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Monsters: Film Review
When you hear of a film called Monsters, your mind probably makes a quick number of associations: Monsters, Inc., Monsters vs. Aliens, Monster’s Ball, etc. When you hear it’s about alien lifeforms and the people who try to survive their invasion, you probably think of Godzilla, Them, Predator, Cloverfield, and others. What you’re probably not imagining is a quiet and contemplative, but never boring, trek through alien-infested territory that is beautiful more often than it is terrifying.
Monsters was written and directed by Gareth Edwards, who was not known for much at the time. It was filmed with a budget of less than $500,000, and Edwards did all of the visual effects himself after filming was complete. Released back in 2010, Monsters made the rounds at various film festivals and eventually as a limited release in theatres. It seems to have descended into rental land without making much of a splash, which is a real pity.
It’s hard to say too many good things about this movie. The setup is fairly simple: a space probe sent to find suspected life elsewhere in the solar system returns to Earth with an alien infection, and crashes over Mexico. The northern half of Mexico is quickly overrun by the giant octopus-like creatures, forcing the U.S. to build a massive wall to protect its southern border. America and Mexico combine their armed forces to send air strikes at the aliens whenever they creep too close to civilized areas.
Six years later, journalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) finds himself south of the infected zone on the hunt for prize- and cash-winning photos, when he is called by his office to find the newspaper’s owner’s daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) in the local hospital and send her back to America, which she seems to have fled in search for one last adventure before getting married. Their plan to take the safe route home by sea is thwarted by circumstance and migratory patterns, and they are forced to take their chances through infested lands. Their task is to pass quietly by the bear’s den at night, and hope it doesn’t wake up hungry. Whether or not they succeed is something I’m not entirely willing to reveal.
The film is populated with symbols and metaphors, and that relating to illegal immigration not the least among them. I can’t say I’m sure just what Edwards was wanting to say about the matter, but he never lays it on too thick. Far more interesting is the relationship between Kaulder and his employer’s daughter, as they learn about each other’s vices, and make a few cautious movements towards romance, probably knowing that it’s a terrible idea. The pilgrims travel through the wreckage of an age before the infestation, well-faked by using the real wreckage of buildings and vehicles long abandoned to the jungles of Central and South America. It’s not exactly a post-apocalyptic genre film, but it does depict everyday life in a world after the world has fundamentally changed.
I will say that I love the idea of an alien infestation rather than an alien invasion. The way the walking squids take over an entire ecosystem is reminiscent of such biological disasters as the introduction of the rabbit into Australia. There is no apparent malice on the part of the aliens, just the usual animal desires to eat and mate, regardless of the natives’ wishes. This makes them dangerous threats, but not enemies in the traditional sense.
The climactic scene cleverly subverts a few monster movie cliches. The end approaches like an unbroken thunderstorm in the night, ripe with the promise of tumult and severity. There is action a-plenty, but this is no action movie. The point is elsewhere.
Go watch this movie. It’s only an hour and a half, so you needn’t worry about having wasted too much of your life if you don’t like it. Monsters is a refreshing change of pace in science fiction film, a genre which in film tends towards the exploitive and schlocky. Anyone who has ever complained about the mistreatment of the scifi genre by Hollywood studios ought to give this film a shot. Otherwise, why are you complaining?
“Calamari for dinner?”
8 Comments
Being one of those complainers, I’ll check it out…
This sounds cool and I had not heard of it before. Thanks!
Agree with review and recommend it to everyone who reads science – fiction, it was a fine movie. I would include it with “Moon” as a movie people should watch.
Understated and atmospheric. A very fine movie that shows that good story telling doesn’t need a mega budget.
To quote Carla Tortelli, I concur in spades. I watched this film on DVD a couple of years ago and loved it. It puts Hollywood pablam like Prometheus to shame. It’s smart and moving — which is enough to make it head and shoulders above most science fiction films.
Thanks for the recommendation, that looks like a good one. I want to give non-Hollywood movies a chance, but there is a lot of crap out there.
I watched this last night and just loved it. The movie is very sparse on the background info, we only know that they’re here and that the governments are tying, with not much success, to do something about them. There are no info dump cliches showing a bunch of news casts or military strategy sessions or hospital montages or heroic soldiers. The focus is squarely on the main characters and their plight. Very refreshing that all the answers are not spoon-fed to us. The movie left me wanting more in the best possible way.
Thanks for the review. That plus Wintermute’s recommendation of it alongside Moon (which I love) is going to finally make me push this to the top of my Netflix queue, which too often these days becomes the “List of movies I’d like to watch but I end up watching Law and Order reruns because it’s familiar” list.
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