Monsters has been compared as the thinking man's Cloverfield and has been promoted as this year's District 9 but this is a very different creature indeed. If you are looking for a sci-fi action film about aliens, then look somewhere else. if you are looking for a drama about two people falling in love then this will be right up your alley.
A NASA space probe crashed landed in Central America, bringing with it life forms from outer space. Trying to control the spread of the creatures, a large area called the 'infected zone' has been created between Mexico and the US. Andrew is a photographer who has been given the job of bring back the daughter of the owner of the magazine he works on from Mexico after she was injured during an alien attack. He is the father of a child but he has no love for the mother, while she is reluctantly engaged to a man that seems she doesn't want to be. As the pair head off to the ports to catch a ferry, they miss it and are forced to travel by land through the infected zone, which slowly brings each other closer together.
The back story is as interesting as the film. Director Gareth Edwards took a camcorder and two actors to South America to make a film. This is the result and I have to say while everyone has raved about it, it's good but not amazing. The problem is that at only 97 mins it seems much longer.
Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able are likeable as the couple and they do give reasonably good performances but you are constantly craving for more. The occasional threat from the aliens or the army lift the film but this is mostly a travelogue that shows some unusual sights as they move through the country.
The ending is a highlight, with an impressive sequence in a gas station that can be compared to the human relationship, but there are so many moments when you want something exciting to happen and it doesn't. Never taking away the fact that this is a well made, nicely played romance, it is also a very misleading film that is much more than Monsters.
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