Monsters: Big Ambition, Little Reward

Imagine beings from space crash landed on Earth a few years ago and instead of immediately trying to blow them away, we decided to quarantine them to a certain portion of the country they happened to land on – any strays would be shot on site. Imagine if those beings were as big as skyscrapers and destroyed everything in their path. Now, imagine that country was Mexico and you had to make your way through the “infected” region in order to get back home.

This is the basic premise of Monsters, an indie sci-fi film by Gareth Edwards that is now on DVD. We are quickly introduced to Samantha (Whitney Able) and Andrew (Scoot McNairy). Andrew is a photojournalist who works for Sam’s father. He was sent on an errand to check on Sam. He soon finds himself having to escort Sam through the infected region, which is a real bummer because there’s just so much post-creature chaos in southern Mexico that he wishes he could photograph. He resents the position he’s put in, which makes him kind of a dick. Sam mostly resists him because he is a dick.

A film like Monsters, which ambitiously attempts to show a big-budget monster movie can be done with only a few hundred thousand dollars, requires two things: 1) really impressive special effects and 2) really great characters whose survival we care about.

Edwards, who directed and collaborated with the stars to hammer out most of the script while shooting on location, gets the first one right, considering his financial limitations. Monsters is impressively shot with stunning moments where the camera pans around the destruction of huge buildings, trains, houses, etc. None of it looks nearly as fake as you’d expect it to – especially the creatures themselves, who we get to see every once in a long while throughout the film. These giant octopus-like beings look more realistic than those of some more expensive films. I wish I saw more scenes with them.

Alas, Monsters is not really about the creatures. It’s about the lead characters and their journey through the heart of the international situation. The problem is we need to care about the characters in order to care whether or not they survive their journey – or even fall for each other, for that matter. We don’t. Andrew is a jerk (I did wish a giant tentacle came down on him quite early on in the film); and Sam is an empty vessel, a character without character, yet somehow remains more likeable than her companion. It wouldn’t spoil anything to say they fall for each other, because you suspect that’s where the film is heading pretty early on. But you don’t understand why; it just isn’t convincing.

It doesn’t help that the acting and dialogue isn’t too great either. Andrew’s attempt at charming persuasion comes off in McNairy’s hands as an awkward creepiness, which is weird considering the actors were already in a real-life relationship while shooting the film (they later married). The occurrence of poor dialogue is too frequent, yet too forgettable to recount.

That’s the thing about Monsters: you won’t really find a single scene between the characters that was memorable. But you will remember the long-shots of devastation and the two most significant creature scenes. Those two scenes, no longer than five minutes each, are infinitely more interesting than the entirety of the two leads’ screen time.  This is a shame, because Monsters does want to say something as an allegory to the U.S. immigration issue.  But too little works for us to care.

I felt Monsters was less a feature film for public consumption than a calling card for the director to use when trying to land his next gig. As an example of what Gareth Edwards can do with very little, Monsters really shines. Next time, however, he should hire someone else to do the writing.


5/10

Should you see it? Skip


Monsters is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.