PRESENTS

Not every feature born out of a video game is "Doom"ed from the get go, but this one certainly was. I have not played Monster Hunter, but I can assume that a lot of the things that came across as just silly in the movie version probably read pretty well as a game. The exaggerated propping and bulbous, cartoony creature designs - this all should have been revisited and tweaked to fit the silver screen. Instead, many of the elements of this blockbuster, from the ungrounded story to the weird wooly costuming, look like they were ripped straight out of the Xbox. Looking at it aside from the video game franchise brings even more issues to the forefront. The casting was off putting. I was shocked to see Ron Perlman in an Anime style wig and couldn't quite get his rendition of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast out of my head. I was also shocked at how underwhelmed I was by Jovovich's performance, an actress that seems to be able to make any character worth watching. There are moments of humor that try to embrace the silliness of the whole thing, but those moments are fleeting and over all it seems the movie was taking itself too seriously.