Monsters

Not exactly what I expected, but a movie well worth watching nonetheless. It's a story about a journey through zone infected by alien organisms. Where it lacks action, it makes up by amazing scenery. As you follow the two main characters, you see the fight between humans and the aliens from their point of view – on the TV, in the radio, in the scenery all around them. Most of the destruction happened before the main protagonist get on the scene, which really draws you in and it gives you this eerie feeling it just might be real. While you don't see much of the monsters, you can always feel their presence. At the end you can only feel awe, respect and humility towards the huge octopus-like aliens.

The actors are good and you can relate to them. Whitney Able is stunning girl in a very natural way and she deserves to be cast in lead roles more often.

For such a low-budget movie it's amazing how well it came out. I give it solid 8/10 and hope we will see more movies like this.

I understand this is a very low budget movie. If so, it is another example of the marvels which can be worked with a small budget by original and creative people.

Despite the sci-fi trimmings - ostensibly similar to the recent, but vastly inferior, tentacled alien invasion movie Skyline - this is essentially a two-hander road movie with a touch of growing romance thrown in. The hand-held camera adds verite but doesn't jitter so constantly as to stimulate nausea. There are some gorgeous visuals - both spectacular natural shots and also effects shots such as The Wall. And the two unknowns who we accompany on their journey - the gorgeous Whitney Able and the not so gorgeous Scoot McNairy - are both very good.

But most credit must go to Gareth Edwards, the creative force behind this film.

Just saw this last night, and have to say, loved it. I can understand teen boys being offended by the lack of action. And I think a lot of people seeing this film might start with preconceptions about what a 'monster' movie should be, which won't do this film any favours. It's a road movie, a slow building drama, a mystery. I actually liked that the two leads were attractive and likable company, without acting in predictable Hollywood ways (you know, where they are unsure about each other, then have a huge fight and yell that they hate each other, then immediately jump into great sex – I am pretty sure in real life only couples who've been together for a while have good angry sex, surely?, I could be wrong, anyway…). But it was the mystery of the intriguing monsters that got me, and the absolutely perfect resolution. Unlike the current 3D CGI megafilms, where everything is boringly and loudly in your face, this film required the audience to join in and use some of it's own imagination, a bit like Alien you could say (without the blood & guts). And, that last scene was so great – easily one of the most perfectly orchestrated scenes I've seen in any film in the last year or two, and to a large degree because it had the sense to not knock the message over your head. And despite it's lack of gigantic special effects, I really think this is a film to see in a cinema, not on TV – to get in the mood, to wonder what's over the next hill, to peer into the darkness to see, wait, is that a tentacle? Like the main characters, the audience needs to be paying attention. Okay, so not a perfect masterpiece from beginning to end, but right now I can't think of many monster movie monsters I've loved in the last decade as much as these octo-spidey-monster thingies. Beautiful! (and I'm pretty p*ssed that a piece of shoddy Hollywood crap like Skyline is showing in 160+ cinemas here in Australia, while this little beauty is only on at a few)

I just sat through this rental. Barely stayed awake.

This seemed like the type of sleeper hit that is missed by the masses, but I really enjoy in rental. Boy was I wrong. This movie was just plain boring.

I knew from a previous review that this movie was not filled with aliens and not filled with special effect. "Cool," I thought, "a movie with a story about people." But nope. There's just not enough story here to keep a viewer awake. The two main characters do enjoy a wee bit of development. But that happens almost immediately - or at least we can see what it is. So the "story" goes nowhere.

Also, these characters didn't talk enough to each other. The movie too suddenly, too often, and for too long falls back on montages of supposed dialogue, overshadowed by mood music. So their story together just isn't believable.

Almost an okay movie. But just plain sleepy.

The pros: The cinematography is excellent. The editing is paced fairly well and makes good use of jump cuts. The lead actress is very good, considering she's acting in a vacuum. The CGI is seamless.

The cons: There is no story. There are no character arcs worth caring about. There is minimal suspense. The "alien" allegory is too simple. The lead male actor is inexperienced and uses slacker technique to mask it.

But, at the heart of this film is the relationship - and it seems to have been written by a 17 year old boy. I had to rent another film afterwards because this melted away faster than cotton candy in a sweaty hand (and yet, no brain candy and nominal CGI eye candy).