It goes without saying that 2018 has been a huge year for the Monster Hunter franchise. Monster Hunter World smashed all sorts of Capcom sales records and continues to thrive today thanks in large part to free updates and a recent release on the PC. With so much success, naturally, a movie adaptation was quickly put together and announced, though not much has been shared since that time. One of the stars of the movie recently posted an image of his character from the set, though it hasn't gotten the reception that the actor likely expected to see.

Diego Boneta, who plays a communication specialist known as Sergeant Marshall in the Monster Hunter movie, posted an image of his character, essentially giving fans their first look at a piece of the upcoming film. Surprisingly, the character wasn't dressed in monster inspired armor as seen in the games, instead sporting a very modern military style look including a combat knife and tactical vest. Not only that, the character is also holding a modern military rifle which seems to indicate that this film won't be directly following the footsteps established by the long running video game franchise.

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Needless to say, the 2,000 comments on this photo have largely been less than positive. Many are saying that this movie isn't Monster Hunter, while a few have openly questioned if some of the people working on the film have an understanding of what the game series actually is. It's an odd decision to release this first image of the movie which shows almost no similarities to what fans were expecting to see with many agreeing that this image aligns closer to Call of Duty than Monster Hunter.

Since being announced back in 2016, fans have continually worried that the movie would stray from the source material while attempting to cash in on the franchise's overwhelming success. With Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson, actress Mila Jovovich, and special effects team Mr. X all signed on for this Monster Hunter film, it's highly likely that the film will retain a familiar form and style. Without Capcom on hand to help steer the ship, the writers appear to be taking this movie adaptation in an entirely new direction based on the synopsis which mentions a United Nations military team falling into a portal and fighting off monsters from using the portal to invade Earth.

While the Resident Evil films proved to be divisive among fans of the video game franchise, it appears that Monster Hunter is heading down a similar path. Multiple movies are planned for this series, so it's possible the team could explore more traditional aspects down the road. Either way, Anderson's Resident Evil films have had success in the past, so not having the video game community on his side doesn't seem to be a deterrent.

Monster Hunter has begun principal photography but does not yet have a release date.

Source: Instagram