Monster Hunter 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Monster Hunter 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 7, 2021

It would seem as if the husband-wife and filmmaker-actress team of Paul W. S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich have all but exhausted the cinematic opportunities afforded to them in bringing Capcom's longtime and increasingly popular survival-action-horror video game franchise Resident Evil to the silver screen. Even as that series continues to churn out critically acclaimed games with even more on the horizon, perhaps the Resident Evil film franchise -- currently at six films strong in the live action series -- has run its course. Now, Anderson and Jovovich turn their attention to another beloved Capcom video game franchise, Monster Hunter. And good timing, too. Capcom and Nintendo are soon to release the latest installment onto the popular Switch console. Can this new film do as its Resident Evil predecessors collectively accomplished, which is to stand as probably the best overall video game adaptation to the big screen? That is admittedly not a huge hurdle to leap, but in a world of lousy game tie-ins and gaming inspired films, the odds may be better than most would be believe them to be.

In this world, a group of United Nations soldiers, led by Artemis (Jovovich), travels through a terrible storm in the middle of the desert while on routine assignment. They are shaken and awaken and quickly realize they are not where they were. For one thing, the storm is gone. The geography is different and nearby their location they find the charred remains of another squad. There are signs of a fight but no sign of the enemy; it’s as if whatever killed the team vanished. Almost immediately the team is chased by a massive, vicious, relentless monster which bobs and weaves and attacks from a subterranean position. It does plenty of damage to life and equipment. The team barely escapes into safety only to be attacked by a swarm of smaller monsters that ravages what’s left, ultimately leaving Artemis alone to fend for herself against something -- many somethings -- clearly not of this world. Her only hope is to team up with a monster hunter (Tony Jaa) and others like him who are skilled in the way of defeating the monsters with seemingly more primitive, but ultimately more effective, weapons than guns and grenades.

The film begins with an idea that, maybe, there is a world beyond our ability to perceive, where great and mighty things exist. That sets the stage for the audience’s involvement in the story but it’s news to the military men and women who are thrown into the otherworldly grinder almost right off the bat. Artemis is lucky to survive the ordeal when none of her squad mates make it through, their best efforts for naught as the monsters in their midst are perhaps not impervious to bullets and bombs but certainly well capable of absorbing countless injuries in the name of devouring their prey. The film gives precious little time to, or concern for, developing the cannon fodder characters. They are in place to grant the audience a sense of the monsters’ scale and threat level by allowing the soldiers, something familiar to every viewer, to be decimated in short order by the monsters, something unfamiliar to every viewer.

By the time it's just Artemis, the film follows a basic, almost rote structure. Once she's given the opportunity to breathe for a few moments, to get her bearings, to assess her situation, she meets Tony Jaa's character, and this is where the film and the games begin to intersect. The film switches gears from the fight against the monsters with the modern weapons of war to battling them with the seemingly unwieldy, but nevertheless effective, weapons from the games. Anderson works to faithfully recreate the spirit of the games -- which are obviously massive in number and scale and length of time they require the player to beat them -- while still adapting it for the screen. It's a good balance and he and his production team do get the look down and the props right and the digital monsters look terrific, too, moving through the world and interacting with it and attacking the characters with as much realism as digital effects in 2020 can.

Ultimately the movie proves to be a good bit of fun. It's not so intense as it could have been pushed to a hard-R where the material probably truly exists, but within the prism of play-it-safe adaptations Anderson gets the scale and scope and danger and adventure pretty well right without going Starship Troopers with the material. The cast is game for the high intensity action and they wield the weapons of war against the monsters with impressive dexterity and determination alike. Certainly characterization is of secondary importance here -- everyone and everything is dwarfed by the monsters (literally and figuratively) and the action's scale -- and rightly so behind the hunt. After all, this is Monster Hunter: a direct, technically impressive, and solid enough game translation that never even flirts with the best cinema has to offer but again proves Anderson's adeptness at bringing gaming worlds to the big screen. How about yet another Capcom franchise, Mega Man, next?

