Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa star in 'Monster Hunter'
Probably the best thing about the newly released 2-minute trailer for the upcoming Monster Hunter movie is the dragon from Game Of Thrones.
Okay, right, that’s not Drogon—maybe a distant cousin—but this also doesn’t look much like Monster Hunter.
I mean, remember all those times you were playing Monster Hunter as part of a squad of US Marines? Taking down giant beasts with rocket launchers and M27 assault rifles?
Yeah, neither do I.
But that’s just because Monster Hunter video games are made by Capcom, whereas the Monster Hunter movie, starring Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa, is made by Paul W.S. Anderson. Anderson’s previous directorial credits include Mortal Kombat and the Resident Evil movies, so he’s no newcomer to mediocre video game movie adaptations (though I remember very much liking Event Horizon which he also directed).
But see for yourself. Here’s the trailer:
I suppose the military twist is supposed to make us think this is some kind of big action movie with lots of shooting, and maybe it is, or maybe it’s just how it opens and the meat of the movie is good old fashioned monster hunting. Whatever the case, this does not look like Monster Hunter and it does not look very good. The monsters look fine, I guess, but there’s nothing about this trailer that even comes close to tempting me back to a movie theater in the depth of a pandemic.
Tenet is the only film I’ve seen in a theater since the COVID-19 lockdowns began and it was absolutely worth it, but Monster Hunter looks like a great big nope. In the trailer alone we have a gritty soldier dude say “that’s officially above my paygrade” and another make a quip about Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s . . . so bad. I can’t imagine the movie itself will be any better than this ridiculous trailer.
Video game to movie adaptations are almost always terrible for some reason. The best video game movies aren’t adaptations at all. They’re original stories like Jumanji or Wreck-It Ralph. The few exceptions are diamonds in the rough, like the pretty fun Sonic The Hedgehog movie.
If you think it looks awesome—and hey, there’s no accounting for taste!—the Monster Hunter movie hits theaters in December, apparently banking on a big Chinese box office since American theaters are all but dead. I advise you to stay home and just, I dunno, play Monster Hunter instead. Odds are that’s not only a safer bet, but a more entertaining one.
