Monsters

Not what you’re expecting…

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“Amazing movie. A real adventure film, the way they don't make them anymore. Sometimes it felt like a travel documentary, very real, very exciting and realistic. The actors are very good, better than most high paid stars of today. And the girl are beautiful in a very natural way. She's also a wonderful actress. I'ts important to understand that this isn't your ordinary monster movie. You very seldom see them at all, but you feel their presence. Each step of the way, when we follow the couple on their way back from Mexico to USA, we are with them. We are more like travel companions on a journey than viewers of a movie.The CGI may lack a bit, but that's not important. Considering the extremely low budget, it's just amazing that this movie exist. The production values are still better than with most high profile movies. Do yourself a favor and See this movie for what it is. Go on a journey into a world that is realistic, exciting - and maybe, just maybe, possible.”

I think the most interesting point made in this review is “feel their presence”, I’ll explain down bellow.

Haters: Taken from IMDB
“I went into this movie expecting a cutting edge look at the state of the art MONSTERS! What I got was a docudrama with dark octopus like cgi wannabe monsters a few times with most of the movie consisting of drama and Mexican life footage. The best part of this movie is the trailer. Why do so many directors and producers feel they need to explore the cutting edge of filmmaking when the tried and true methods would be a better experience. I threw my popcorn at the screen a few times. I was bored silly with the drama in a "MONSTER" movie. HA! Monsters! Give me a break! 9/10s of this movie is boring and the few times you get to see the land octopus its dark and you don't get a good view. These monsters are unoriginal - think SHARKTOPUS! At least syfy had a monster in the movie. This is like waiting around for a view and then....what?! Don't pay money to see this stuff. Don't pay money to rent this stuff. Make a statement - we won't pay our money for this crap anymore!”

It’s telling that all of the scathing reviews for this film are complaining that they didn’t get another Cloverfield like Monster mash up. I’ll be the first to admit I thought I’d see something similar. However unlike these people I wasn’t disappointed with this. Also never take any notice when a critic amateur / pro or armchair tells you not to see something go and judge it for yourself, the film industry needs you!

What I thought:
Gareth Edwards came up with the idea for monsters after seeing a group of men struggling to drag a net in from the sea. Imagining a giant monster at the end of it planted a seed, a seed of a movie set after the likes of things like Cloverfield. A world where the monsters are just here, still a threat and ever present but life goes on. That’s what I loved about this movie; it’s not a monster movie not really. It’s about the human drama that follows our lead couple on their journey home.

Of course here is where the haters come in, I don’t blame them; they went in expecting a monster movie full of un-believable special effects and scary moments of mass carnage, I mean the film is called monsters after all. It’s just a shame that this half of an audience divided, didn’t give the film a go as anything else. They failed to see the human drama that surrounded this event, the human loss and the damage and destruction, the humans who live with that fear on a day to day basis and of course at the heart of it a love story.

It’s under played romance to say the least and is helped by the fact that this real life couple were allowed to improvise. Some really funny moments that are lovely to watch and feel natural between the pair, particularly in one scene as the drunken male lead tries to negotiate his way into her room. Both characters have interesting takes on the environment they are forced into, a photographer who questions the morality of the most money making images and fighting against the logic of not telling his son the truth. Then you have a female lead, a pampered daddy’s girl in an engagement she’s not sure she wants. Sure enough these are typical roles and even predictable but un-deniably watchable in this situation.

The Monsters in question are well designed and completely other worldly, when they do appear it’s in dark and hard to see places. You can’t blame the director (who did it all on his laptop) for trying to make the job a little easier for himself and it works in his favour. The scene without the monsters reveal more than enough for you to worry, blood stained boats in the shape of hands, half destroyed buildings here and there and out of this world noises coming from the distance. It all adds up and when they do appear, these images play on your mind and the tension is almost tangible.

Above all else Monsters is a crowning achievement of guerrilla film making, in this sense its not only one of the bravest films you’ll see this year but also one of the most original. Please go and see this and appreciate for what it is.