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Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Disappointing Continuation

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This may just be the first review where I honestly have no idea what to rate the film. A science fiction horror film this is not, the marketing for this extremely low budget directorial debut was incredibly incorrect. So I can empathise with the below average audience scores. But this isn't a bad film, in fact it's pretty special. Just...not the film any of us would've expected. A photojournalist is tasked with escorting his employer's daughter back to US soil where they must venture through the extraterrestrial quarantine zone. A rather unique perspective on human life conforming to the presence of alien life. Humanity are no longer fleeing shouting "Run! it's Godzilla!", life simply continues on. Being shot on location, in sometimes illegal situations, Edwards managed to encapsulate Central America and seamlessly shape it into a microcosm. Much like the roaming aliens, the continent is portrayed to be troublesome yet filled with natural and anthropoid beauty. A contradictory statement where danger and allurement coexist together. The inclusion of the romance between the two central characters only elevates this theme on a more obvious level. Edwards' direction and cinematography was taut and gorgeous, considering the tiny budget he did an outstanding job. Alas, his style can't quite overcome the tedious screenplay that he also wrote. Andrew and Sam, two understated performances from McNairy and Able, establish a romance that just didn't feel right. Substantially forced upon them so that the theme of love can be illustrated to us. I wasn't invested, I wasn't engaged and I certainly wasn't enthralled. Keeping the B-movie aliens sidelined and mostly out of view was sensible, but not enough tension existed in the story. Then the conclusion occurs and, after clicking my fingers, it ends. Just like that. It's a very confused debut from Edwards, not monstrous, just confused. However, he did an outstanding job given the minuscule budget which cemented him as a director to watch out for in the future.

Everything was wrong on this movie. If she was a rich girl, why didn't he just run her to the airport anywhere south of there and she could fly home and save us the trouble of watching this massively flawed PoS.

I expected this to be the same old low budget, alien/ zombie slush but it isn't at all. Its very different. In fact its not about the monsters and whilst their threat lies menacingly in the background the creatures hardly feature until the end.The movie didn't really need to be about monsters, it could easily and probably would have been more genuine had it been about a war-zone or a disease ridden area. The only purpose served by the aliens is to stamp the "lovers meet then part" message in the story.The "extraordinary", is in the acting and the relationship of the two characters, and their empty lives which is frank and realistic and without the usual romantic filling guff. This is set amongst an almost travelogue style backdrop of rural Mexico which is true, gritty and human.A pleasant refreshing movie, weakened only by the glimpse of the somewhat redundant "monsters".

Yes I give it a 9. I think Monsters is a wonderful, melancholy film. I do agree the title is misleading and can generate some hate as people will feel duped and expect an action film of sorts. I would describe this as a 'feel piece' - my girlfriend finished watching it, then looked at me in puzzlement commenting nothing happened in it. She's right too. Its not a story that goes from A to B as such, its not just about Monsters wrecking stuff or two strangers thrown together into a dangerous situation and falling in love. It creates a world and you are part of that world for an hour and a half. It creates a mood, an atmosphere. A strong element of this is down to the music, which is excellent throughout. The actors do a fine job of creating their characters and their chemistry feels genuine. I understand they are a real life couple but that doesn't always come across. I would have said that some of the success of the film was down to luck as it was shot on the fly. However there is no mistaking the genius of the ending. The two main characters are in an abandoned Gas Station, there is a storm coming and you catch a glimpse of a monster approaching. This will be as a viewer the first time a monster is seen clearly and the music as ominous, something bad is going to happen. Slowly the mood changes, the music evolves into that of wonder as another monster approaches and it looks like they mate or something (thankfully nothing weird) and the two main characters watch in awe at these beautiful creatures as they do their 'thang' and then move along in peace. There is then a silence as the two characters take in what they just saw. Its brilliant and turns the film on its head completely. I understand why people may hate this, but for some like myself, its a really great experience.