Review of Monster Trucks (2016) by Jason M — 17 Jan 2017

Monster Trucks.

Initial Reaction: A movie about trucks that become monsters or monsters that become trucks?

Main Characters.

Tripp: He's a worker at a junkyard. He's played by Lucas Till.

Plot Sumary.

When an oil company searches through the earth for the next stash of oil, they run into a huge batch of water. When they try to punch through it, they find that it is inhabited by squid like creatures. One of the creatures manages to escape while two others get caught by the company.

The escaped squid creature hides in a junkyard and is found by Tripp. They have a bit of a rough first impression, but it's not long before the creature and Tripp become friends.

That's when Tripp finds out that these creatures drink oil instead of water and they can be used as engines for large trucks. Tripp outfits one such truck with his squid pal, and they are off.

But when several guys from the oil company shows up at Tripp's door to find the missing squid creature, it gives him reason to help that squid creature find the other two creatures and set all of them free.

SCORING.

Main Characters.

Trip is really good as a guy who just wants to do the right thing. And he has great chemistry with the squid creature. SCORE: 9.

Supporting Cast.

There's the leading lady who's there to be the "his girlfriend but not his girlfriend", a bunch of standard bad guys and the father figure who for some reason isn't around to help out. Not a good group. SCORE: 4.

Plot.

The film starts off great with the creatures being found - and how Tripp and his squid become friends. But the climax is really convoluted and the resolution leaves a lot to be desired. SCORE: 5.

Originality.

This film feels like your average alien film; the trucks really don't add much to the mix. And it also suffers from bland bad guys and the bland leading lady. SCORE: 5.

Violence Factor.

There are a lot of trucks bashing into each other, and some of them crash. But we don't see any damaged or destroyed trucks onscreen - they just vanish as if they never existed. Not good. SCORE: 4.

Other Moral Issues.

This film does a great job of showing how two totally different creatures can learn to work as a team. SCORE: 8.

Final Score (Out of 60): 35 % Score: 58.33%.

It's got a great pair of leads, but the rest of the cast is forgettable.