Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Monster Hunter 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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080p picture presentation for Monster Hunter is exquisite. The picture was digitally photographed -- what isn't these days? -- and yields an exceptionally sharp Blu-ray image, everything one would expect from a first-rate Hollywood production to current standards. It's tack-sharp and effortlessly intricate. In good light, which is frequent throughout the film in sun-drenched exteriors, there's no shortage of razor-sharp details to enjoy, notably facial pores and other skin details but also caked-on dirt, blood, sweat, hairs, and other elements that give life and depth and textural awareness to the characters. Environments are very well defined, too. Sand is sharp at practically the individual granular level while the more roughhewn environments in the "other world" inside caves or considering rocky structures or fossils remains. It's all tack sharp to the limits that this format can achieve. Color output is exceptional. While much of the film features earthy backgrounds of beige and brown and black, which are perfectly realized on the screen, there are some great examples of fiery reds and oranges, some red blood, and other colors that leap off the screen with vivid vibrancy. Black levels are great and flesh tones are spot-on, even as they are caked in grime, blood, burns, and other flaws and filth. The image does see some spiking noise intensifying in extreme low light or in some shots earlier in the film when dark caves are illuminated by a single red flair. Other source or encode maladies are nonexistent. This is a first-rate Blu-ray transfer from Sony.

Monster Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Although the Blu-ray is given a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack rather than the Dolby Atmos presentation accompanying the corresponding UHD release, listeners on this format shouldn't feel at all short-changed with the comparatively lacking channel selection. As the film opens a large "ship," as if one which would sail on the seas, powers through the desert and the feel for depth is superb. Bass is fully engaged well beyond where most soundtracks these days venture and the sense of scale and movement are first-rate; it's a wild ride. The depth and intensity are broken up by a few moments of peace as the scene inside the ship is set, allowing for immersive and highly detailed creaks and cracks and structural moans and groans to saturate the stage. The track amplifies again moments later when a monster attacks the ship with the result much the same as that first powerful wave. The track is this aggressive throughout. It barely relents and never fails to bring intense subwoofer engagement or full-on surround intensity to every scene. Powerful monsters, gun blasts, explosions, intense flames, crashing structures, overturning vehicles…nothing it left to the imagination. Even in the sonic maelstrom everything remains impressively detailed and prioritized with perfect location detail and exacting stage traversal of moving sounds. Music soars with authoritative depth and space and detail. Dialogue is clear and center-positioned. Modern audio doesn't get much better, or much more fun, than this.

Monster Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Monster Hunter includes a few featurettes and two deleted scenes. No DVD copy is included but 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 (1080p, 7:47 total runtime): Additional Sony titles

Monster Hunter 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. Sony's Blu-ray delivers first-class video and audio. Supplements are on the thin side but serve duty well enough. Recommended.