Monsters – Review

Like Moon before it Monsters is a low budget sci-fi with much more to offer than the majority of this years blockbusters. Made for barely anything by Gareth Edwards Monsters is a tribute to using what you have to hand to make a professional looking feature.

It helps that Edwards is a CGI wizz and was able to add in tanks, helicopters and explosions wherever they were needed, turning our world into one with a minor alien problem. There are the monsters themselves of course, surprisingly and pleasantly few and far between, which vary in their level of realism. In the harsh light of day the monsters can look a little bit cheap but towards the end of the film when you see two of the beasts… Well, it’s nothing short of beautiful.

The film itself is not your typical monster movie, as Whitney Able is escorted by Scoot McNairy though the infected zone to reach the safety of America. Their acting is surprisingly good for a pair of unknowns and their journey through the zone is accompanied by a blossoming romance, of course.

With a script mostly ad libbed and written by a CGI wizz there a few clunkers when exposition needs to get out, but for the most part it felt very natural and with a film this well shot you find yourself not really caring.

Monsters is a brilliant debut, more Lost in Translation than it is Cloverfield, and shows that it is talent, not money, that makes a great film.

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