One thing I don't like is hype, when it's paraded around a film. Gareth Edward's Monsters got some major hype before its release and even though I think the film stands on its own quite well, I think the hype was over the top.
Its been six years since an alien species has invaded earth and the film follows a journalist named Andrew, (Scoot McNairy) who is assigned the responsibility to take an american tourist Samantha (Whitney Able) back home. To do this they must cut through an infected area of Mexico. As the journey goess on the two grow closer to each other.
Monsters gives off quite an unusal feeling when I watched it. On the one hand, I felt myself getting restless because it never really does anything that interesting with its quite exciting set up. But on the other hand I was drawn to the core relationship between Samantha and Andrew. The film may be called Monsters but the massive creatures that are in the film, are rarely seen and in the end, are quite pointless. I went into the film expecting a Monster movie, but what I got was a very bizarre romantic road trip, with some big squids walking around in the background.
The performances from the two leads are pitch perfect. Whitney Able is really impressive here, as she gives this pondering film a heart. Her relationship with McNairy is very real and interesting but it ultimately ends in a very unsatisfactory way. The idea of having this relationship mixed with massive monsters is not actually a bad idea, but it is a bad move here because the monsters never really effect the lead characters lives other than they meet because of the alien infection area.
Even though I was left a little short-changed at the end of Monsters, I also enjoyed much of the film. The scenery and locations are shot beautifully and the two leads impress greatly, it's just a pity that they weren't apart of a more meaningful movie.
RATING:
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