Monster Hunter
Paul W. S. Anderson turns to another video game franchise in which size is everything.
Monster mash: Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa
Monster Hunter is not, one might say, a critics’ film. Nor is its director – Paul W. S. Anderson – a critics’ darling. Yet it is he, Northumberland-born, who has directed no less than six films from a video game source. Now comes the first chapter in a new franchise, although it hardly feels fresh. It bears more than a passing resemblance to Gareth Edwards’ Monsters (2010) and its sequel Monsters: Dark Continent (2014), with a dash of Terry Gilliam madness (pirates ride a galleon across the desert). It is, though, based on the titular role-playing game developed for PlayStation 2 by Capcom.
Mrs Anderson – aka Milla Jovovich – plays Natalie Artemis, the captain of a UN security team scouring the desert for a missing army unit. Then Natalie and her men are engulfed by a sandstorm and end up in an entirely different landscape, blanketed in sand dunes. And before you can say “Kevin Bacon in Tremors,” a giant subterranean beast burrows its way towards them and creates holy havoc. We have little time to get to know anybody before the film switches to The Land That Time Forgot terrain and all things Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. One soldier awakes in a giant cocoon, to find scuttling insects bursting from his skin. It’s gruesome stuff and one can’t help wondering if the BBFC has gone mad in allowing twelve-year-olds to sample such horror. And even before Natalie encounters the eponymous Hunter (Tony Jaa), this critic was suffering from advanced exhaustion.
Anderson provides the usual jump scares, cacophonous body blows and frenetic cutting, the whole thing becoming one giant special effect. One should not expect an iota of characterisation or narrative complexity – this is a firework display for the nerds. Anderson does, though, have a terrific eye, and Monster Hunter is one good-looking film, its Namibian desertscapes stunningly captured by Glen MacPherson's camera. With a half-decent script (not his own), Anderson could yet make a masterful film. However, Monster Hunter is unlikely to appeal to non-gamers, although the brand’s hardcore fanbase should be more than satisfied.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa, Tip ‘T. I.’ Harris, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung, Hirona Yamazaki, Nanda Costa, Jannik Schümann, Ron Perlman.
Dir Paul W. S. Anderson, Pro Jeremy Bolt, Paul W. S. Anderson, Dennis Berardi, Robert Kulzer and Martin Moszkowicz, Screenplay Paul W. S. Anderson, Ph Glen MacPherson, Pro Des Edward Thomas, Ed Doobie White, Music Paul Haslinger, Costumes Danielle Knox.
Screen Gems/Constantin Film/AB2 Pictures-Sony Pictures.
103 mins. USA/South Africa/China/Germany/Japan/Canada. 2020. Rel: 18 June 2021. Cert. 12A.
