Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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Monster Hunter is mostly action, very little plot, and very little character development.
| Director(s) | Paul W.S. Anderson |
| Screenplay By | Paul W.S. Anderson |
| Date Released (Theatrical) | 12/17/2020 |
| Genre(s) | Action, Adventure, Fantasy |
| Duration | 1 Hour 39 Minutes |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Noted Cast | |
| Captain Natalie Artemis | Milla Jovovich |
| Hunter | Tony Jaa |
| Admiral | Ron Perlman |
This content contains pertinent spoilers.
Film Summary
A group of soldiers, investigating the disappearance of another team, find themselves transported to a different world where giant, scaly monsters exist, and their bullets have minimal effect on them. Their captain, Natalie Artemis, is lucky enough to survive. But the question is, how will she get back home, and considering how she got there, does that mean the monsters in this world can follow her?
Things To Note | Question(s) Left Unanswered
- Reason(s) for Film Rating: Violence, but no blood or gore.
- Jump Scares/ Laughs/ Tear-Jerking Moments: None.
Review
Highlights
The Monsters Looked Cool
Granted, the monsters were not practical, they were CGI and other effects, but the detail and how they tried to kill our heroes was cool to watch.
Low Points
Death Doesn’t Mean Much
So many people die in this film, and you barely get to know their names, much less anything about them, so it is hard to care. Most, like TI and Meagan Goode, you care about their characters because you know the entertainer. But if anyone else played Link or Goode’s character? Like the other team members, you wouldn’t remember a thing about them and likely couldn’t pick their face in a lineup.
On The Fence
It Takes Nearly An Hour For You To Get Some Sense of What Is The End Game
For most of the film, you’re watching Natalie struggle in this new world, trying to not get killed by spider-like monsters, and attempting to kill this desert monster while learning how to fight in this new world by Hunter. All of that is at least an hour, maybe a bit more of the movie. From there, it rushes explaining how Natalie and her crew got to this world and the importance of this ancient tower, which allows for all this to happen.
Thus really pushing the idea that this film was made to assume all the audience would want is prepping for battle, and then a string of fights with us getting behind the heroes since we saw their loss and struggle. Nothing more, nothing less.
Monster Hunter Ends With The Expectations Of A Sequel
With the way this movie is made, you’d think this was more so a pilot for a show than a movie. For just as it starts to begin, it ends. Just as Natalie begins to get a firm grasp on what’s going on, and we have an idea where this film could go, suddenly the credits roll, and you’re left asking yourself, “So, that’s it?”
Overall
Rating: Mixed (Divisive)
If you’re the type who just wants to see people fight monsters, shoot guns, and the film focus on the action rather than bog down on details, Monster Hunter is for you. However, if your investment relies on getting to know the characters, world-building, and feeling invested in who participates in the action, and not just the battle scenes themselves, Monster Hunter isn’t ideal.
Hence the mixed label. Monster Hunter pursues those who want escapism, tiny humans somehow killing huge monsters that can rip military planes apart and make it cool. As for developing characters, the worlds we see, or giving anything a sense of culture? That isn’t the film’s prerogative at all.
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Monster Hunter Ending (Spoilers)
Captain Artemis loses her entire team within a half-hour, and then is fending off against spiders, gets captured by Hunter, but befriends him after saving his life and offering him some Hershey’s Chocolate. This leads to him teaching her to use the weapons of their world and create a plan to escape the hill they live on, filled with deadly, story high spiders, and cross a desert that has this Final Fantasy looking creature which burrows beneath the sands.
Naturally, they kill them, get to the other side, but then the captain of Hunter’s ship, Admiral, doesn’t trust Natalie since she is from another world. Yet, with Hunter’s approval and showing she has some moxy, they become cool, and he takes her to a far distant tower, which seems to allow for the anomaly that brought Captain Artemis to their world.
This leads to a fight with a dragon and Captain Artemis falling off a cliff back to her world. The dragon soon follows and shows it is far stronger than anything that the American military had deployed for their mission. However, with Hunter and Admiral crossing over, they kill that dragon and the movie ends with yet another one coming to our world.
Does Monster Hunter Have Sequel Potential?
It’s built into the ending. What you see is a bold assumption that this is going to be a hit and get a sequel. One that could explain the ancient civilization that sounds like people from our world, whose technology eventually became uncontrollable. Also, in terms of natives in what the film dubs “The New World,” how did they discover these weapons, learned to survive, and whether they are mostly nomadic tribes or if there are still civilizations.
For with the movie taking place on a hill, in a desert, a jungle area, then the tower, we see such a small scope of a likely massive world.
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