Monster Hunter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monster Hunter's 2160p/HDR UHD presentation amplifies an already terrific Blu-ray and becomes, quite easily, the definitive home video presentation of the film. The resolution increase allows for stricter clarity and improved details, beyond even the excellence the Blu-ray demonstrates. The picture is notably more firm, obviously more crisp, clearly more tactile and lifelike. Fine point definition is greatly improved for sharpness; facial textures, military uniforms, roughhewn edges around the monster hunting world all offer more plainly expressive, tangible, obviously sharp details that, on direct comparison, almost render the Blu-ray flat and soft (though rest assured the 1080p picture looks terrific in isolation; this one is just that much better). While the UHD is not a leap, per say, the aggregate refinements certainly boost it quite a bit over high definition.

Also in evidence is the fine-tuning of the film's color palette. The feel for enhanced brightness and vibrancy is obvious, as are the adds to color depth and density. Even the light beige/teetering-on-creamy white sands in the early scenes when the soldiers are transported to another dimension enjoy a solid uptick in color output brilliance. Blue skies similarly benefit: the color is deeper but the output is more intense, more lifelike. Beige, brown, and green pieces in military uniforms are further proof of the HDR spectrum's improved output. The colors are more nuanced, more vivid (even as they're rather plain on the larger spectrum scale), more capable of authentic tonal output and diversity. It's a very fine example of HDR color improvements over the Blu-ray where there are no color transformations at work, just solidifications. Bright red monster eyes, fiery explosions, and other bold tonal excursions from the earthy colors find more expressive depth and brilliance as well. Skin tones are perfect and black levels are spot-on. Noise is hardly an issue here and there are no obvious source or encode maladies of note. This is a stunning UHD presentation from Sony.

Monster Hunter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Monster Hunter's Dolby Atmos soundtrack delivers a fierce, explosive, expressive listen that is fully immersive, fully detailed, and fully powerful. The track takes little time to express its command of space and depth. The review for the Blu-ray's 5.1 lossless soundtrack offers a good primer for what to expect here in terms of examples of thunderous depth and total sonic mayhem, which remain here. The Atmos experience allows for more spatial awareness and fluidity, a finer sense of the open world atmosphere, and more opportunity to fully, unequivocally, and sometimes even terrifyingly drop the listener into the middle of carnage or a monster rampage. Sound spacing is perfect. Traversal through the stage and discrete effects alike never fail to dazzle while supportive overhead content comes regularly. There may not be so many discrete top end effects as one would think, but the track folds content into the top layer for an obviously more dominant and expressive presentation. There are no wants for more clarity or spacing to music and dialogue is clear and true from its natural front-center position. This is an epic soundtrack that perfectly compliments the movie watching experience.

Monster Hunter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Monster Hunter includes all of the extras from the Blu-ray, also bundled here, all of which are in 1080p except for the Ghostbusters trailer. Sony has bundled in a Movies Anywhere digital copy code. This release ships with a slipcover.

• The Monster Hunters (1080p, 7:51): Exploring the characters and cast -- both those with whom gamers will be familiar as well as new creations for this film.
• For the Players Game to Screen (1080p, 6:40): A look at Anderson's love for the franchise, optioning the rights, building costumes and set pieces, the digital monsters and practical locations, and the monsters who make the jump from the game to the silver screen.
• Monstrous Arsenal (1080p, 5:02): Looking at some of the weapons that appear in the games and also appear in the film.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Included are Steeler Joke #1 (1:31) and Steeler Joke #2 (1:53).
• Previews (2160p/HDR, 2:33): A preview for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Monster Hunter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anderson certainly does his homework when making his game adaptations, and his love for the material and dedication to both making it right and making a mass appeal popcorn film are evident in Monster Hunter. While the film will not go down in history as anything groundbreaking or memorable, it's quite the entertainer that takes familiar pieces, the expectedly big scale, and the epic digital constructions to make a very agreeable time killer. And only time will tell if he can milk this franchise as he did Resident Evil, but for fans of the game franchise, and anyone looking for a slick modern Action film with fantasy currents, this one's tough to beat. For sheer A/V delights Sony's UHD is one of the finest on the market. Supplements are on the thin side but serve duty well enough. Recommended.