While I’m glad that there’s been a recent boom in entertaining video game adaptations (like Peacock’s surprisingly fun Twisted Metal show), there has always been a curious discrepancy between games with impressive narratives that would benefit from the blockbuster treatment and games that are actually popular enough to warrant the investment of adapting them into other media.
This is why we often see more gameplay-driven titles reach the big screen (like Super Mario Bros and Resident Evil) before narrative-heavy franchises like Sanitarium or even Metal Gear Solid. It could be argued that this is a good thing, as there’s no point in adapting a story that already feels like a movie while you’re playing it, but it also means that filmmakers sometimes get free reign to do whatever they want in a picture so long as it generally ties into the larger world established by whatever video game they happen to be adapting.
One entertaining example of this odd trend is Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2020 adaptation of Capcom’s Monster Hunter, an unapologetically silly creature feature that leans into the franchise’s focus on spectacle over story while still working as a mostly solid monster movie. As a long-time Monster Hunter fan, I actually didn’t have high hopes when this picture was first announced, as I’ve always enjoyed these games as intense grind-fests while I listened to music or podcasts in the background instead of paying attention to any real story elements.
Funnily enough, Anderson would get around these game-y limitations by borrowing from a crossover event where the cast of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker found themselves using military ordinance to face off against iconic antagonists from the Monster Hunter series. This is why the finished film decides to pull a reverse Masters of the Universe – with Milla Jovovich playing a Ranger Captain from our world who gets accidentally transported to a fantastical land populated by enormous man-eating beasts and primitive monster slayers (who are often accompanied by feline companions). She then teams up with a nameless hunter (Tony Jaa) in order to face the increasingly dangerous wildlife of this brave new world.
Unfortunately, the Monster Hunter movie was released in the middle of pandemic, an ill-advised move that resulted in the film not even making back its own budget at the box office. Not only that, but most critics dismissed the flick as an inexplicably expensive B-movie with a less-than-satisfying finale – with that last detail being something that I happen to agree with.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
In all honesty, Monster Hunter really is a glorified B-movie on a blockbuster budget, borrowing from the same familiar tropes as cheesy Roger Corman productions and not really caring about frivolous things like “physics” during its action scenes. However, that’s precisely why I think the end product is so much fun. While Anderson is a self-professed Monster Hunter fan, it’s quite clear that he’s just using the franchise’s basic elements as an excuse to play around in a massive filmmaking playground.
In fact, I actually think that the first half of the flick works on its own as one of Anderson’s best-directed projects, with Jovovich’s Artemis having to learn to cooperate with a complete stranger who doesn’t even speak the same language as her in what feels like a heartfelt throwback to classics like Enemy Mine.
Not only does this setup make for a legitimately thrilling survival thriller as these warriors from different worlds are forced to team up against a larger threat (namely the horned dragon Diablos, a recurring enemy from the games), but it’s also a chance for Jovovich and Jaa to show off their natural charisma in lieu of scripted dialogue. Naturally, the cast expands later on with the addition of Ron Perlman as a surprisingly game-accurate Admiral and his band of hunters and humorous Palicos, but this initial portion of the movie is still the highlight of the experience.
In a media landscape dominated by world-ending threats and what has become pejoratively known as “Marvel dialogue,” I actually think it’s kind of refreshing that Monster Hunter chose to take the road less travelled when it comes to keeping its story and characters as simple as possible. Unfortunately, this doesn’t extend to the film’s so-called “ending,” with the story taking a baffling detour instead of properly concluding and turning into a trailer for a sequel that will probably never come.
I guess you can’t win them all…
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
With a title as self-explanatory as Monster Hunter, I’m glad to announce that the film does in fact contain plenty of monsters and quite a bit of hunting. While the PG-13 rating and the overall nature of the source material means that it’s not as brutal as the director’s previous genre work, Anderson still managed to keep these spiders and wyverns as intimidating as possible.
And while these monsters are incredibly true to the games, with their designs often looking like high-resolution glow-ups of the exact same models developed by Capcom, the way they’re shot feels directly lifted from the very best kaiju films. That being said, there’s something strangely compelling about watching a gigantic dragon take on mere humans armed only with primitive weapons crafted from the scraps of other monsters.
Large-scale creature features usually content themselves with heavy vehicle-based artillery or even giant robot battles, so it’s fun to see a film dial all of that down and focus on our most primal dragon-slaying fantasies. Sure, it’s a shame that these memorable beasts are almost entirely brought to life by CGI, but there’s a lot of fun to be had in watching Jovovich slay fearsome beasts that aren’t exactly undead.
The Monster Hunter movie is by no means a classic, eschewing proper storytelling in favor of CGI-heavy set-pieces while also suffering from a poorly structured final act, but I still think it’s one of the better monster movies in recent memory. From that compelling first half to the undeniable charisma of its leads, I’d recommend this one to any genre fan looking for a giant monster film where the main characters learn to fight back in increasingly ludicrous ways.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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