On 27 February 2022, my movie watch, which had been recommended to me a few days previously by Facebook friend Thomas Finley, was the fairly recent movie Monster Hunter (not to be confused with various earlier, entirely unrelated films of the same title), a live-action/CGI big-screen sci fi/fantasy extravaganza based upon the eponymous series of Capcom video games.
Directed, written, and co-produced by Paul W.S. Anderson, and released in 2020 through Screen Gems by Sony Pictures, Monster Hunter is all about a squad of U.N. soldiers who are seeking some missing troops in an unnamed desert but become caught up in a bizarre lightning storm that acts as a space-time portal, instantaneously transporting them to another world in another dimension. There, all but one are swiftly killed by various terrifying monsters, including a ferocious and unutterably ginormous sand-dwelling horned horror aptly called the diablos (depicted in the Monster Hunter publicity poster opening this present review of mine), and an immense cave-dwelling horde of hideous gigantic arachnid-like monstrosities called nerscyllas that skin-crawlingly combine the worst features of spiders and scorpions, which is really saying something!
The squad's sole survivor, U.S. Army Ranger Captain Natalie Artemis (played by Milla Jovovich), teams up with a lone indigenous warrior, Hunter (Tony Jaa), and they duly help each other survive the terrrors that this (very) strange new world contains before eventually reaching Hunter's home.
Just before they do, incidentally, Artemis and Hunter encounter a placid herbivorous herd of very sizeable but thoroughly delightful beasts named apceros that resemble highly improbable hybrids of giant tortoises and ankylosaur dinosaurs. Also making an appearance is a far less placid plesiosaur-like water monster that lunges ferociously at an unsuspecting Artemis when she approaches the deceptively tranquil expanse of water in which it is concealed. Despite being highly amused by her shock reaction, Hunter swiftly uses one of his arrows to good effect to save the day – and Artemis!
Once inside the shelter of Hunter's abode, Artemis makes the grudging acquaintance of (after being temporarily imprisoned by) a non-nonsense hunter leader known as The Admiral (Ron Perlman), plus his humanoid feline cook (Aaron Beelner), who is a member of the sentient Palico species. Together with Hunter, this odd couple endeavour to set things right by assisting Artemis to defeat a monstrous dragon-like fire-breather called a rathalos that loses no time in threatening their very existence.
This daunting winged monster is the guardian of an immensely tall, mysterious edifice in the desert known as the Sky Tower, which was built long ago by the first civilization to develop the technology for travelling between worlds via the portals.
Unfortunately, however, the rathalos not only survives their attempt to slay it, but also actually manages to enter our own world via an open portal. Trouble! Fortunately, Artemis and Hunter are able to pursue it into our world too via the same portal, and successfully dispatch it – but then a second, black dragon, known as Gore Madala, appears!
Monster Hunter boasts some spectacular special effects, especially those showcasing its array of very unusual and highly original monsters (except for the rathalos, which looks very like the wyvern Smaug from The Hobbit movie trilogy). However, no sooner has it presented its climactic rathalos confrontation and the arrival of Gore Madala than the movie abruptly ends! Clearly, therefore, this is intended as the first film in a future movie franchise.
For me, Monster Hunter is great fun, and no doubt for other creature feature fans too, as long as you are not arachnophobic, that is – those nerscyllas truly are the stuff of nightmares, especially as they rear their young by impregnating living humans with them, in best/worst Alien tradition (and graphically shown in the film). You have been warned!
If you can stomach it (sorry!), be sure to click here to watch an action-packed official trailer for Monster Hunter on Y0uTube – or (if you hate spiders, scorpions, or both) don't!
To view a complete comprehensive listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
I remember reading quite a few negative or lukewarm reviews of this film, so I am happy to hear that you liked it. I get the impression you defend quite a few films that got a negative reception from the general public, see the Keanu Reeves version of "47 Ronin" for another example.
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