Review of Monsters (2010) by Bruno C — 07 Nov 2011

This is the first US film I've seen that really captured the everyday street experience in Mexico/Latin America...micheladas and elotes. Yeah, I'm pretty sure this movie the debut of a michelada for an American-made movie :P.

Kudos to the director for being able to juggle so many roles in the production and making the end product look almost on-par with any million dollar budget Hollywood sci-fi shlock in terms of the effects and camerawork. I was intrigued by *how* the movie concept playfully drew the sci-fi infected zone boundaries paralleling the real-life narco-trafficking war zone and with undocumented immigration. It was too bad there there wasn't maybe more connections made (the only one that stuck out in my mind was the cemetery scene, of innocents killed by the bombing paralleling the victims of drug warfare...though the border wall and aliens being prevented entry to the US also hint towards the real-world problems in a very general sense but not really focused on) to make a stronger political statement with the film. Maybe the strongest message in the film was the criticism of journalism, that the protagonist was solely in Central American/Mexico to get his big break to make some real moolah with shots of aliens and destruction. Scoot McNairy's dry delivery of his character reminded me of Fox Mulder for some strange reason...suitable for someone that we see as rather too caught up in his struggling work, being annoyed that he's escorting his boss's daughter back to the US. Able's Spanish was decently good for gringa out there traveling/running away from her life in the US...better than the some Latino actors that are put in roles that require to speak Spanish, and do so with some horrible accents. I thought the two had some good chemistry development throughout the film. I can't complain about the aliens....some people have ragged on this, that they weren't interesting, but I thought it was more original that a lot of other sci-fi invasion films I've seen recently. Not completely original at all by any stretch of the imagination (Cloverfield comes to mind, that wasn't original in itself either) but tastefully done...provided just enough subtle details to at least make them seem somewhat realistic and not complete video game bad guy creatures. There's much more to admire in this film for me than to slam...given the low budget, the amount of work put in by one person, the decently authentic portrayal of Latin America (direction of the untrained talent was good), the themes focuses and hinted at, and the cinematography. Gorgeous shots and locations! The only thing that made me groan, was the Mayan pyramid neat the border wall...but I can forgive Edwards for that since he just *couldn't* pass up the opportunity to shoot on top of a pyramid...and well there weren't many places to put it in the movie to make it worthwhile and memorable except towards the end of the film. I really enjoyed the film, nothing to REALLY get you thinking or chocked up about nor to keep you on the edge of your seat. Call me a sucker for these small, intimate stories with an interesting backdrop over the overly busy sci-fi with no depth action sci-fi blockbusters. I could of used more exploration of the themes touched on, but overall, good work.