Review: Monsters (2010)

Monsters

IMDB rate: 6,4

Genre: Science-Fiction, Drama

First of all, Monsters is definitely not a horror movie. So this review probably won't be very long. I'm not quite sure what I expected from this movie, but I think I at least expected a tiny bit more action. Monsters is more a drama/thriller movie that just contains a few creatures.

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life form began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.

The first half of the movie isn't very interesting, it's more about the growing relationship of the journalist and the girl, and their private life problems. It was very slow and not too interesting, I really was waiting for a bit action. So when they finally go to the infected zone, I was expecting quite a bit from it.  Unfortunately, besides a short monster invasion, nothing happened. This 'short' monster invasion might sound interesting, but really it wasn't. You see nothing of what happens, all you know is that suddenly almost everyone is dead. 

In the entire movie you see almost nothing of the creatures, besides that they have tentacles. This can go two ways; it might keep it interesting of what it is what attacks them, or it just becomes boring because for all we know it's a kitten with tentacles. At first I thought it was interesting to keep the monsters a secret, but after a while it became a bit too obvious 'camera-avoiding'. 

It was only until the last scene that we saw the creatures pretty clear, and I think they were having sex (tentacle sex, very japan like), so it was a bit awkward. 

The creatures reminded me a bit of the War of the Worlds creatures, combined with one of the huge monsters from The Mist. 

What's most interesting about this movie were the images. The movie is filmed amazingly, really beautiful images. It was a bit indie like, I think. There was a bit of a brown filter over the movie, which made it look a bit 'artsy'. The movie itself wasn't much special, but it was shot very beautifully. The creatures were hardly seen, so that was a huge budget saving. 

I'm not really sure what to say about this movie. Part of me liked the difference compared with other monster movies. It's a calm movie, in a messed up world. Perhaps it's a good difference that this movie isn't hollywood action filled? I'm not sure. Part of me hoped for a bit action in this movie, since the setting was amazing. The story is good too, and I think that an action movie could have worked good with this concept as well. 

I think this movie might be entertaining if you're not expecting too much from it. It's really just a drama movie that just happens to contain a few alien creatures. It's a very slow movie and there's not a whole lot going on, so I'm very sure that not everyone will like it. I liked the concept of the movie, and especially the amazing images, but the movie itself was slow and a bit of a disappointment. 

My personal rate: 6/10