no stakes in how any of it plays out because we as an audience we don't know anything. It reminded me of Tremors if you removed the character dialogue and had millions to spend on creatures destroying things.
They also find better weapons, which leaves more questions than answers. The lost crew member suddenly has a giant sword he is able to swing with no issue or explanation on why he hasn't been using it earlier. Then they find a wrist-fired crossbow with advanced engineering that shows up out of place on the wreck of an old-style pirate ship. Finally, there are magical weapons, with no discussion. You're left wondering why the lost crew member hasn't been using these advanced technologies the whole time and instead appeared to be using solely a longbow.
The second act both looks and feels better. A very little is explained to help connect some dots, but we suddenly have a clear goal for our heroes to achieve. As the second act ends and the final act beings, you are left hoping for some kind of conclusion or getting some answers. Instead, the final act throws in another long action sequence that doesn't allow the movie to conclude in any meaningful way. It literally ends mid-battle. During a mid-credits screen, the movie teases some ominous figure watching, and hint at a side character joining the battle.
It seems like this movie is set up only for a sequel, and they had either no way or no plan to save any resemblance of a story for this one. You can have a great monster movie while keeping interesting characters and a story to tie it together, look at Pacific Rim. This has all the fighting with little to no explanation. In the long run, it's a movie I can see people having on in the background while they're doing something else around their place since the movie requires 0 attention.
I say 5 out of 10, because visually it is impressive, but has little else that makes it a movie.