This review may contain spoilers
"Everyone wants to be with family"
If I thought the original Monster Hunt was a fevered sugar dream, Monster Hunt 2 said, "hold my soda." The first Monster Hunt movie had plenty of death and some monster gore. MH2 replaced the darker elements with more cuteness and bodily function jokes. MH1 threw as many movie themes as they could at the screen to see if something would stick. MH2 decided to not develop or continue most of the mysteries from the first movie and just went with "Ohana means family" to quote Lilo and Stitch.MH2 begins after new couple Song and Huo left baby squid monster Wuba in the Monster Realm for his own good. In their gender reversal of roles, Huo continues to berate Song as the woman ever since he was pregnant with the radish monster. Song, despite his use of his father's sword in the previous film, is still pretty useless in battle and suffering from postpartum depression. Song and Huo have some second thoughts about leaving Wuba, especially after watching a mother monster and her child after their capture by the Monster Hunter Bureau. Even in captivity the family is happy to be together.
Taiwanese actor Tony Yang plays the helpful head of the Monster Hunter Bureau. He confirms that Song's father disappeared 10 years ago and that wraps up everything about that mystery for this movie. I guess they are saving the discovery of the father for the next one. Song and Huo decide to find Wuba using the mystical method of the MHB. Fortunately, the little fanged tooth monster prince is nearby.
They lucked out because after they left the little radish in the monster realm, the monsters had a rousing Bollywood number crashed by bad monsters after Wuba. The little guy ended up on the run and back in the human realm.
You know there's not enough story when the majority of it is spent on veteran actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai instead of the main characters and dangling plot points from the first film. Despite his film pedigree he fully committed to his role as gambling scam artist Tu who uses monsters to help him cheat, often while he wears outlandish disguises. Aside from a long list of creditors and scam victims, he was also troubled by a love interest he owed money to as well. As movie coincidence would have it, a hunted Wuba is saved by BenBen, Tu's monster partner in crime. There were numerous scams and colorful chases through the businesses and towns, leading the story nowhere. At first Tu is only interested in using Wuba to pay off his debts but even a child could see the redemption story coming from a mile away.
Song and Huo are finally reunited with Wuba, Tu seemingly abandons them, and the real villains reveal themselves which will not be a surprise to anyone. Another story that gains no traction in this film is Wubo's royal blood and how he is supposed to unite the human and monster realms. He also doesn't drink blood in this one as he did in the previous film.
The theme that is repeated ad nauseam is that sometimes parents have to go away to better provide or protect their children but that they always miss them. "There's no greater pain than being separated from family." "Everyone wants to be with family." Perhaps it's because some parents have to leave their children to go elsewhere to work to provide for them, but whatever the source, the film makes sure everyone gets the emotional thrust of the writing.
The costumes and sets were well done, looking almost steam punk in design. The CGI was much improved, the strange monsters combined perfectly with the live action and the green screen use was seamless. All the money thrown at this one after the first film raked it in definitely showed up on the screen. The monster realm's lavender covered tall rock formations were beautiful. Also, both Tonys gave a bit of acting gravitas to the film.
MH2 was an extremely colorful, fast paced, bouncing, spinning, spitting, place holder until the 3rd film inevitably comes out and hopefully answers the questions asked in the first film. Aside from reuniting the little human/monster family and possibly adding a couple of new characters, nothing really happened to forward the story. Though gentler in nature that its predecessor, it lacked the sort of impact that would make it memorable. MH2 was a frothy lesson in style over substance and a sinfully sweet exercise in treading cotton candy until the real story shows up.
2/13/23
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