Monsters Review: A New Kind of Alien Invasion

Monsters is an impressive debut by a new writer and director, Gareth Edwards. The film has great ambitions. That ambition pays off on a technical level, but is less successful from a story perspective.

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within the solar system. They launched a probe to collect samples, but the probe crashed in Mexico upon re-entry. The samples it was carrying quickly took root and began to populate the Mexican jungle, spreading quickly. Soon half of the country has to be quarantined – the Infected Zone. Now there are daily battles between the creatures and the American and Mexican armies. Andrew Kaulder (played by Scoot McNairy) is a photojournalist that is hoping to catch one of these conflicts on film. However, his plans are sidelined when the publication’s owner’s daughter, Sam Wynden (played by Whitney Able) is injured and needs to be brought home. The pair embark on a journey to get Sam home that takes them across Mexico and, ultimately, into the Infected Zone.

The reported budget for this film is $500,000. What’s impressive is that the opening sequence looks like it could have cost half of that. Given the budget, I thought the sightings of the titular monsters would be limited and glimpses at best. That assumption was half-correct. The monsters appearances are limited, but when they show up, they show up. They wreck buildings and toss around trucks.

In the first scene of the movie, a giant squid-like creature engages in combat with the military, smashing buildings and taking gunfire. The effects are quite impressive and look rather good. Edwards cut costs on the film by writing, directing, and shooting the film himself, as well as doing all the visual effects. Through all his efforts he manages to make a film for half a million dollars that looks like it should have cost twenty or thirty million. In addition, the film is beautifully shot, making really good use of the actual exotic and jungle locations that the film was shot in. Edwards creates lots of really grand vista images that show off the destruction of the cities or the vastness of the jungle or the loneliness of the abandoned towns. On a technical level, the film is excellent.




However, on a story level the film begins to fall apart. Edwards wants to do so much with the story. He wants to tell the story of a photojournalist that is on the hunt for horrifying photographs but changes his ways when he sees the carnage that is necessary to create the images he’s after. But then the story also want to be larger, showing how the media misrepresents information and circumstances to create monsters and instill fear in the public to sell their stories and boost their ratings. But the movie is also this love story between Andrew and Sam. However, there are some flaws that make it so that at the same time there is too much happening there isn’t anything at all happening.

The reason I say that is that while there is so much going on, there is not much to motivate it. I had a hard time finding reasons for the characters to do what they do or change. The love story that the movie centers on is decent enough once it starts, but the moment that is supposed to start this attraction is weak. And once the attraction is there, it is strange how intense it can get. Andrew is willing to walk Sam through the incredibly dangerous Infected Zone to protect a girl that he met only two days prior – because they had some drinks together and she is cute. She is the daughter of the man that owns the publication he works for but his actions never seem to take that into account, meaning they never seem self-serving. It may have been more interesting if they were, if he were taking care of her so that her father would take care of him. But that never factors in.

That said, Andrew’s change from the photographer that needs to get the picture of children killed by the monsters to someone that understands there are times to leave the lens cap on is handled very well. There is one really great scene where Andrew finds a truck full of people that have been killed by a monster attack and he is clearly moved by it in a way he hasn’t ever been before. Because having witnessed a monster attack, he now understands the level of violence that is necessary to create the aftermath he is used to photographing.

The major problem, though, is not the lack of stimuli for the story, it is the lack of obstacles. There really isn’t ever anything that Andrew and Sam overcome. They get sidetracked on their journey, but never seriously. Their only obstacle seems to be the distance between them and the United States border. Anytime they run into anything that hinders them on that journey, they pretty easily and quickly overcome it. Because of this, there isn’t suspense. You don’t ever question whether they are going to succeed or not. You know they are going to get there. It’s just a matter of when. At times, this can make the movie feel drawn out, even though it is barely over an hour and a half long.

Overall, Monsters is an interesting debut from a filmmaker that I’m sure will become a notable name in the future. While this film has its flaws, it also has some pretty great moments in it. And the technical aspects of it are very impressive to watch. The problem of the film is that of an inexperienced filmmaker that has a lot of ideas and doesn’t yet have the skill to reign in and focus those ideas. But I’d rather watch a film that has too many ambitions than one that has none at all. It’s hard to fault someone for being too ambitious.