Monster Hunter is one of those titles where the appeal is really obvious. The world takes place in a land where monsters roam the Earth and every adventure is going to be guaranteed to have some good tension. The film tries to walk you through one of those missions but doesn’t really match any of that intensity from the jump. It’s not like you absolutely had to make this ultra action packed or anything like that but you can’t help but feel a bit disappointed by the end of it. It’s a good film that leaves a lot of missed opportunities around the board.
The film starts off with some cocky hunters talking about how easy it will be to take down an elder dragon. A jaded skeptic tells them that it won’t be so easy as he recalls a time where he had to take one out as a rookie. The rest of the movie is this flashback so sadly we don’t get to see the big fight in the present. At first I thought it was going to go back to the present around the halfway point but that just wasn’t in the cards this time.
Aiden grew up as a kid who really wanted to be a monster hunter. He was in a fairly small village though so they didn’t have the resources or tools for something like that. Aiden did his best though and actually gained the trust of his fellow villagers but runs into a master hunter named Julius. Julius explains that the elder dragon Lunastra is approaching and will destroy everything in its path. The whole village needs to evacuate. The villagers don’t listen though and Aiden convinces Julius to stay and fight along with a few other hunters. Will they regret this?
Now I get wanting to fight a dragon because these are monster hunters. That said, it’s a bit odd for Julius to be convinced so easily. He would know best if this is a monster that can actually be defeated. Based on his initial reaction, this wouldn’t even be close to a full fight. So I feel like no amount of emotional pleas would sway him. Additionally, his mission is to warn all of the villages of the impending attack so by staying here to fight, those villages won’t have any advanced warning if he fails. There are a ton of risks at play here.
Logically you would expect a monster hunter to be able to take on just about any monster but if even a master can’t, I don’t think Aiden would really be making much of a dent here. We do have some brief backstory hunts for Julius which also helps him sympathize with the kid though. Ultimately Julius is a pretty solid character. He has experience and has been fighting for a long time so the guy clearly knows what he is doing.
The other hunters who show up are pretty solid as well. Nadia has worked with Julius in the past and so the two have a lot of banter going on throughout the film. I’m always up for some quality banter so that was pretty fun. She also helps to calm Julius down when the guy is getting a little too agitated. Then we have Mae who is a solid hunter as well.
She is more interested in the research parts of being a hunter. She has a whole logbook and everything while still getting the job done. It’s clear that she is less experienced than Nadia though and still had a lot of hunting ahead of her. Her fighting style is fairly nimble so it’s hard for monsters to land a hit on her. Finally there is Ravi who is more of a builder but knows how to fight in a pinch. The guy really wanted no part of this fight but is essentially guilt tripped into it. This certainly isn’t the most imposing group of monster hunters to have been assembled but they will have to be enough to win.
As for Aiden, I have to deduct points from the guy for some of his mistakes. Look, the kid’s a rookie so I’m expecting some errors here and there. That said, it’s the kinds of errors that he makes which are a problem. There’s one scene where he doesn’t nail down the net because he just didn’t know that it was necessary. As a guy who professes to being a major hunter fan, that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. You can make some mistakes, but that’s not one of them.
He knows that the village is at risk so he should be carefully listening to all orders. It felt like his character wasn’t always consistent and that made him more annoying than he needed to be. In general the cast wasn’t all that bad but it does help to have a strong lead. Relying on supporting characters doesn’t work as well.
It also means that the film can’t jump into the big action scenes right away because we have a rookie to deal with. I think the power levels in this verse tend to be lower so the humans often have to use traps and such but I’d prefer a good ole fashioned fight.
In terms of the graphics, they’re only okay. This animation style isn’t the kind that ages super well unless you put a lot of money into it. The fights are okay when they happen but there is never a lot of fast movement here. As for the soundtrack, it’s more on the generic side. Nothing that will really catch your eye. The film also squeezes in some crude humor for some random reason. Nothing about this is a top shelf product.
At the same time, it’s still easy to follow the story and it’s fun enough. I do like the general world that the story is taking place in and I also appreciated that the villagers were at least a little reasonable. In other stories they might just start yelling and throwing a fuss. Instead they agreed to evacuate if Aiden gave the order and I was glad that they’d at least listen to one of their own.
Overall, This is a very forgettable film. It doesn’t really take advantage of what makes the series so interesting in the first place. There should have been more monster battles, flashier visuals, etc. That’s what you’re looking for in a title like this. As it stands, this will hold your attention but it’s really not going to do much more than that. Show this to someone who wants a quick film to watch while eating lunch but otherwise get them into the main games instead.
Overall 6/10
