In Monster Hunter, Milla Jovovich plays an outsider. Her character, a ranger of the American army named Artemis, is mysteriously transported from our world to a fantastic empire filled with giant and dangerous monsters. American soldiers are not something you will find in Capcom’s Monster Hunter games. But Jovovich believes that Artemis helped to provide an important perspective – to almost serve as an attack for a player who had their first experience with a Monster Hunter games.
‘If my character is transported to the Monster Hunter world I could see it with the same eyes as when I first saw the game, ”she says The edge. ‘I was just like’ Whoa, it’s so beautiful. ‘We really wanted people to feel that way when they watched the movie, or when they were playing the game for the first time. ”
Jovovich says she was introduced to the franchise by her husband, Monster Hunter director Paul WS Anderson, who ‘has been obsessed with this property for over ten years.’ Eventually he got the rights to the franchise and went through a few iterations of a text. But only after the story was rewritten did Jovovich take the lead that things really clicked.
There was also something about the fictional universe that spoke to her. Monster Hunter is not a typical kaiju story with giant creatures destroying the world. You will not do Godzilla wrong. Rather, it is about a place where mankind is deeply invested in the natural world around them. In the games, you not only hunt monsters to kill them; you use it to make food, weapons and other objects. It’s all about survival, and it gives Monster Hunter a unique atmosphere compared to other action games, with a slow, methodical game based on careful planning and preparation.
“I really like the feeling that I have to use every part of the animal, and there is no waste,” says Jovovich. There are even scenes in the movie where settled monsters are used well, just like in the game.
She says she could better understand this aspect of the universe by playing Monster Hunter. This experience also helped to inform her character’s fighting style. In the film, Artemis joins forces with a local hunter, played by Tony Jaa, and the two have very different techniques. Jaa uses a massive glass, while Artemis eventually adopts some blades (which are set on fire at some point). “I really liked the double blades, and there are certain movements that go along with the double blades that we wanted to film,” she explains. But the two different fighting styles were not the original plan.
“At first I felt like our fighting styles seemed too much, in the sense that the choreographer gave me some cool moves, but they just felt like martial arts,” says Jovovich. ‘I was like, I just feel like my character can’t do a butterfly kick. This is not her training. Her training as a soldier would be much closer … While the martial arts that Tony does are so much more cinematic and beautiful. I felt it was good to let him do those things, and then have a lot of different fighting style for us. Because it’s more realistic, but also that I was more interesting to our characters. ‘
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Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Adapting an existing property is always a tricky proposition. Fans have preconceived expectations, and it can be difficult to meet them, while also being accessible to new audiences. This is something that Jovovich and Anderson are experienced with because they worked together in the long run. Resident Evil series, which also happens to be based on a Capcom game. The new movie presents a slightly different challenge. Since the release of Monster Hunter World, the franchise is as popular as ever, but it’s still not exactly a household name.
“If you have a 90-minute version, you will always have to make certain sacrifices,” she explains. ‘If it were Monster Hunter the TV show, it would be very different. You will have a lot more time to spend on small details. The most important thing for us to make a movie was to have the spirit of the game. ”
Monster Hunter is now available digitally and will appear on Blu-Ray and DVD from 2 March.