The upcoming Monster Hunter movie starring Milla Jovovich now has a release date, which means that hunters all across the world can gather to see the film in the fall of 2020. Monster Hunter is based on a popular video game series where teams of players fight giant monsters in order to make new armor and weapons out of their body parts.

The fan reaction to the first few set photos of Monster Hunter has so far been negative, due to the fact that the movie seems to be moving away from the story of the games by following a team of soldiers from Earth who somehow end up in the Monster Hunter world.

Related: Monster Hunter Movie Has Wrapped Production, Says Milla Jovovich

The production of the Monster Hunter movie has wrapped and the film is nearing completion, as Sony Pictures have revealed (via Deadline) that Monster Hunter now has a release date of September 4, 2020. Monster Hunter will be aiming for a Labor Day weekend release in 2020 where it so far has little in the way of competition, as the only other Hollywood movies that are being released during that period are The Conjuring 3 and The Croods 2. 

Monster Hunter is being developed by the same team that produced the Resident Evil movie franchise, which means that Capcom is trying to stick with a winning formula, as the Resident Evil series brought in over a billion dollars at the box office. The film is being directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and will star Milla Jovovich, with many of the creative people who worked on the Resident Evil movies also working on Monster Hunter. 

The story of Monster Hunter involves a team of United Nations soldiers who travel through a portal into a world populated by giant monsters, where they must learn how to fight in the same manner as the locals in order to close the portal and prevent the monsters from being able to travel to Earth. The UN team is led by Captain Natalie Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and must learn the art of monster fighting from The Hunter (Tony Jaa) in order to survive.

The fan backlash against the idea of using real-world soldiers in a Monster Hunter game is understandable, but the reason it exists is due to budgetary reasons. It's going to be a lot more expensive to make a Monster Hunter movie than a Resident Evil one, as the former involves giant monsters that have incredible agility and will require a ton of special effects to come to life, while the latter involves putting zombie makeup on some actors. It's understandable that the filmmakers would want to set part of the Monster Hunter movie on Earth in order to keep costs down, even if it means using a story that's reminiscent of Captain N: The Game Master.

More: Monster Hunter Movie Set Photos Offer First Look At Game Adaptation

Monster Hunter arrives in theaters on September 4, 2020.

Source: Deadline