Monsters Review

Rating: 4/5

I'd like you imagine something for me. Imagine yourself in one of those funky walkthrough zoos. Imagine you're walking through one of the exhibits with your friends, family, a tour guide, whatever. Now imagine that you hear a noise. The noise gets louder, and trees begin to move. You look up and see a hundred foot tall creature, with octopus-like tentacles and a mysterious glow in its center. Whatever it is, it's like nothing on earth. You don't move, and the creature might notice you, but it barely gives you any attention, and moves on. This isn't an invasion, or a radioactive beast from Japan. This is an animal in nature.

Moving on, in the near future, NASA sent a probe to a moon of Pluto, and it brought something back. Six years later, the north half of Mexico is "the infected zone," and whatever NASA brought back has made itself at home. America quickly built a wall to keep the infection out, leaving Mexico to its own devices. Andrew Kaulder is a journalist instructed to bring his boss' daughter back to the U.S. After a series of setbacks, the two have to cross through the infected zone in order to get home.

First things first: despite the title, this is not a monster movie. It is for this reason that a lot of people will not like it. Another reason is that the creatures themselves don't do a lot of destroying. However, saying this movie sucks because the two main characters are annoying and the monsters aren't "monstrous" enough is an argument one kind of person will use: fanboys. The reason for this is because fanboys of alien movies like District 9 and...Alien need to have human-esque aliens, or at least threatening ones. These aliens look nothing like humans, and don't attack anyone unless attacked first. As a result, most negative reviews are fanboy reviews, so please, ignore them.

Anyway, director Gareth Edwards makes a shockingly unique and interesting portrayal of alien life forms. The squiddy things in this movie are not intelligent, nor are they hostile. They simply are life from another planet. Edwards asks us to imagine what it would be like if those yak things the Tusken Raiders ride on in Star Wars roamed the earth instead of Jawas. These aliens are animals, plain and simple, and we refuse to adapt to them.

What this movie really is is a romantic drama with aliens. Both Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able are very convincing and act/look like normal people would. The effects of the rarely seen (which adds to the mystery) monsters are also good, especially considering one guy did it by himself. The script is a bit slow at times, but knows where it's going and what it wants to be. The only problem I had was the ending. It takes place immediately after a fascinating and beautiful scene, and is lackluster. Overall, if you can find this movie near you and you're willing to not see it as a fanboy or with one, go see Monsters.