Paul W.S. Anderson has never been a filmmaker on the level of a David Fincher, the Coen brothers or a Wes Anderson. He’s pretty much Paul W.S. Anderson and it’s safe to say that a lot of his movie are all similar. The Resident Evil movies may have their fans, as far as them being guilty pleasures, but even those never open the doors up like they should have. Say what you will about Mortal Kombat, but as silly, goofy and ridiculous as that movie is, there’s something really attractive about just how poorly made it is. In 2014, Paul W.S. Anderson made Pompeii, which was basically Anderson’s attempt of telling a story in the vein of both Gladiator and Titanic, and it’s no where near the quality of those movies, but Pompeii has enough enjoyment to be had. But Paul W.S. Anderson isn’t all that great of a filmmaker because he really doesn’t do anything different and especially with how he chooses to shoot his action. And with video game movies being almost impossible to be great, Monster Hunter is kind of the next attempt to go down this path again. Monster Hunter is yet another failed attempt to make a great video game movie, but more importantly, Monster Hunter is a blundering, unpleasant and abysmal of a movie. Just like the majority of Paul W.S. Anderson’s movies, Monster Hunter has some of the most inept and disastrous action sequences in a long time. The characters aren’t really there, the development that’s being presented is poorly developed, and besides the cool monster designs and mythology, this movie doesn’t have anything to chew on.
L.t. Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and the rest of her band of soldiers are suddenly transported to a world, that’s beyond our world, to a place where enormous and dangerous monsters conquer and rule every inch of territory. In a desperate attempt to get back home, L.t. Artemis teams up with a ravage and lone surviving hunter (Tony Jaa) to get her back to her world.
If you look at all the great action movies over the pat 20 years, movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, John Wick or The Raid 2 are definitely going to be mentioned. Filmmakers like George Miller, David Leitch and Gareth Evans have respect and a lot of admiration for shooting well choreographed and intense action scenes. Having a sense of comprehending every action scene for any action movie can be a pass for some, but not for the case for a Paul W.S. Anderson movie. Here’s the biggest problem with Paul W.S. Anderson and the way he approaches his action, and this has been a problem with a lot of other mainstream action movies that get released. Anderson handles every actin scene, and virtually ever other scene, with complete incompetence and hides away from any of the stunt work that’s being displayed. And the problem with that is that certain filmmakers think that the notion of shaky cam and quick cuts adds more intensity and adds more effectiveness when in reality all it does is it makes us nauseous. The sad thing about that is that Paul W.S. Anderson seems to do this in all of his other movies. Every action scene in Monster Hunter, even the scenes that aren’t initially supposed to be intense, feature unsteady and horrific edits that pull you out of the entire movie. A movie with giant monsters and action and stunt legend Tony Jaa has so much potential, but ever action scene is botched by atrocious action scenes.
One other thing about Monster Hunter that might be considered a slight nit pick is how Tony Jaa is utilized in the movie. Tony Jaa is a man that can do most things that a lot of other people don’t have the capability of doing. This is a man who jumped through a barbed wired fence that was basically a foot wide. The guy is amazing and the addition of him in every action movie has such potential to elevate the action knowing the type of performer that he is and when you have him in your movie it should be important to display their amazing work and Paul W.S. Anderson doesn’t do that in this movie. Tony Jaa is by no means known for his acting but he’s known for his impressive stunt work and his endurance in action scenes, and Monster Hunter sours on that big time.
The characters in Monster Hunter are also severely under developed. None of the characters are even remotely likable and that’s partially the idea you never saw a team come together. That’s what made movies like The Avengers or X Men Days of Future Past so great is that you saw a bunch of random people come together and Monster Hunter never worked on that level. Just like ever other Paul W.S. Anderson movie, he teams up with his very lovely wife Milla Jovovich, and despite how bad ass she can be in some respect, her character and charisma, or lack there of, is lousy and unsatisfactory. Even her chemistry with Tony Jaa was down right awful. The banter between the two was awkward, uncomfortable and the relationship they had never clicked. As far as the performances are concerned those were also a big issue in this movie. Aside from the weak performances from Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa, even someone like Ron Perlman is laughable in this movie. Maybe we wouldn’t expect that from a mindless action movie such as this one, but it doesn’t do either of it with great effect.
Despite with COVID-19 still being an issue, you’re not missing much if you decided to skip out on this movie. If you’ve seen any Paul W.S. Anderson movie, then you should expect what you’re going to get because it’s really no different from any of the other movies he’s made over the past 15 years. The action is incomprehensible, the characters are one dimensional and the complete frame of this movie never had a strong focus. Besides some impressive monster designs, this movie is better off to be completely ignored.
My grade for Monster Hunter: D-
Zane's take at the Cinema's 