MONSTERS review by Alyn Darnay

Review by Alyn Darnay

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Scoot McNairy (In Search of a Midnight Kiss) and Whitney Able (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane)

I grew up on Sci-Fi, reading every book and seeing every movie I could find, and loving most of them. Then, I developed a taste for what I considered the best of the genre. Unfortunately, for me, Monsters is not one of those great ones I can enjoy. Yes it has all the requisite elements, including the bandied around ‘auteur’ title given to new director Gareth Edwards at SXSW, but ultimately I found it dull and more than a little boring. If you don’t mind wading through a non-love affair while traveling through a dense jungle, during a neatly conceived alien invasion for something to happen, then this is definitely your film.

The story goes like this; Six years ago NASA launched a probe to collect samples of a possible life form, which crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Suddenly, a new alien life form began to appear and started destroying everything around it. Portions of Mexico were quarantined and labeled an INFECTED ZONE. During this completely off screen destruction, the story centers on an American Photo Journalist, Andrew (Scoot McNairy) who begrudgingly agrees to escort his boss’s daughter, Samantha (Whitney Able), a scared American tourist, through the infected zone to the safety of the US border. What happens next amounts to nothing more than, scared looks, one semi interesting attack on a convoy, and a lot of no chemistry between the two main characters as they make their way through “Hostile Territory.”

The film tries to be part alien invasion, part road movie and part love story, either which alone might have made for a better film. It should have been much more entertain than it was. I found it a kind of throw back to the B-grade films of the 50’s, with its tentacled, bioluminescent aliens, rather than a say a more contemporary “Cloverfield” style film, which generated more thrills and suspenseful moments.

To the director’s credit, and I shout that loudly here, making an Indy film like this is a Herculean task on no budget (the estimated budget was around $15,000); especially doing it while backpacking across Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico and Texas with two actors, a boom operator and a camera, then editing and creating CGI effects by yourself. Just the fact that he was able to create all this basically on his own, is a testament to his huge talent, I applaud it and expect some great films from him going forward. This first film is a noble try, but it just misses the mark.

If you want to see “Monsters”, my suggestion, wait for the DVD, it’ll be along very soon.

Rating: 2 ½ Stars (out of 5)

“Monsters” is rated R. (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.) Running Time: 1hr. 37min.