Movie #158 Monsters *2010*

Whitney Able - Samantha Wyden
Scoot McNairy - Andrew Kaulder
Gareth Edwards (Director)

I am kind of taken with this film.  Shot for a budget of $800,000 this is a sci-fi monster movie wrapped up in a romance flick.  Kaulder is a photo journalist in Mexico where his assignment just got changed.  He is now to escort the bosses daughter back safely to America.  Why is is dangerous?  An alien race has landed and is currently "contaminating" most of Central America.

This movie is a mash up of Cloverfield and District 9 (Movie #155) all wrapped around love story.  Another film this reminded me of was last years Frozen (Movie #76).  Not really in plot or style but more in ambition.  Both films used normal, realistic dialogue to convey the absurdness of their situations. 

The locations for Monsters are all breath taking.  Both in the beautiful (the ruins, the rivers, wilderness) and the horrific (the villages, the former cities, those left behind).  I love it that first time feature director Gareth Edwards really took his time and developed the characters.  That is something that not every sci-fi film does.  Most nowadays are effects driven with character coming in a distant third behind product placement or marketability (toys).

With this somewhat revolutionary tactic a lot of responsibility was placed on somewhat newcomer actors and they excelled.  Both the leads were totally believable.  The script was smart enough to have them act in a manner fitting to their situations.  Scoot McNairy was charming and a bit of a "soft" protagonist.  He makes some stupid decisions, and is a little whiny at times, but that is how I think someone in that predicament might truly act.  I know I speak too much about how attractive some female actresses are, so allow me to continue.  Whitney Able is radiant.  She is vulnerable without being weak, reclusive and sheltered but also vibrant and full of life.  She won me over within the first 10 minutes.  This film has a lot of extras with bit parts, but they all seem very natural.  I'm not sure if they are trained actors or not, but it might be the best ensemble cast I have seen in a while. 

I'll spend a second on the effects.  They were great.  You are teased a lot with the promise of aliens, but rarely see them.  You can hear them (and the sound design was fantastic!) but when you see them it is generally at night or obstructed be other objects.  I will state without any hesitation that this film with is $800,000 budget had better effects than Spielberg's War of the Worlds with it's $132 Million budget.

I enjoyed this film and I plan on watching it again real soon.  I give Monsters ★★★1/2.  Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.  You can view Monsters on Netflix Streaming.