Harris Jr., Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung, and Ron Perlman.

The film follows Artemis (Jovovich) and her loyal soldiers when they are transported to a new world, where they engage in a battle for survival against enormous monsters with incredible powers.

Principal photography on the film began on October 5, 2018 and was completed on December 19, 2018, in Cape Town, South Africa.

There a Hunter, a warrior trained to hunt and kill these powerful creatures, is separated from his team when their ship is attacked by the Diablos, a horned subterranean monster.

The Hunter reveals they will need to kill the Diablos in order to cross the desert safely and reach the tower.

Artemis learns how to fight using the Hunter's unique bladed weapons and helps him set a trap for the Diablos to kill it with Nerscylla venom.

When a Rathalos, a fire-breathing wyvern, flies by and causes the Apceros to stampede, Artemis and the Hunter are rescued by a group led by the Admiral.

In a mid-credits scene, Palico, the Admiral's cat-like companion, arrives to help fight the Gore Magala, while an ominous cloaked figure observes the battle from the top of the tower.

In 2012, Resident Evil director Paul W. S. Anderson was then-rumored to be in talks to direct a film adaptation of the Monster Hunter franchise.

[12][13] Within a couple years from his introduction to the games, Anderson said he had started discussions with Capcom about securing the rights to make the film.

[14] During the September 2016 Tokyo Game Show Capcom producer Ryozo Tsujimoto stated that a live-action Monster Hunter film was in development within Hollywood.

Anderson said he was drawn to the Monster Hunter property, not only because of the series' popularity, but also for the "incredibly beautiful, immersive world they've created".

[18] According to Anderson, the success of the most recent game of the series at the time, Monster Hunter: World, which was developed by Capcom in early 2018 for a worldwide release rather than a limited Japanese one, led many film distributors to seek out potential for a Monster Hunter film only to discover he had already locked up the rights.

[18] Special effects studio Mr. X VFX, which worked on the Resident Evil films, were also involved in the production.

[27] The studio spent just $1.3 million on television ads in the week leading up to the film's U.S. release (compared to the $17 million Warner Bros. spent promoting Wonder Woman 1984), with Deadline Hollywood stating "likely Sony is holding back some of the minimal marketing dollars to spend this coming week".

[29] The film was originally scheduled to be released on September 4, 2020,[30] but was delayed to April 23, 2021,[31] due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being moved up to December 30, then finally the Christmas date.

[45] Screen Rant reported a "mixed to negative" response, with praise for its action sequences and visual effects but criticism of film's "oversaturated genre trappings" as well as its direction and editing.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Monster Hunter is mostly a mindless blur of action, held together by the slenderest threads of dialogue and plot – and exactly what many viewers will be looking for.

[28] Peter Debruge of Variety wrote, "There will be critics who can tell you who these characters are, or what's up with the 'new world' where monsters live, or why those of us in the 'old world' should be worried about them, but that information is not presented in this visually interesting but narratively anemic motion picture (nor the press notes, for that matter), so please accept my apologies in advance: This review will likely be about as coherent as the film itself.

[50] The reaction to the film also caused Chinese users to review bomb Monster Hunter: World in reference to the lines.

[52] Jin said that for his character, the line was "to proudly proclaim he is a Chinese soldier, not just his knees, but his arms, his head, his heart".

To the contrary – at its heart our movie is about unity", and that the line had been removed from all international versions of the film prior to their releases.