Review of Monsters (2010) by Nathan B — 19 Jul 2018

Strengths: I love the idea of extra terrestrials being in some sort of infected zone on Earth. Having people trek through that wasteland is a great concept. For being a low budget film, this had some good looking special effects. Nailing creatures like this without much money can be problematic, but they did a strong job with it.

Weaknesses: There are a lot. Despite a cool premise and one that should lead to excitement, the movie is a total drag. It barely lasts an hour and a half, but feels longer than three. Instead of putting the focus on the interesting things that can happen on this kind of journey, it goes on the two leads. That might be okay if they were interesting. However, Scoot McNairy (Andrew Kaulder) and Whitney Able (Samantha Wynden) lacked any sort of chemistry and their scenes together were truly boring. Their lack of chemistry is amazing considering they're apparently married in real life. The characters are unlikable and you never feel a need to root for them.

Overall: A dreadful film. Most of what happens is either illogical or flat out dull. It feels way longer than it is because it's just so boring. It's almost remarkable how poorly this was handled.