Eric Whitney

Having played a couple of the MH games; I’ve watched almost every video game adaption ever; and I’m familiar with the cast, I can say without a doubt this movie is...just plain average. Here’s breakdown of a few things on why it’s not the best or worst video game adaptation: The cast: Milla Jovovich: Nobody should be surprised she’s the lead if you know who Paul W. S. Anderson is, but while she is one of my favorite actresses, she’s still just a decent actor. Her role here is literally just a copy and paste of her Alice from their Resident Evil movies. Tony Jaa: Always a great choice for any action movie(especially if martial arts are involved), and honestly he’s the best role in the movie(even though he still gets so little backstory). Ron Perlman: This guy is one of my favorite actors because he’s funny, but he’s also one of those actors where you know they weren’t trying for a blockbuster award winning movie(and hold on! Did Ron Perlman actually survive?! That’s so rare for him, THAT’S the reason we need a sequel, so we can find out what happened to him! Lol). The plot: Was there anything original about this plot? Basically an army squad gets pulled through a portal into the fantasy world, where all but Milla get killed instantly. There’s a fight between Milla and Tony(because you know strangers can’t just get along right away), then there’s a couple big set action pieces involving a couple monsters - but only a FEW?! Paul W. S. Anderson did know there’s DOZENS of monsters in the game series, right? Then, after a language barrier issue, Milla and Tony decide to head for the blatantly obvious portal(her name is actually Artemis and his is simply ‘Hunter’, but you wouldn’t know this if you didn’t pay attention because they use actual names so few times). No journey can go perfectly though, so getting into a tiny bit of trouble, a deus ex machina tribe steps in to help(who get about 5 mins of screen time, but a lot of interesting stuff we never get to see again is squeezed into that 5 minutes!). Reaching the portal, twist ending: She makes it back to earth! Oh, wait, no, the “twist” is that she makes it back, but then, of course, one of the monsters follows her back too. 🙄 I’d spoil more the ending, but I think the final 30 minutes about how they actually CLOSE the portal got left on the cutting room floor - along will any other great scenes that might’ve explained more about the world, monsters, etc! Seriously, did they(Paul and the producers) think this movie would do so well to deserve a sequel that carries on from that ridiculous cliffhanger? The action: I will give the movie credit for having a lot of action throughout, but the problem is it’s made up of about a thousand quick shots(which I’m sure was the editor’s worst nightmare). Again, Milla and Tony are no strangers to action movies though, so they did great with the fight scenes, but knowing how strong the game versions of these monsters are, the actual monster fight scenes are far too short. The CGI: This might be the best thing about the movie! The monsters look real, the action and violence/gore look real. I could raise my rating another star...if only the ‘world’ wasn’t just desert 75% of the movie... Overall, it’s not a horrible video game adaptation, but for MH fans, don’t go in expecting it to be the next best video game movie ever. If a sequel gets approved, that’s great, but I really hope it focuses more on the actual MONSTERS, and not just another cheesy script.