Have you ever had that itch that when you find it it moves? No matter how hard you scratch, you just can not pinpoint that specific spot. That is the typical vibe you get from watching Monsters. Don’t let the name steer you wrong, it only refers to a small sub-plot of the entire film. No matter how far you get, it never fails to tease you as if it is getting to a pivotal moment. It builds this fake suspense where you feel as if you are going to learn exactly what is going on. You should hang on to that feeling because there is no release on it throughout the entire journey.
Monsters is about Andrew, a photojournalist hired to bring his employer’s daughter, Samantha, back from Central America. Samantha is unhappily engaged while Andrew is the typical loner that eventually gives in to the girl. Custom’s and border patrol aren’t the only thing standing in their way though. Along the border of America and Mexico, a NASA probe crash landed, releasing alien life forms that creates an “infected zone” that Andrew and Samantha must cross through to get to safety. The movie revolves around their relationship that builds out of nowhere. The title shouldn’t be called Monsters. It should be something like Two People that Secretly Love Each Other with a few Giant Monsters.
There is a point in the movie where Samantha says “Doesn’t it bother you that you need something bad to happen to profit from it?” Which Andrew replies with an amazing burn. “You mean like a doctor?” That was the greatest line in the entire movie. For some reason this affects Andrew drastically and lack of character development sinks in. Scoot McNairy does a decent job as Andrew Kaulder. He shows emotion when needed and does not over do it. You can’t blame him for the writing and quick change he has to make. After being asked how he can profit from the bad he must make a choice to photograph a young dead girl. He pulls out his camera as if he is going to make the “Andrew” choice but soon reveals that he is actually pulling out a blanket to lay on the girl making the “Samantha” choice. It isn’t appealing how fast it has taken Samantha to change his total outlook on things in yet she does it in just a few hours. The development just feels rushed. Samantha Wynden is played by Whitney Able. You can’t blame the writing on this one. She just lacks the ability to be on camera. Everything she forces out of her mouth sounds as if she is uninterested. The only time she is believable is when she is speaking spanish and that may very well just be voiced over. The writing of her character isn’t bad though. Samantha actually has a pivotal moment that actually gives gives you a bit of hope for the writing. But there is one mystery that will make your brain rattle. Why is her arm fractured? They also fit in dumb lines like “What happened here?” With houses fallen to the ground around them and all they have been through, who would even think to ask something like that? Even worse is who would even reply with “I don’t know.” The storyline takes a turn for the worst when you realize that Samantha is having feelings for her escort. When the movie is called Monsters the last thing on someone’s mind is love. It just seems like a horrible mixture of romance and aliens.
This tends to have a more stable Cloverfield feel. The only problem is you barely ever see the “monster.” When you finally do, you wonder to yourself if it would’ve been best kept hidden. It isn’t hard to figure out what the monster will consist of. With any alien movie it would be a sin to leave out tentacles. Tentacles apparently have this strange mystery to them that science fiction writers love. Usually when the alien is revealed it turns out to be something that tentacles don’t belong on. That is not the case here. When you finally see the monster, you will wonder if you crossed into the world of The Little Mermaid with neon lights. How creative can you get? We are being invaded by the cephalopods that we find in a Chinese Buffet? What makes the monster even worse is that it uses its tentacles to suck the power out of right of the screen of our televisions. There is no explanation as to why a giant octopus needs power other than making us miss the premiere of our favorite show. The octopus’ gives off this bright red luminescence that would give Rudolf a run for his money. The only excitement these aliens add to the story is the U.S. making the border fence into a Great Wall. Even as sub-plots these aliens serve no purpose. All we are given is that they are being contained between Mexico and America. The don’t put to big of a dent on human society since we barely ever see anyone running from it. At least in Cloverfield the monster was feared and you could tell by the havoc it caused. Even then the monster was barely seen but it built up suspense of storyline.
For a $500,000 film, the special effects aren’t horrible. Maybe not as capable to have Transformer like quality, the makers still do a decent job with what they have. The monster is obviously computer generated easily visible by lighting flaws but its movement seems pretty solid. There are a few instances where a tentacle passes through another tentacle which makes you wonder if the alien is an apparition. One thing that really gets annoying are the helicopters. They look good and the sound effects give them a realistic feel but it is almost as if they are gloating that they make the best helicopters. For the first 30 minutes it felt as if every other shot there was another helicopter going by. It may add to the suspense to the movie but by the 2nd or 3rd one we must have an idea of what’s going on since you’ve already shown us the monster. Things like flipped vehicles and cars would be CGI as well and it really added to the atmosphere. If you looked hard enough you could tell but they did a good job hiding the fact.
With being such a low-budget film, it can be assumed that a Canon 5D was their choice of equipment. That being said, it really gave it a different feel than if it was shot on film. They captured really nice, crisp landscapes of Mexico. Scenes where they were in deep forest type areas seemed to work the best. The natural lighting worked well while shadows influenced the lighting. There are instances where their lighting is too dark. It happens more often than you’d wish and it seems to happen at the points where you want to get into it more. When that happens it takes you out of the moment and makes you start all over again. With everything else being so well done on such a low-budget, you would think that they could afford some decent lighting. Or maybe they could ask their Giant glowing Octopus to shed a little light on them.
You could spend days and days looking for that itch but you will only end up being at a loss. The similarity between your itch and Monsters is that no matter how hard you try, you will not find anything with this movie. It looks good and has decent effects but it lacks so much story and detail that you eventually want to give up on it. It is not worth the time you will spend asking questions and trying to understand why things are what they are. A movie that should be simple, twists and turns your brain for no apparent reason. It is called Monsters. And if the title alone does not scare you, then the contents of this movie sure will. Do not waste your time looking for the itch, because once you have finally found it, you will realize it wasn’t worth the time.
