Movie Reviews

‘Monster Hunter’ Blu-Ray Review – Sometimes You Just Need Unhinged Monster Mayhem

By Dillon Gonzales
March 22, 2021
No Comments

Behind our world, there is another: a world of dangerous and powerful monsters that rule their domain with deadly ferocity. When an unexpected sandstorm transports Captain Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her unit (T.I. Harris, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta) to a new world, the soldiers are shocked to discover that this hostile and unknown environment is home to enormous and terrifying monsters immune to their firepower. In their desperate battle for survival, the unit encounters the mysterious Hunter (Tony Jaa), whose unique skills allow him to stay one step ahead of the powerful creatures. As Artemis and Hunter slowly build trust, she discovers that he is part of a team led by the Admiral (Ron Perlman). Facing a danger so great it could threaten to destroy their world, the brave warriors combine their unique abilities to band together for the ultimate showdown.

For in-depth thoughts on Monster Hunter, please see my colleague Michele Arbir’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Monster Hunter comes to Blu-Ray in a 1080p presentation that is truly stunning. This is a sharp, visually rich film with sprawling shots of desert locations where you can see an incredible amount of detail including immaculately defined sand. All of the minute aspects of the production design and intentionally ratty costumes present very clearly with an immense amount of texture and subtle details. The earthly colors present quite nicely, but it is in the orange of the fire and red of blood where the film really pops. The white levels are handled beautifully, along with the intensely deep blacks that do not appear to suffer from any compression artifacts. The skin tones look very detailed and natural all around with plenty of caked on grit and grime. This presentation is definitely a standout on the Blu-Ray format. There is also a 4K UHD Blu-Ray available, but this was not made available to me for review.

Audio Quality

This 4K UHD Blu-Ray release boasts a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that packs one hell of a punch. This disc brings these ferocious monsters right into your living room with a depth and clarity of sound that is staggering. As Artemis moves throughout the land, the sounds of lurking monsters and other subtle effects flow out of your side and rear speakers. Each sound is precisely placed with perfect spatial awareness. The track engages all of the channels with panning effects and sounds of destruction that really makes you feel like you are in the thick of the fight. The implementation of environmental effects such as explosions and roars from the monsters come through in a natural way. There is an insane amount of activity in the low-end which will keep your house shaking with every stomp and roar of a monster. Dialogue comes through clearly without getting muddied by the score or any sound effects. Sony knocked it out of the park with this track, so those with a good surround sound setup should have fun with this one. Those who spring for the 4K UHD Blu-Ray will get even more of a punch with a Dolby Atmos track.

Special Features

The Monster Hunters – Cast and Characters: An eight-minute featurette which explores the cast of characters that inhabit the world from familiar faces from the game to new blood injected into the story. This is a brief, fun overview.

For the Players – From Game to Screen: A seven-minute featurette in which Anderson reveals his immense love for the franchise and how he did his best to tackle it respectfully including creating realistic monsters, shooting on location, bringing epic set pieces to life and more. It is nice to see that this was not just purely a cash grab for the filmmaker.

Monstrous Arsenal – Weaponry In The Film: A five-minute look at some of the unbelievable weapons that make their way to the big screen and how they compare to their video game counterparts.

Deleted Scenes: Two additional unused scenes totaling nearly four minutes are included here featuring some unused jokes from the finished product. These scenes are not particularly amazing, but it is a nice touch to include them here for those who would want to see them.

Final Thoughts

Monster Hunter is not high art, but it provides some well-executed mindless fun that is nice to give over to at times. This film could have very easily been a trainwreck, but it has many thrilling moments throughout to make this worth your time when the mood strikes you. A little bit more care with developing the characters could have helped this one, but you get what you need from an action-packed monster movie. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray with a top notch A/V presentation and a handful of cool special features. If you are capable, this feels like the type of movie for which you would want to spring for a 4K UHD Blu-Ray. Milla Jovovich is owed at least that much.

Monster Hunter is currently available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.