YMMV / Monster Hunter (2020)

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The earliest previews of the film killed almost all interest in it right from the start from the primary game fanbase because it featured the bizarre introduction of the human military in a Trapped in Another World plot (which tend to be highly contentious already) that was never in any of the games, and that it was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who has gained infamy for his very loose and largely reviled Resident Evil Film Series, and was now given the reins of another treasured Capcom franchise and shoehorning his wife as the grizzled Action Girl hero again. Fans of the game were turned off by the unnecessary cross-dimensional military story elements that overshadow the rest of the movie, while general audiences and fans alike would be turned off by the director's entire prior filmography being schlock, and Monster Hunter obviously being more of the same. These factors, plus a one-off line that was interpreted as a Sinophobic insult and led to the movie being pulled from Chinese theatres and review-bombed by Chinese viewers, and releasing in theatres in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic led to the film financially bombing.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Why destroy the Tower, when humans on the other side with much less advanced technology have ways of dealing with the monsters, and the potential economic benefits of trade between different worlds are huge?
• Older Than They Think: Despite all the rage the film had with showing modern weapons and military vehicles, this is not exactly the first time Monster Hunter monsters were fought using modern weaponry like guns, as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker had, admittedly non-canon, missions where players fought iconic Monster Hunter enemies and even a full cutscene where Big Boss talks to a Felyne. It should be noted however that those missions featured Monster Hunter monsters appearing in the world of Metal Gear and not the other way around.
• Tainted by the Preview: Almost all interest for the film was killed instantly when the first announcements said who was directing, who was starring, what the synopsis stated the story was about, and behind-the-scenes photos of modern military vehicles (which have never been a part of any Monster Hunter game), leading most Monster Hunter fans to predict this film would be a repeat of the director-actor duo's previous Capcom game series adaptation, Resident Evil Film Series, with all the flaws of those adaptations repeated again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The Hunter's teammates include characters from Monster Hunter: World, but they only show up halfway through the movie and barely have any screen time compared to Artemis and the Hunter.
  • Artemis's squadmates have decent enough chemistry with one another. Too bad they all get killed off one by one during the first half.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The entire subplot of Artemis learning to communicate across the interworld language barrier disappears with little fanfare following the arrival of the Admiral, who conveniently speaks fluent, accent-less English.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Several fans were turned off from the movie as a result of its Darker and Edgier tone compared to its source material. For starters, the first act is just Alpha team trying to escape the Diablos before it abruptly shifts to horror once the Nerscyllas show up. Following that, Artemis and the Hunter start on very hostile terms, with Artemis going out of her way to be an asshole towards the Hunter out of spite, and it takes a while for them to warm up to one another.
• Video Game Movies Suck: While not considered horrendously awful, general consensus is the film is a bland and largely incoherent mess of a story existing solely to string together CGI action set-pieces and does little to stand out from other mediocre SFX-focused action movies or utilize its source material meaningfully.

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