Monster Hunter is the latest video game adaptation film directed by Paul WS Anderson and stars his wife and action star Mila Jovovich. They together made entirely too many Resident Evil films (a series that got progressively worse – and dumber – and incomprehensible – as they went on). So I had very little hope in a Monster World movie. Not because I’m a huge Monster World fan… the truth is, I’ve only played Monster Hunter World for a handful of minutes. But because I don’t have faith in Anderson as a film maker who can put together coherent action scenes any longer.

So this – by all laws of gods and man – should be a terrible movie. So why did I kind of like it?!? It makes no sense.

Monster World stars Jovovich as an army ranger who accidentally leads her team through a mysterious portal and into another world. This Monster World is hostile and contains giant monsters that hunt them (and to which they in turn occasionally hunt). This is not the plot of the games, as far as I know. They have introduced a modern “our world” element, presumably to make the material more palatable to a movie audience. It’s weird since the movie is otherwise so upfront and unapologetic about its nerd cred, especially in the final act.

In fact, one of the things I actually liked about this film is that it doesn’t overexplain itself to the audience as if they were too stupid to understand the complex plot. Because, spoiler alert, it ain’t that complicated… but a lot of big dumb action flicks still have the need to fill the screen with plot explanations on the off chance us knuckle-dragging cavemen can’t understand what’s going on. No, indeed, after a very unfortunate opening sequence with the squad of army rangers who speak in nothing but clichés, much of this movie plays out without dialog. I was about to write “silently” but this movie is anything but quit…

Now, don’t get me wrong… this is still just a pretty average flick. It’s overly edited, overly produced, the dialog it does have is often kind of dumb, and the final act barely hangs together as a film. But it is all still serviceable. It’s not overly edited, not chopped all to hell… at least compared to the last few Resident Evil movies by the same director. I enjoyed watching Jovovich explore, fight back, make friends with a local, and do all the things necessary to survive.

But the sick, sad thing is that… despite my very low expectations… I started to enjoy myself watching this big goony flick. I haven’t got an excuse or an explanation other than the movie commits fully, doesn’t wink at the camera and pretend it’s not taking this seriously, and gets the job done as a big loud action adventure. It should suck… but somehow, against all odds, it doesn’t.

Score: 79