MONSTER HUNTER (REVIEW)

Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson

Reviewer. Dan Cook

With their highly lucrative RESIDENT EVIL series done and dusted, husband and wife duo Paul W.S Anderson and Milla Jovivich unite once again to bring another video game series to the big screen. This time, we have MONSTER HUNTER, a forgettable yet diverting adaptation of the popular Capcom franchise of the same name.

In the film, Jovovich stars as the Captain and sole survivor of an unlucky group of American soldiers who find themselves transported via a portal to a dangerous world inhabited by gigantic, man-eating beasties. Left alone in the sandy wastelands, Jovovich soon encounters and develops an unlikely bond with a highly skilled native (Tony Jaa) who wordlessly agrees to help her cross the deadly landscape, get back to the dimensional gateway and return safely to our world.

As is to be expected with a Paul W. S Anderson venture, MONSTER HUNTER is very light on character and script. There’s not much to emotionally root for and the Anderson’s fearsomely erratic editing style makes many of the movies fight scenes almost incoherent.

That being said, Jovovich and Jaa have good chemistry and both deliver perfectly fine performances, the creatures are imaginatively designed and some of the CGI battles between man and monster are suitably spectacular. By no means a great movie but far from the turkey many critics have proclaimed it to be, MONSTER HUNTER is a perfectly enjoyable romp that is far more entertaining and infinitely more visually appealing than any of the couples RESIDENT EVIL films that have come before it.