Bullet Points: Monster Hunter

Monster Hunter limped into theaters last December with little fanfare and mostly negative reviews. I missed out on covering it and so did a lot of other action movie review sites. Movie screeners were hard to find, and I decided to hold off my coverage until Monster Hunter hit home video. It took a hot minute, but Monster Hunter finally arrived at my doorstep for me to review. It was a pleasant surprise. I had written off covering Monster Hunter. In fact, I was screening Universal’s Nobody at home when Monster Hunter appeared out of the blue at my front door. In case you did not know, Monster Hunter is now available to own from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. It was released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 2^nd. 

• The Plot: Monster Hunter is based on the “global video game series phenomenon’ also known as Monster Hunter. Personally, I know nothing about this video game series. I am more of a sports gamer, so do not take it as a negative that I know so little about this game. Monster Hunter centers on Artemis (Milla Jovovich), a badass Army Ranger who leads her squad of Rangers on a recuse mission. A tornado in the desert or something like that transports her team into another universe. If that was not bad enough, there is a lot of hungry monsters in this new world. Based on knowledge I have now, I can conclude the team was transported to a world where people hunt monsters or vice versa. Thus, therefore the film is called Monster Hunter. The film also stars Tony Jaa, Tip T.I. Harris, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung and Ron Perlman. It is written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who is known for making movies based on video games and making movies which star his wife, Milla Jovovich.

• Tony Jaa: As I was watching Monster Hunter, I could not help but think how Tony Jaa has been misused in his English language films. What exactly did he do in Jiu Jitsu? Is Skin Trade really my personal favorite Tony Jaa film? I think Tony moves one step forward in Monster Hunter. He plays a character known as The Hunter. If that is not original, I do not know what is. Tony gets a chance to jump around and go psycho. The only word of English he knows is chocolate. He wears a costume which would look odd on most, but it fits Tony exactly right. He goes bananas on some monsters. He does some loco stunts. He interacts with a talking giant cat. Hold up, maybe Tony was misused again? A lot of Monster Hunter plays like a buddy cop film. Milla and Tony go back and forth, but at the end of the day, they but their differences aside to kick some monster ass. 
• Milla: You get what you expect with Milla in Monster Hunter. She does her thing. She has this whole video game movie genre down to a science. She is Paul’s muse. She also gets to sing in Monster Hunter. At one time, she was well on her way to being a pop star, but she was meant to be a movie star instead. Milla does not disappoint. If you are a fan, you should enjoy what you see. Milla has been doing action movies for 20 plus years and she shows no sign of slowing down. God Bless, Milla.

• The Action: Action fanatics should be all over Monster Hunter. It is close to being a non-stop action film. This is a good thing if you write for a site with action in their name. Monster Hunter is not lacking in the action department. It might lack in the plot department, but you can easily turn your brain off and enjoy the mindless action entertainment. If you are familiar with Paul W.S. Anderson movies, you should know exactly what the action will look like. You know you will see some running scenes mixed with slomo action tactics. Monster Hunter also uses its budget. It did not look cheap to me. The CG is watchable, and it does not look like a green screen nightmare. Monster Hunter is chaos, but it is chaos in a good way. My biggest gripe is I wanted more scenes with Milla’s Ranger team. T.I., Diego Boneta and Meagan Good all bring something worth talking about to the table. To me, the film is at its strongest when it focuses on the Ranger team. Unfortunately, this focus is only at the beginning. Am I the only T.I. on the internet? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter. 
• Final Words: Monster Hunter is a flawed but enjoyable big-stupid hot mess. 
• Grade: B