Good watch, could watch again, and can recommend. I'm not a real fan of the video game, so I think I can safely say that you don't need to know anything from the game other than it has "big monsters". The only thing I really see from the video game world is that the characters sort of "level up" as the movie progresses. I guess it sort of does world building in the same way by having "levels" or areas, but that's much more subtle. The movie uses isolation in several different ways and has some clever uses of limited resources to solve problems, but it is quite a bit of just fighting big monsters. I can't say that you'll enjoy this if you're into Kaiju movies, even though it has quite a bit of creature feature aspects to it. Worth the watch, but not exactly the most substantial story.

Okay, what to say? It's not the worst I've seen, and I think it could have been better. The Resident Evil chick is a consistantly above average action star. I put her up there as a female Bruce Willis or Jason Statham. And she delivered in this movie the same pazazz as her other action flicks. The Story, like the budget, was not that deep. And if there was significant money put into this movie, then I don't think it measured up to expectations; producer nor fan. Again, the movie was not terrible, but I didn't exactly move to the edge of my seat either. The fight between her and her soon to be friend, was a bit...contrived. To me, it was his world, she wasn't an elite soldier, and he was an experienced hunter, so while their fight was well coordinated, I had an especially difficult time believing she could keep up with the hunter in a fight; had to mark it up as movie-magic or "it's in the script." Special effects were good for what they were and the actors did a good job of acting. I don't think the star spent enough time interacting with the Monster Hunter world. I get they were out in the middle of nowhere, but having her go through a city or market to find a 'macguffin' to help with getting her home, might have added a bit more submersion for the audience. But just putting her in a set of Monster Hunter armor and spending 5 minutes on their sand-ship felt like what it was, cheap or 'shot-on-a-budget.' The ending was okay too. I like how the dragon took out the modern aircraft, and was impressed how they were able to shoot everything in the daytime and still make it look feasible to the action. If there is a sequel, then I hope they get a bit more Conan-ny with the overall feel; i.e., more Monster Hunter world & residents. (no pun intended) The movie is not terrible, but I won't be rushing out to get a copy, nor looking for it online. It's entertaining for a Netchix n' Chill night.