Back in May, I covered the news that a live-action Monster Hunter movie would start production in September. Well, that has been delayed and the movie has a new story to go with it but it still sounds very weird and not at all like the games.
The fact that the Monster Hunter games have been so successful for so long would inevitably mean we would see a live-action movie at some point.
Helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring his wife Milla Jovovich, the original premise for this Monster Hunter movie was to have an office worker transported to another world to fight monsters. That alone was bizarre but it seems that the story has taken a new turn and not entirely in the right direction.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie will start production at the end of this month and will also star Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, T.I. Harris and Diego Boneta. However, the changes to the story are even stranger, as The Hollywood Reporter article explains.
The movie’s plot centers on the leader of a UN military team named Artemis, played by Jovovich, who is transported to another realm populated by monsters. There she meets the Hunter (Jaa), with the two teaming up to close a portal to prevent monsters from attacking Earth.
The initial premise of an office worker off an adventure was odd, to say the least, but this is arguably far worse and has very little to do with the Monster Hunter games the movie is supposedly based off.
I get why Capcom is going with this creative team for this live-action Monster Hunter movie, as they handled the Resident Evil films.
While those films weren’t particularly good, they were popular and made money. They were also inherently closer to the games, as the Resident Evil series has always been quite narrative driven.
When it comes to the Monster Hunter games though, the story is not really what these games are based around but instead working with friends to take down giant monsters.
Trying to rationalize and bring this setup into the real world is not the way to go here. Making the setup relatable in a modern sense just feels fundamentally off. The Monster Hunter games are clearly meant to be in a fantasy setting, so why not go with that?
In any case, it looks like this upcoming live-action Monster Hunter movie will be pretty terrible and that’s a real shame but definitely in line with Hollywood’s ongoing incompetence when it comes to movie adaptations of video games.
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