Monsters

Gareth Edwards. The man responsible for the rebirth of the king of monsters, has actually already made a monster movie. The aptly named "Monster".

It is based solely on that movie (since it was his directorial debut) that they placed their full trust in his hands, concerning the re-boot of this much beloved franchise. So, was this "Monsters" any good?


The short version. Naaaah...

The long version. In a movie called Monsters you would expect some monsters, but for the very brief 89 minutes this movie goes on, you get to see four monsters. What the hell man?

The title is a bit misleading though. It isn't reffering solely to monstrous creatures from space, it is trying to ask the question "who are the real monsters?"

The idea is a classic zombie movie idea, you know. In a zombie invasion, your worst enemy is not the zombies, but the humans around you. It is a very good premise for a monster movie but very little is ever said about either human or monster in this. There are a few short scenes where the humans are depicted as kind of bossy and empirical, but not more than in real life. And the monsters are barely in the movie, so, building an opinion as to wether or not they are the bad guys becomes impossible.

Something tells me that this was a short film from the beginning. The script simply doesn't stretch far enough to keep you watching for 90 minutes and that is very sad, because Monsters show so much potential. It has a well thought out backstory and some very beautiful photography. The script, however, focuses on the lovestory between the two protagonists. It is always to get the focus of the main plot for a while and develop the characters, but in this one, focus is completely taken of the plot and placed on the character for the entire movie. The few times they actually discuss the monsters, and the governments way of controlling the situation, it becomes slightly askew. Since either person doesn't seem interested in the politics sorrounding the monsters it gets a little unnatural to hear the talk about it.

The love story is good though. A woman who is not sure if she is still in love with the man she is about to marry. The man who has a son but he can't tell him he is his father, these two character travel through the jungle and get to know each other and digs deeper into their on soul as the journey takes them deeper into "the quarantine zone".

The monsters, what monsters? Oh yeah, there are som creatures in the quarantine zone, but they aren't important.

Like I said in the beginning, a movie called Monsters should have a lot more monsters in it. This could might have been a story of two people traveling through a war torn Irak. The creatures become deriviative, and the charaters become derivative as well, since all you do is wait for that monster to appear.