Monsters is set in a present day Earth where six years ago alien life was found in the solar system, however while returning with samples a NASDA spaceship crash landed in Mexico & now half the country is described as an 'Infected Zone' with giant alien creatures roaming around. American photojournalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) is on assignment in San Jose in Mexico when he gets a call to pick up his bosses daughter Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able) from hospital & escort her to safely across the Mexican border & back to the US. They have to pay thousands of dollars to get a ticket on a ferry to take them to the border but their passports are stolen & they become stranded, the two manage to pay a local man to arrange transport through the infected zone which is inhabited by the alien creatures which poses all sorts of dangers...
This British production was photographed, written & directed by Gareth Edwards & he also created the special visual effects & chipped in as production designer so Monsters is pretty much his baby, while Monsters has an intriguing premise & isn't a total failure with certain aspects going for it I just found it a hard film to enjoy. Despite being called Monsters there are barely any monsters in it, the script is far more interested in character driven drama as we get to know the two leads & take the same journey as them through their perspective. In fact we barely see the alien creatures at all & the film wouldn't have been that much different if they had been removed with Andrew & Samantha merely trying to make it back to the US under more mundane circumstances which does seem a little bit of a waste, I mean the potential was here for a terrific sci-fi drama but while there's plenty of drama the makers forgot about the sci-fi. I just expected something different & I think most people sitting down to watch Monsters will, if you read the plot outline I am sure you will be expecting a different sort of film than this one. The fact that I didn't like either Andrew or Samantha as character's didn't help, I found it impossible to care about them, what happened to them or their situation. At 90 odd minutes I must admit I found Monsters quite dull & while the script goes for a low key naturalistic realism I couldn't get involved in the story to any great degree.
As an alien invasion film all of the action takes place after the invasion as it were, there are constant reminders in the background from news reports on telly to the military presence & the alien creatures shrieking noises that add a little foreboding ambiance but the film ultimately never delivers. The special effects are pretty good, there's barely any scenes of the aliens but they look alright all the same. Monsters draws comparisons to another realistic style monster film Cloverfield (2008) but without the excitement or pay-off or entertainment value. Apparently made with a crew of two people & two main actors who would drive around & use location they liked the look of, apparently a lot of it was improvised with most of the extras & background people locals who were just there at the time the scenes were filmed.
With a supposed budget of about $800,000 this looks nice enough with a very minimalist documentary feel about it, filmed in Mexico, Costa Rica, Texas & Guatemala. The acting is solid enough but again I just didn't like the two main leads.
Monsters is not the film that i expected & if I am honest not the film I wanted to see, I can't say I liked it despite the good reviews although I suspect for every good review out there there's a bad one as Monsters is probably the kind of film you will either love or hate.
This British production was photographed, written & directed by Gareth Edwards & he also created the special visual effects & chipped in as production designer so Monsters is pretty much his baby, while Monsters has an intriguing premise & isn't a total failure with certain aspects going for it I just found it a hard film to enjoy. Despite being called Monsters there are barely any monsters in it, the script is far more interested in character driven drama as we get to know the two leads & take the same journey as them through their perspective. In fact we barely see the alien creatures at all & the film wouldn't have been that much different if they had been removed with Andrew & Samantha merely trying to make it back to the US under more mundane circumstances which does seem a little bit of a waste, I mean the potential was here for a terrific sci-fi drama but while there's plenty of drama the makers forgot about the sci-fi. I just expected something different & I think most people sitting down to watch Monsters will, if you read the plot outline I am sure you will be expecting a different sort of film than this one. The fact that I didn't like either Andrew or Samantha as character's didn't help, I found it impossible to care about them, what happened to them or their situation. At 90 odd minutes I must admit I found Monsters quite dull & while the script goes for a low key naturalistic realism I couldn't get involved in the story to any great degree.
As an alien invasion film all of the action takes place after the invasion as it were, there are constant reminders in the background from news reports on telly to the military presence & the alien creatures shrieking noises that add a little foreboding ambiance but the film ultimately never delivers. The special effects are pretty good, there's barely any scenes of the aliens but they look alright all the same. Monsters draws comparisons to another realistic style monster film Cloverfield (2008) but without the excitement or pay-off or entertainment value. Apparently made with a crew of two people & two main actors who would drive around & use location they liked the look of, apparently a lot of it was improvised with most of the extras & background people locals who were just there at the time the scenes were filmed.
With a supposed budget of about $800,000 this looks nice enough with a very minimalist documentary feel about it, filmed in Mexico, Costa Rica, Texas & Guatemala. The acting is solid enough but again I just didn't like the two main leads.
Monsters is not the film that i expected & if I am honest not the film I wanted to see, I can't say I liked it despite the good reviews although I suspect for every good review out there there's a bad one as Monsters is probably the kind of film you will either love or hate.