Movie Review - Monsters

Monsters (2010)

Starring Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able

Directed by Gareth Edwards
***An early review -- This film hits theaters on Friday***

WARNING:  There are some spoilers ahead.  While I don't reveal how the film concludes, I do discuss things that occur near the film's end

Sometimes if a movie manages to have a great look and spectacular acting, I'm able to overlook a major flaw in a story.  However, in the case of Monsters, a new sci-fi flick that is a mash-up of District 9 and Cloverfield (yes, I realize every review you'll read will probably say that, but it's true), there is a key plot point which occurs at the very beginning of the flick that doesn't make a lick of sense.  Becuase of this ridiculous jumping off point, the entirety of the movie found me questioning every single thing that the characters did and wondering why they were so stupid in the beginning.

Six years ago, a NASA probe carrying samples of alien life forms crashed in Central America.  The northern part of Mexico (the land just below Texas) is now under quarantine, infested with super-gigantic octopi (oh...sorry....aliens that look exactly like walking octopi) who make the land essentially uninhabitable for humans.  Andrew (Scoot [not Scott] McNairy) is a photographer who works for some important newspaper guy whose daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) just happens to be in the same Mexican town as Andrew.  When the father asks Andrew to help Samantha get home after she is injured, Andrew reluctantly agrees.

The sane thing to do would be to take a plane home, but maybe I missed the crucial plot point that said planes were no longer in existence six years into our future.  No, instead, these two idiots travel northward towards the infected zone where they hope to catch a ferry that will take Samantha back home to the US.  When they miss the ferry, they of course figure that the next best course of action would be to travel right into the infected zone.  Genius!  Traveling back south again to catch another ferry or a plane...pshaw!  Who needs that?  The fact is that these characters had no need to rush back home.   Nothing tremendously important was waiting for them there (or at least nothing important was relayed to us via the script).  So why in God's name did they get the idea they had to travel right into the alien quarantine zone?  It makes no sense whatsoever.

Add to that ridiculous plot, the incrdibly heavy-handed moments towards the end of the flick where Andrew and Samantha stare at a huge wall that has been erected on the US-Mexico border in order to keep out the (illegal) aliens.  The blatant addressing of the "border" controversy our country is facing is just laughable.  Mexico is depicted as a land full of life, happiness, and exuberant culture, while America is presented as barren, desolate, and crazy (the only person they meet on the US side is literally an insane homeless woman who screams and yells at them while draped in an American flag).

I must say that credit must be given to the director (who was also the inane writer) for creating some of the special effects.  While the aliens were ridiculous-looking, they still looked decent.  Considering the incredibly minimal budget he was working with, I really couldn't tell where the CGI began and "the real" ended.  So, kudos in that department.  But everything else was painful.

The RyMickey Rating:  D