Monsters

I gotta confess: I don't like a lot of the movies that come out of film festivals. They're typically dramas, are super liberal, and get the liberal critics all excited because they think they've found the next greatest film ever.
Yeah right. Dramas take a lot to separate themselves from the rest of the crowd, and since film festivals are rife with them, the likelihood of such an event is very low. Add a hyper-liberal slant to these films and you've got a film I'll avoid like the plague.
So imagine my surprise when, about three years back, I started paying attention to an upcoming festival film that was gaining a lot of attention from the public, as well as critics. I was even more surprised it legitimately seemed to be good, and a unique film that was bringing something new to the world of film. Unfortunately, once it came here in the US, I had a hard time even finding out what happened to it, and finding a DVD of the film was near impossible.

Soon after, a little bit of information suddenly made seeing this film a little more urgent: Gareth Edwards was picked by Legendary Pictures to direct their upcoming film, Godzilla. Being a die-hard G fan, seeing this man's one and only previous work suddenly became more important, as viewing it would give me a glimpse if his biggest project ever would be what the franchise needed to resurrect. Thankfully, I managed to find a $5 copy at a local K-Mart, and decided to pop it in. So here it is, I present the subject of my latest review: Monsters.

Plot: Six years ago, NASA discovered the possibility of alien life in the borders of our own solar system. A probe was sent out to investigate but broke up during re-entry over Mexico. Shortly after, new life forms began to appear, and a large portion of Mexico was dubbed THE INFECTED ZONE. Even now, both the US and Mexican military struggle to contain 'the creatures...'



The Cast: Scoot McNairy as Andrew Kaulder
Whitney Able as Samantha Wynden



The Positives:

- First off, the premiere thing that this film did right was build a wonderfully believable and established universe. Though the idea behind the film is sci-fi, Gareth Edwards did a brilliant job. The believability and development of this film's world  stands among the greatest sci-fi worlds like District 9 and Pacific Rim, a compliment I do not say lightly. It's THAT good.

- The main cast involves just two people for almost the entire portion of the film, so the acting automatically has to be excellent. Thankfully, McNairy and Able both deliver great performances, and I loved watching them perform their craft.

- The characters, just as the acting, need to be engaging and sympathetic to the characters. Thankfully, not only are they engaging, but their stories are revealed, and the characters themselves have development throughout the film to keep them interesting. I enjoyed watching the film primarily because of them being characters I cared about.

- The film though at first sight seems to be a sci-fi film, or a horror film of sorts, is actually a drama/romance with a science fiction background. You'd think such an idea would fall on its face, but the execution is so flawless that it's pulled of wonderfully.

- The special effects are all done by one man: Director, producer, writer, cinematographer, and visual effects artist Gareth Edwards. He put a lot of effort into this film, and it really does show. I have heard criticisms that he did most of his special effects during night scenes so as to cover up any mistakes that might be made, but I consider that tactical planning. To make sure his effects would hold up longer. They may not look as good now, but they're still pretty well done.

- The romance in the film is not the typical heavy-handed fare. Most films have either a steamy romance that is overly sexual or we have one that just... well, kind of just happens. Monsters takes its time throughout the film, and I was particularly pleased. It was a gentle romance, not pushing itself on the audience like a drunk lover but instead was a pleasure to watch and I felt like it was much more real.

- The creatures themselves, though alien in origin, aren't the usual freaky beings from another world that most American films tend to portray large aliens as. Instead, their design is revealed bit by bit, with pictures and drawings and video footage, and have a simplistic design. It's definitely foreign, but not unfriendly to the viewer.

- The creatures are given a personality. I cannot applaud this enough, as it is in the vein of Japanese kaiju films that turned the monsters into characters that the viewer invested in. Though we don't see much of our film's aliens, you learn a lot about them and why they attack human beings.

- The moments that the creatures ARE in the film, however, are plenty tense and extremely interesting. The moments aren't very long, but they were extremely cool.

- The film, for the most part, is a pretty clean movie content-wise. It's rated R, yes, but I've watched this thing myself and I'd say it's somewhat due to a technicality more than anything. Kinda nice to have a film that isn't completely disgusting.

- The ending is horrible. Not in the manner that it's bad, but- OK, I can't really say what happens without spoiling things, but it made me feel wretched. The suddenness, and the realization of a piece you missed early on put me on edge.

- The film BEGS for a sequel. The universe of this film is barely explored, and deserves a second look. Thankfully, they started filming Monsters 2: Dark Continent earlier this year, with much of the same crew, so my wish will eventually come true.



The Negatives:

- There were moments that I wished the characters spoke more. I felt that the script could have used more dialogue, more explanation of the character's feelings and actions. However...

- The film, for the most part, is just the story of our two characters. Really, not very much happens in it at all. It's got a great atmosphere, and is an interesting movie, but if you need a really exciting film to stay engaged this movie will lose you pretty quickly. It's the film's biggest flaw.
- The nature of the creatures is a bit typical nowadays. Somewhat cliché, you could say. It works, but not superbly original. Oh well.



The Final Word:

There's no reason to beat around the bush. I was seriously impressed by Monsters, and found a lot in it to enjoy. I don't think it quite lived up to the hype that surrounded the film, but it was extremely satisfying nonetheless. But what was most important to me was that is erased any nervousness I had about a rookie director taking the helm of my favorite film franchise. It's extremely evident that Edwards knows how to create meaningful and well-developed characters, but what matters most is that he knows how to make a sci-fi idea be grounded in a real world setting and feel believable. It's something that's critical to the nature of a science fiction universe, so when he pulls it off as well as he does, it gives me a happy face. Perhaps have more action in his films later on, but Monsters succeeds in what it tries to achieve. An engaging tale of two souls traveling through the most dangerous place in the world.
If you get the chance, I'd suggest you watch this online somewhere, as I managed to just glimpse my copy in a bargain bin and got lucky. If you have Netflix, seriously give this a watch. It will not disappoint.



The Score: 8.9/10