Paul WS Anderson’s Monster Hunter, starring his wife and actor Milla Jovovich in the lead, is based on Capcom’s video-game franchise of the same name and follows a group of American marines who are pulled into another world by way of a portal.

The new world, in which the video-games are set, is the home to giant monsters, and a ‘hunter’ (Tony Jaa) who kills the said monsters. What follows next forms the rest of the story while Tip “T. I.” Harris, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung and Ron Perlman are also seen in pivotal roles.

While the trailer did promise us mostly escapist stuff, what we see on the screen is less than impressive. The action gets mindless beyond a point with the dialogues and the plot too adding to the chaos.

Monster Hunter opens with a desert chase which is more or less a trailer to the things to come - hastily put together and largely lacking coherence but might work for a select few looking for guilty pleasure.

One could argue that video-game adaptations have always been a double-edged sword capable of going either way and in Monster Hunter’s case, it just goes one way and doesn’t come close to a near-decent adaptation.

Interactions between Artemis (Jovovich) and Hunter (Tony Jaa) are among the few strengths of the film and all we could have hoped for is for Jaa’s character to have been infused with a little more depth. Jovovich impresses with her near- flawless acting chops even if the listless script doesn’t allow much.

The film is just a little over a 100 minutes and we ain’t sure what the editor could have done to make the proceedings better.

All in all, Monster Hunter doesn’t make up for a bad watch if all you are looking for is some mindless entertainment on a lazy afternoon.