Monsters

Well, this was a very great surprise!  Monsters is a truly magnificent film that relies more on the atmosphere of the world rather than to just scare you every other second.  It is a truly beautifully crafted film from director Gareth Edwards, who will create the new Godzilla film.  Monsters is an extremely low budget creature feature that relies more on dialogue than the actual creatures.  Yes, you should go in expecting more of a character film, rather than the aliens.  Actually, I think the aliens only appear like four times throughout the entire film.  A very polarizing film, many have called this a true masterpiece, while others call it a boring, slow creature feature.  The first film for this director and rather than making a dumb film, he talks about the immigration reforms.  It invoked a similar feeling from District 9 and Elysium.  However, rather than being an action film, Monsters is part romance, part sci fi, and part propaganda (in the nicest possible way of putting it)

Monsters starts off by covering what happened.  Apparently, the scientists at NASA had a belief that extraterrestrial life existed, so they sent a probe to search the deep vacuum of space.  As the probe is returning to Earth, something damages the probe, and it crash lands into Mexico.  That all happened six years ago.  It's been so long that they aliens have resided on Earth, that they aren't even considered aliens anymore....Their residents.  The American Government (like always) takes control of the matter, rather than allowing help from other countries.  They seal off many parts of Mexico, labeling the parts with aliens as the "Infected Zone".  So, six years later (the film is set in 2010), the Mexican residents have learned to live with the aliens, though the aliens cause destruction and the death of millions of people.  Anyways, so cut to our main character.  He's a photographer, who is sent to capture pictures of aliens.  Unfortunately, his job soon turns into a rescue mission in which he must bring his boss's daughter from Mexico back to the states, going through the "Infected Zone".

The premise literally carried this film a long way.  The unique ideas being tossed around were amazing, and it livened up the film.  But enough of the premise, let's get talking about the film.  Like I mentioned before, it's a character driven film.  The characters felt very realistic and were well developed.  So much so, that I actually cared for them near the end.  The acting was well done on both parts from Scoot McNairy and Whitney Abel.  They both had charisma and were very impressive.  The message the film implies about immigration and who the real monsters were, felt a little heavy handed at times.  However, it mostly didn't bother me, with the exception of a few scenes.  Monsters is also excellently shot.  For a rookie director, Edwards truly has an eye for great shots of Mexico, making the country feel vibrant, while having a hint of depletion because of the constant attacks from the aliens.  There were many spectacular things going on.

On the face of it, Monsters would seem like a very boring film to people, who don't enjoy dialogue.  Many complained about the lack of actual Monsters.  I personally think that is a very idiotic thing to say about a film.  Sure, it may not be as exciting as other creature features, but that doesn't mean it's any worse.  Very few films have created very realistic characters along with aliens.  However, this does that, and then some.  Also, the first half doesn't show what the alien exactly looks like, leaving up to your imagination to think up of an alien.  However, I felt a little confused during some scenes.  I kept wondering if there was one alien species or multiple.  There were many hints that led me to believe multiple, but they really only showed one species.  Also, that creature in the promo poster is not what the monster looks like, so I'm not sure.  

Overall, Monsters is a very polarizing film.  Some loved it.  Some hated it, even though most only complained about the lack of monsters.  I personally thought this was a great film, though it gets a little preachy at times.  Also, the special effects weren't outstanding, but you have to remember: This was made on a budget of $500,000.  I thought the effects were decent, and it was a minor irk.  If you're looking for a pure monster fight to the death, stay away and watch Destroy All Monsters (The film with Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and Varan).  If you're looking for a film with real characters and plot, this film will please you very much.  Also, the ending was amazing and purely magical. 

8/10