Monster Hunt (2015)

The first must-see film of the year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

What would happen if you took the digitally animated creatures from nearly any Disney or Pixar film and inserted them into a martial arts flick with a touch of comedy added in for good measure? You'd get one heck of a fun movie is what. And it's already been made, ready for viewing! Made in China, MONTER HUNT tells the story of an ancient history when monsters and man lived side by side at one time. Fearful of the monsters man drove them out to a land all their own required never to return. But something is happening and the monsters are slowly crossing back into our world.A civil war has broken out among the monsters. The monster queen is with child and the evil monsters are quickly tracking her down. Aided by a several good monsters, she heads to the world of man in the hopes of finding sanctuary there for her and her child. But the odds are against her as humans still fear the monsters and monster hunters track them down for the bounty on them.Enter Song Tianyin, the harmless mayor of a small town on the fringe of the separation between these two worlds. Brow beaten by his aunts he seems less a leader and more a follower. But somehow the queen lands up in his hut and sends her unborn child into him before dying. We now have a pregnant man! At the same time a female monster hunter has shown in the area named Huo Xiaolan. But rather than harm the child she helps Song deal with his "pregnancy" and then protect the child.The two are off on an adventure that will find them followed by both monsters and monster hunters. Along the way they'll get assistance from two fairly comedic monsters who were the protectors of the queen and now this new monster child. Yes the child, Wuba, is born and that leads to problems as well since it is a newborn and curious. Along the way both monster and human villains will unite to try and kill the child. But some things are just not what they seem and heroes will rise in the most unlikely places.There are strengths and weaknesses in the film but that never stopped it from being a huge money maker in China. It was the highest grossing film in history in that country until the release of THE MERMAID in 2016. It's easy to see why as the film offers plenty for everyone, from children to adults alike.Perhaps the weakest part of the film is the monsters themselves. None are particularly frightening, the main character of Wuba looking more like a cross between a plant and the Pillsbury doughboy. Even the dangerous monsters aren't all that scary. But perhaps that's a good thing when you consider that small children are the target audience for films like these. At the same time there is plenty to keep adults interested as well.To begin with the best parts of the film are the interaction between the two lead characters. It's a nice role reversal here with the woman being the stronger fighter of the two and the man more the comedic foil for all that goes on. While at odds with one another when they first meet a mutual attraction develops. Perhaps this isn't a rom com but that element is there in small part.The action and martial arts moments in the film are fun to watch. The wire work on display is fascinating and entertains at all times. The special effects are well done and not overused. But best of all is that all of these elements combine to make an entertaining and fun movie to watch. And for those who hate subtitles don't fear, the film is dubbed. This is one that the whole family can enjoy together and one I highly recommend.

So this is the highest grossing film in China Right now? Well so far it seems that my local cinema has been given me one of China's blockbusters every week. From Mojin: the lost treasure to Detective Chinatown. I like those movies so I thought a movie about hunting monsters would be a grand slam. This did not happen for me. I was not expecting a movie so catered for children, which became completely obvious the moment the cute little monsters dominated the screen. For the first ten minutes I thought I was in the wrong theater watching a CGI animated movie. Even the monsters that were suppose to be scary were too cute to be taken seriously.I also did not know how much watching the non-3D version would lesson my experience as the 2D version was in an English dubbed that seem to be paying homage to Kung fu flicks of the past with it's awfulness. It's not funny when you're doing the bad dub on purpose, and I think the whole story may have fallen out of whack because of it. The Chinese seem to be making these big budget films that can rival American blockbusters and I'm into it, just not real into Monster hunt. I found this adventure to be real boring to the point where it got painful to get through.

Monster Hunt begins telling the history of the war between mankind and monsters, when the humans won, the monsters have separated themselves from them until years later, their queen escaped while bearing a child who will become the prince and being tracked down by other monsters and a human army. The opening doesn't bring anything fresh within its backstory, the actual plot doesn't get any less original either, when we cut to a young hero who doesn't get any luck after this plot came and other colorful set of character join to his journey. Despite of these done to death tropes and premise, the movie however brought something appealing, and that's definitely how seriously weird it is. It's packed with a lot of amusingly strange ideas which becomes its own personality. It's good if it runs less than two hours. The stock plot doesn't get any better and the climax feels a little too long for its own good. But to what it is, there is something delightful to its weirdness.So the hero lives in a small village, he lives with a relative anyone but his parents, he feels like an outcast, an underdog, etc. At this point of this film, it's just totally uninteresting witnessing the same tropes, even without trying to make its own spin out of it. And then he discovered that there is more to this world than what he has always knew. There is a girl who is stronger than him... is this even worth paraphrasing? You get the bottom line, however, the film gets better when it shifts to being downright weird. The pregnant queen can transfer her egg to another womb, which is given to the male hero. And this little antic is actually quite amusing. After the laboring, the movie continues to play off the concept as they raise this little monster. It's a delight, but it still doesn't help the plot that much.Even before the climax comes, it's still felt uncertain where the story is going. It feels a little busy playing around to some of its side villains. Now when it comes to the actual climax, it would have gone better if it was shorter than it was. And then a twist reveals that is kind of generic. There just isn't much to it, the story between the relationship of the monsters and humans remain thin. It's the main characters and the baby prince is the only strong moments in here.And to be fair, before the climax that eventually wears off, the pacing is kind of nice, making every moment reasonably entertaining. The action scenes are watchable. The special effects are alright, though the only likable digital creature is the prince which is admittedly adorable. The performances seem to be having fun on what they're doing, bringing energy into this film's silly nature of being a cartoon.That's pretty much what Monster Hunt mostly feels like, a cartoon. Yeah, the tropes and plot are pretty stock, but it really gets more interesting when it's getting weirder and weirder, from a pregnant male protagonist to some dark sense of humor it keeps things entertaining. I sort of wished they establish more of this mythology and how this monster prince can change their world, but the movie doesn't have much of that opportunity. To what it is, it's fun, though I wish it was a little shorter, or spent those other minutes to develop the fantasy stuff. But the main characters eventually become charming, in spite of how faulty the plot is. Monster Hunt is entertaining for the outrageous stuff alone.

unpredictable storyline and jokes, with lots of surprise, fantastic jokes. with beautiful settings design, fun and smart fighting scene. good acting, even thou its a comedy movie, but the mood and sad scene really come thru well. some of the monster design is too simple, but the main monster design is quit cute, and relatable. the story and character is well build in this movie. the scenery is very beautiful. and the the set even feel like an RPG and fantasy land in a very realistic way. the concept of the world is very well build. both female and male main character acting is very good, and the relationship story grows in a natural ways. and the expression of the monster huba is also very cute , and his character is very well build as a baby. the CGI is in very good, and each hunter have different sets of skills, and unique equipment, making the fight much more interesting. with unique gimmick, and features. and how they slowly give teach that love is more important than money, is shown very well.