Monster Hunter Review

Certificate: 12A

Running time: 104 minutes 

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ron Pearlman, Meagan Good, Tony Jaa, Jin Au-Yeung 

Directed by: Paul W.S Anderson

The story: Faced with relentless danger after a portal transports them to a strange world, an elite unit of soldiers discovers that their only hope of surviving is with a mysterious Hunter. 

The verdict: I recently undertook a Resident Evil film marathon and came to the conclusion that, although Milla Jovovich is rather excellent, I would henceforth approach any big budget monster/horror film that she was in with extreme trepidation. 

Let’s just be honest, Monster Hunter isn’t great. And it doesn’t help itself in that it doesn’t really make much sense narratively or plot wise. Yes you’ll be able to understand what’s going on, but try to dig any deeper and you’ll soon be scratching your head and thinking, “eh?”

Milla Jovovich is brilliant at action and kicking butt and so she does carry the film well with an engaging performance. But in general, the performances in Monster Hunter are exactly what you’d expect from this kind of film. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way because this monster film isn’t about the actors, and the dodgy dialogue certainly doesn’t help them, it’s about monsters. 

I have never played the video game on which this film is based so cannot comment on whether fans of the video game will be pleased with this adaptation or not. But Monster Hunter certainly succeeds in the monster element. The monsters were pretty scary and I thought that the CGI was well rendered. 

There is a mid credits scene which sets up a potential sequel and do you know what? I would watch it. You may be slightly surprised to read that given what is said above. But for all it’s flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed Monster Hunter. This is probably due in large part to my weakness for monster films and sci-fi films, so put the two together and I’m pretty happy. But I think Monster Hunter knows what it is and just runs with it, resulting in a film full of action sequences and giant monsters which looked great on the big screen. 

Style over substance? Most definitely. But I can’t deny that I had fun.

The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️