Monsters (2010)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an infected zone. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures," while a journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
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After watching Monsters a second time with that in mind, I liked the film much better—and found it also evoked Apocalypse Now (1979) and possibly a less benign The African Queen (1951).
The first sound is of a marine humming Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’, Apocalypse Now-style, as they barrel along the Pan-American Highway, and Andrew and Sam’s river journey clearly references the same movie.
The river journey, like the one in " Apocalypse Now ," often goes smoothly enough, but there's always the invisible threat in the jungle.
It covers the spectrum, too, sampling bits of “It Happened One Night,” “Apocalypse Now,” “District 9” and “Before Sunrise,” all set to a sci-fi beat that you can dance to – if you have the patience.
Like Apocalypse Now much of Monsters’ running time is taken up by a long boat trip up a winding river.
A tenderness that is smashed, once again, by the blunt force of the ham-fisted message-making, as the Army swoops in, the troops humming, Apocalypse Now-style, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
The film also has the misfortune of coming in the wake of Cloverfield and District 9, which were much bigger and more accomplished renderings of similar ideas.
Made on the kind of budget that Robert Rodriguez would describe as “tight”, Monsters isn’t a tequila-flavoured Cloverfield (no matter how much the distributors wish it was), but instead a meditative journey through a battle-ravaged wasteland filled with extra-terrestrial wildlife.
But good sound design, canny special effects and a jackdaw's approach to location scouting can't hide the fact that Monsters' protagonists are almost completely unlikeable, which leaves the film - along with Cloverfield - squarely in the first-person/low-budget curio basket rather than the annals of great sci-fi with District 9.
For much of the film, the aliens are only glimpsed briefly via news reports and video cameras (ala Cloverfield), and one sequence, in which Andrew, Sam and their Mexican guides are attacked in the jungle, is a deft piece of filmmaking.
His film is more in the vein of Robert Wise’s 1963 The Haunting than Cloverfield – which could be a problem commercially.
The buzz: Is this a low-budget blend of “District 9” and “Cloverfield” with a few parts “Jurassic Park” thrown in?
So far, so very “District 9.’’ “Monsters,’’ though, focuses on two young Americans thrown together as they head for the US border: Sam (Whitney Able), the level-headed daughter of a powerful media tycoon, and Andrew (Scoot McNairy), a photographer for one of her dad’s magazines who reluctantly agrees to get baby girl out of the country.
The film also has the misfortune of coming in the wake of Cloverfield and District 9, which were much bigger and more accomplished renderings of similar ideas.
Much like 2009?s District 9, aliens end up stranded on our planet.
In case anyone misses that this very poor relation of "District 9" -- lamely acted and slackly directed by special-effects specialist Gareth Edwards -- is an allegory about immigration, a character looking at the border fence tells us that "it's different looking at America from the outside."
With its indie vibe and ingenious effects, Monsters is more than a little remindful of District 9, though the 2009 South African sleeper had a sense of humor about it; Monsters, in the end, is bleak business.
Unfortunately for Edwards, Neill Blomkamp also spun a low budget into monster/sci-fi magic with District 9, but in addition to a similar theme, his South African counterpart also had a terrifically strong script and compelling performances.
His film is more in the vein of Robert Wise’s 1963 The Haunting than Cloverfield – which could be a problem commercially.
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– inspiration, that led a young Steven Spielberg to keep his shark from audiences throughout so much of Jaws.
Ultimately, Monsters feels a little bit like the end result of an adaptation of War of the Worlds that Steven Spielberg might have made back when he still had the limited resources and boundless inventiveness of his Jaws days: what it lacks in monetary muscle it more than makes up for in creativity.
Debuting Writer-director Gareth Edwards mounts this cross of “It Happened One Night” and “The War of the Worlds” with lovely cinematography, dry humor (our contemporary immigration debate is given a stark new dimension here) and a real sense of people and place.
It covers the spectrum, too, sampling bits of “It Happened One Night,” “Apocalypse Now,” “District 9” and “Before Sunrise,” all set to a sci-fi beat that you can dance to – if you have the patience.
Despite its gigantic, squid-like aliens from outer space that have crash-landed in northern Mexico, Monsters (from Magnet Releasing) conjured memories for me of Frank Capra's 1934 comedy classic, It Happened One Night.
A cross between 2004's " The Motorcycle Diaries ," 2005's " The War of the Worlds ," and 2009's " District 9 " with plenty of 1934's "It Happened One Night" thrown in, "Monsters" is, collectively, like no other feature film in memory.
And it also means that the road movie takes on an It Happened One Night quality as these bickering strangers are thrown together against the odds.
"Monsters" has more in common with "Before Sunrise" or "Close Encounters" than "War of the Worlds."
It’s derivative, especially aping Cloverfield, District 9, War of the Worlds, and even Jurassic Park.
It’s almost the antithesis of a sci-fi action film, and that is likely to frustrate and anger people who come in expecting “War of the Worlds” or “Aliens.”
The creatures emit a rattling and clicking reminiscent of the tripods from George Pal's War of the Worlds, though Edwards' aliens are massive in scale, as well as metaphorical.
Now, gigantic, tentacled creatures (a la “War of the Worlds”) roam at night through the “Infected Zone” — contained on the north by a massive new wall along the American border.
Ultimately, Monsters feels a little bit like the end result of an adaptation of War of the Worlds that Steven Spielberg might have made back when he still had the limited resources and boundless inventiveness of his Jaws days: what it lacks in monetary muscle it more than makes up for in creativity.
McNairy seems to be calmly channeling James Woods in “Salvador,” and the two stars have an easy rapport.
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After watching Monsters a second time with that in mind, I liked the film much better—and found it also evoked Apocalypse Now (1979) and possibly a less benign The African Queen (1951).
Well, maybe not the awe: When Kaulder and Samantha finally come face to face with the creatures, there's a religiosity to the moment in the vein of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
A monster movie-cum-character study-cum-travelogue-cum-romance, the film points to forbears that include Cloverfield, Children of Men, The Mist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and even Romancing the Stone among many others, but the inventiveness of Edwards' storytelling, coupled with great, understated performances by Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able, coalesces to create something entertaining, lyrical and most of all, unique.