By I’m still waiting for that great contemporary giant monster movie.
Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla? Don’t make me laugh. Cloverfield? Getting warmer. The Host? Amazing film, one of my favorites, but the creature just isn’t giant enough. Big Man Japan? Almost there. Monsters? Sigh. Close, but no cigar.
Made on a miniscule budget with a microscopic crew, the story behind Monsters is ultimately more compelling than the film itself. Director Gareth Edwards directed, shot, and edited the film himself using consumer level equipment, essentially wandering through Central America with two actors and a sound guy. Much of it was shot off-the-cuff, with non-actors in many of the minor roles. The dialogue was improvised. Most impressively, Edwards did all of the visual effects himself, at home. This featurette, definitely worth watching, goes into more detail.
I'm still waiting for that great contemporary giant monster movie.
Roland Emmerich's Godzilla? Don't make me laugh. Cloverfield? Getting warmer. The Host? Amazing film, one of my favorites, but the creature just isn't giant enough. Big Man Japan? Almost there. Monsters? Sigh. Close, but no cigar.
Made on a miniscule budget with a microscopic crew, the story behind Monsters is ultimately more compelling than the film itself. Director Gareth Edwards directed, shot, and edited the film himself using consumer level equipment, essentially wandering through Central America with two actors and a sound guy. Much of it was shot off-the-cuff, with non-actors in many of the minor roles. The dialogue was improvised. Most impressively, Edwards did all of the visual effects himself, at home. This featurette, definitely worth watching, goes into more detail.{{page_break}}
Edwards clearly has an incredible amount of technical skill. His cinematography and visual effects look better than a lot of the crap put out by Hollywood. He has crafted a stunning patchwork of CG and exotic locations, giving the film a completely distinctive feel. You know the CG when it happens, but It just feels like part of the world. Let me just say, going to a real location and adding CG is a far more effective technique than shooting everything in a set and depending on it to create the entire world of a film. Take heed, Zack Snyder and George Lucas.
Unfortunately, for all its technical wizardry and beautiful visuals, Monsters falters in the story department. The plot (such as it is) involves an aspiring journalist taking his boss's daughter through an “Infected Zone” in Mexico, where the threat of tentacled ghouls is imminent. This premise certainly has potential, but the nature of the film's production has resulted in some extremely lackadaisical storytelling. Much of the film is spent simply watching them wander from place to place, mumbling out some lines here and there. There is a frustrating lack of tension, suspense, or structure that makes 93-minute runtime feel markedly longer.
The biggest thing keeping Monsters from living up to its potential is the lame dialogue. I understand that the point of employing improvisation is so that the words coming out of the actors' mouths feel believable and pure. They do. However, lot of what they say also comes off as embarrassingly vapid and dumb. The actors are clearly pretty skilled, and I'm sure that if the film had a legitimate screenplay they could have made written lines feel believable as well. But left to their own devices, the actors aren't able to conjure up lines that make their characters very empathetic or relatable.
I suppose what I'm getting at is this: Gareth Edwards, I'd be happy to write the screenplay for your next project. You've crafted a film with some truly stunning moments and setpieces (a climactic monster encounter near the end is particularly memorable), and you clearly have immense skill and great ideas, but you are going need the assistance of a screenwriter to provide some stronger dialogue and characterization. Then your work can really shine. I'll work cheap. Call me.
6.50– Okay. (6s are just okay. These movies usually have many flaws, didn’t try to do anything special, or were poorly executed. Some will still love 6s, but most prefer to just rent them. Watch more trailers and read more reviews before you decide.)
I encourage fans of low budget cinema and creature movies to check out Monsters. Anyone not in one of those categories might want to consider watching something else.
Josh Parker:
Overall Score: 7.20 — Monsters is far more The Road than it is Cloverfield or District 9. It may not be the creature feature one would hope for from its marketing, but it’s still a solid and enjoyable film all the same and director Gareth Edwards deserves your attention. You can read his full review here!
Andres Bolivar:
Overall Score: 6.45 — I have to hand it to writer/director Gareth Edwards for his commendable effort in creating a film with such limitations. Given the small budget, he’s able to take the landscape of Mexico and transform it into a universe of chaos and ruin. It’s worth seeing as a testament to guerilla moviemaking, but other than that it doesn’t really contribute much else. You can read his full review here!