After a recent photo sparked some concerns online over the course the Monster Hunter movie was taking, fans apparently needed to be assuaged. That photo showed actor Diego Boneta, who plays Sgt. Marshall, a member of the UN military team investigating the monster incursions into our world, wearing modern military garb. This picture kicked off a bunch of negative feedback centered on the idea that forcing the Monster Hunter world and real world together
And now fans have something new to obsess over about this film. Star Milla Jovovich, who plays Natalie Artemis, showed off a slinger. The launcher that fans of games like Monster Hunter World are well familiar with. It does look pretty good, and it’s nice to see that those behind the film are paying attention to fan reaction. It’s also good to see that the lines between the source material and the writing that frames it within a real-world context will be blurred a bit. Hopefully this means the writing will actually be competent.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen recreations or tie-ins to the source material, and I’ll admit that while it’s cool to see that some effort is being put into making things genuinely interesting for fans, I’m still wary of the final outcome.
A leaked CG test reel from a few years ago showed a Rathalos flying through a shopping mall, which hopefully pans out into some kind of decent action scene and not a cheap gimmick. There’s a whole bunch of these little tidbits surrounding this film; but the whole point here is that the recreations of iconic weapons and monsters, while impressive in their own right, don’t make for an automatically good film.
The Warcraft movie had plenty of faithful renditions of weapons, characters and locales from the games and lore, and it was still a weak film that barely broke even financially. Granted, Monster Hunter hasn’t run into the same production problems that Warcraft did, so there very well could be hope. Although the Duncan Jones film didn’t try to shoehorn the source material into a shopping mall or a modern military conflict. But maybe Monster Hunter will surprise me and that aspect ends up saving the film.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
