MONSTER HUNTER Faces Creatures From Another Time

 

Jeri Jacquin

Currently on 4K HD, Bluray and Digital from writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson, based on a video game and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the challenge of dimensions being a MONSTER HUNTER.

Army Captain Natalie Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and the security team she is in charge of are looking for a team that has gone missing in the desert. Out of no where comes a lightening storm that pulls the team into it and on the other side is a world unlike our own. They discover what is left of the team they were searching for and it does not take long before a creature destroys everything.

Trying to hide in a cave, a new pack of monster’s attacks as Artemis is stabbed by one of the creatures. Believing their Captain to be dead, the others run for their lives. When Artemis wakes up, she discovers that she is the only one left alive. She runs into Hunter (Tony Jaa), and another fight for survival takes place but ends with the realization that they need each other to live – even if they do not understand one another.

Traveling across the desert after a major attack, Artemis meets The Admiral (Ron Perlman) who actually speaks English! He tells Artemis a little of what he knows about the history of where she is but also explains that the door between their worlds must be closed at the Sky Tower if both sides are to avoid being wiped out. However, they must get past the monster known as Gore Magala and it is not going to be easy.

Now, Artemis must work with people who she does not quite understand if she is to get to the place she calls home.

Jovovich as Artemis gives us the performance that she has become known for. An action heroine filled with the ability to use weaponry, pick up on new moves and become stronger instead of afraid (which I would have been trust THAT!). From Leeloo in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, to Joan of Arc in THE MESSENGER, to Alice in RESIDENT EVIL, Jovovich makes it clear that she knows her way around evil of the two legged and many legged kind.

Jaa as Hunter is fantastic on every level. He can hold his own against and Army Captain and once he realizes they can learn from each other, he allows his humanity and sense of humor to come out. Jaa has a great way of showing his abilities through fighting skills and handling weapons that are not, well, from this world. I truly enjoyed watching him on the screen!

Perlman as The Admiral floats a ship along the sand and has a goal, taking his crew to the Sky Tower and find a way to close it before its too late. He knows the history of where Artemis is and knows there is only one way to stop the tower but getting there means taking on a very large creature. Of course Perlman gets to wield an extraordinary weapon on his own and is not afraid of swinging it full force.

Other cast include: T.I. as Lincoln, Diego Boneta as Marshall, Meagan Good as Dash, Josh Helman as Steeler, Jin Au-Yeung as Axe, Jannik Shumann as Aiden, Nanda Costa as Lea, and Nic Rasenti as Captain Roark.

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Bonus Material of MONSTER HUNTER includes Deleted Scenes, THE MONSTER HUNTERS: Cast and Characters, Monstrous Arsenal: Weaponry in the Film and For the Players: From Game to Scream.

Jovovich and Jaa carry this film for a major part of the action and I have to say I was pretty swept away with what they did. From the fight scenes with each other and fight scenes with absolutely creepy creatures, the action is continuous. I did not know that this film was based on a 2004 PlayStation 2 video game and Capcom Production Studio so well done on their part.  

MONSTER HUNTER is a turn out the lights, huge tub of popcorn, Saturday night on the couch with the family film. Its got tons of action, tons of adventure and its centered around basically only a few characters which lets you invest in Artemis, Hunter and The Admiral and the goal they oddly are working together towards.

The door seems to be open for more of the story to be told and it will be interesting to see if that comes to pass. In the meantime, prepare for a trip into another world!

In the end – they come together for the ultimate showdown!

Monsters Test Your Ability to Live in A QUIET PLACE

Jeri Jacquin

Silently making its way into theatres this Friday from director John Krasinski via storytellers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck is Paramount Pictures directions to A QUIET PLACE.

Living in a world built on survival by being silent, Lee (John Krasinski) and wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt) along with sons Beau (Cade Woodward), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and daughter Regan (Millicent Simmons) are in a drugstore looking for medications. Young son Beau sees a toy he wants but Dad Lee explains that it makes noise. He does this by use of sign language as Regan is deaf.

The whole family communicates now using sign language because the creatures that hunt them have uber hearing and any sound will bring them within seconds. On the way home to their farm there is an incident that changes the family and makes survival even harder. Evelyn is pregnant and the family finds clever ways to prepare for the new arrival.

Lee takes Marcus out with him to find food and Regan isn't happy that she isn't asked to go. Feeling that her father doesn’t care about her, she takes off down the road. Evelyn is alone taking care of the house when the first sign that the baby is coming and a cry out brings the creatures. She has only moments to send a signal to the others that there is danger and it all sends each in another direction trying to redirect the creatures.

From the house to the field, they each use what they have learned to try and save one another from the creatures that can't see but most certainly can hear ... every ... sound.

Krasinski as Lee is a man who is continually trying to find ways to keep his family safe. When there is a moment to breathe, he is working on a way to help his daughter or showing Marcus how to survive in the creature infested world. Blunt as Evelyn is in total Mom-mode and certainly takes a quiet childbirth to a whole new level. This is not the world she ever intended for her children to live in but knows it's the one they now must survive in.

Simmonds as Regan deals with this world a little differently than the rest of the family. She doesn't hear the screeching and the loud presence of the creatures but knows what they are capable of. Jupe as Marcus is rightfully petrified of the creatures but his father teaches him what he needs to survive and a secret that might just have given him more courage than he imagined he had for such a young kid.

So, A QUIET PLACE is truly scary in the sense that there are only fractions of moments where you hear the actors actually speak, the rest is sign language and pure adrenaline with every bit of acting on the faces of the characters. I absolutely loved every second of watching this cast because of that very reason.

I loved jumping, actually yelled and didn't realize it was me that yelled, held my breath and didn't realize I was doing it, and felt amazingly sad for this family. The storyline doesn't start out with any explanation as to what happened leaving that to the newspaper headlines that are about in Lee's workshop which means my mind was free to fill in the blanks.

This is actually a yarn spun in such a way that I was intrigued when the film first sent out the trailers. A film done mostly in silence? Wow, I knew then it was a film I had to see for myself. The audience for the screening was totally into every moment of the film and I had an extra jump as the lady next to me grabbed my arm! The scariest part of the film is actually seeing the fears that are totally believable by everyone in the audience unfold on the screen.

Let me make it clear - I would not survive in a silent world purely because, as I learned during the teen years, trying to be quiet meant the pressure to make that happen would definitely produce noise (just ask my sister Ellen!). That being said I also cringed at ever little creak, every little muffled sound and held my breath with every footstep the family took. That's what makes an amazing movie going experience - when you unknowingly become physically invested.

The story didn't give me a moment’s peace and I couldn't work on my bag of popcorn because I didn't want to be jumped by any creatures! In the midst of all the silence and insane creepy creatures - the writers and director Krasinski manages a moment of beauty between Lee and Evelyn and it made my heart melt. Of course I had to snap out of that quickly and walking out of the theatre my first thought was that I wanted to see A QUIET PLACE again.

John Krasinski took the story by Woods and Beck and directed right where it needs to be, straight into our fears. Well played sir, well played.

In the end - if they can hear you they can hunt you!