If one thing is clear, is that movie director Paul W. S. Anderson knows how to make an entertaining video game movie. After all, he was behind 1995 Mortal Kombat movie which not only managed to be a fun romp, but also scored big at the box office.
Anderson is better known, though, for his Resident Evil movies – he made six of them over the years, all starring US actress (and Anderson’s wife) Milla Jovovich. All in all, Anderson is behind some of the best (and most successful) video game movies made to date.
And now the British director is putting the finishing touches on Monster Hunter – a movie based on the long-running video game franchise by Japanese company Capcom. Actually, Monster Hunter is Capcom’s second most-popular series after Resident Evil, having sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. But many players have not been so eager to pick up the games over the years, mainly due to their steep difficulty curve.
Those who have played the games know that they combine role-playing elements with action: players are sent on quests which at some point require them to slay some big monster or another.
So the monsters will certainly play a big part in the movie itself, as the movie’s synopsis explains (via VG247):
“Behind our world, there is another — a world of dangerous and powerful monsters that rule their domain with deadly ferocity … In her desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers and unstoppable, terrifying attacks, Artemis [Milla Jovovich] will team up with a mysterious man (Tony Jaa) who has found a way to fight back”.
And a recently released preview video (courtesy of IGN) shows two of the movie’s monsters – Diablos and Rathalos – in action. Paul W. S. Anderson can also be seen in the video together with Kaname Fujioka (the game series’ director) and Ryozo Tsujimoto (the game series’ producer).
So, will the Monster Hunter movie live up to the hype, and turn out to be a good video game movie?
Paul W. S. Anderson has proven he can make entertaining and commercially successful video game movies, even if Monster Hunter like most movies based on video games is unlikely to go down well with the critics.
Also, the movie is slated to hit theatres on December 30 this year, something which could have an impact on its box office performance taking into account people are likely still wary of going to movie theatres due to the COVID-19 crisis. Here’s hoping, though, that Monster Hunter still does well, and that it turns out to be another video game movie worth watching this year.
Monster Hunter (Constantin Film / Capcom)