Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild is another attempt to transfer the famous Capcom brand to the movie. How did it go this time?
Monster Hunter is a very rich universe and no wonder, because it has been developed since 2004. There are new characters, locations, weapons and, of course, more title monsters. Until now, the brand has not been lucky with films, and last year's production with Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa in the lead role turned out to be a failure that had little to do with the Capcom series. Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild takes a completely different path - it's a computer animation, not an actor's movie, and there are plenty of references to games here.
The story presented in the film is very simple. The main character, Aiden, dreams of being a real hunter. This dream is quickly fulfilled when it turns out that his village is on the path of the extremely formidable Elder Dragon, Lunastra. The protagonist joins forces with the experienced Julian and together they organize a group that will undertake a seemingly impossible task: eliminate a huge, deadly monster.
The structure of Legends of the Guild is very similar to the Monster Hunter games, and Aiden is a character that players can relate to. Everyone started at some point and also did not fully understand how to behave during hunting alongside much more experienced companions. So here we have a lot of mishaps, gradual learning of tactics, and even getting better and better equipment over time (starting with makeshift armor made of ... pans). Oh, the classic path from zero to hero, which we have seen in the cinema many times. At every step, we are also inundated with references to games: we see known weapons, items, monsters, and even attacks. This is a nice springboard after the 2020 movie, although players can get tired of it after some time, and for people who do not know the games, terms such as "melynx" or "paragrzyb" will be simply incomprehensible. Just like the jokes served by Aiden and Nox, because humor, like in Capcom's productions, is very specific here and you can love or hate it.
The movie is only 58 minutes long and of course this has an impact on the production pace. The events follow one another very quickly and do not give you even a moment to rest. On the one hand, it makes it difficult to complain about boredom, because something happens every now and then, on the other hand, there was no time to focus on the characters. So we don't get to know their stories or motivations, and the nature of each of them can be described with one or two adjectives. While watching, it was like watching a cutscene from a game or a series that was turned into a movie at the last minute.
After watching the trailer, I had a lot of concerns about the style of the animation. Fortunately, they turned out to be unfounded - at least in part, because I couldn't get used to the character's face throughout almost the entire screening. Everything else looks very good, and the best impression is made by the monsters themselves, which look like they were transferred from the games. All the battles between heroes and monsters also look great. They are effective, hunters use characteristic weapons (including twin blades or a bow-arrow), and the monsters do not owe them and repay them with characteristic abilities.
As a Monster Hunter fan, I just had a good time - the action scenes were solid, and catching the flavor from the games was quite satisfying. However, you have to reckon with the fact that Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild is a movie that was created specifically for fans of this universe. People who have not dealt with it so far, will probably not like it, because there is absolutely nothing innovative about it.