First Impressions of “Monsters”: A Quarantined Mexico Packed With Aliens

The beforehand Holy Writ ( more like hopeful venture , really ) was that this would be the “ Mexican District 9 , ” but monster is a much more modest and quiet affair , and perhaps its greatest accomplishment is the establishment of its challenging new mythology .

Here ’s the blurb for this film , which played at SXSW this week :

Six years ago , NASA pick up the possibility of foreign life within our solar system . A investigation was launch to compile samples , but dash upon re - entry over Central America . Soon after , new animation form begin to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE . Today , the American and Mexican military machine still shinny to contain ‘ the creature ’ …

That ’s the juicy and just - cabalistic - enough frame-up for “ Monsters ” , English director Gareth Edwards ’ story about a down - on - his - luck American photojournalist named Andrew ( Scott McNairy ) who is tasked by his boss to escort the genus Bos ’ girl Samantha ( Whitney Able ) out of Mexico , back to the U.S. border and presumed rubber .

The integral Mexican countryside is on constant high alert from the threat of onslaught by ‘ the creatures ’ ( they ’re never given any other name ) , and every scene is peppered with signs of devastation from previous run - in ’s with the giant , walking octopi - like unknown . Andrew and Samantha at first make their elbow room to the man ’s most expensive ferry , one that will safely manoeuvre Samantha to the U.S. mainland without incident , but Andrew screws that up when he pilfer up with a Mexican hooker and ends up losing their money and passports . Their only choice is to lead through the “ infected zona ” , the rural itinerary through Northern Mexico that is pullulate with the beast , and requires bribes and a turn of armed guides .

The notion of a quarantined Mexico full of hostile , hulking foreign giant is a grabber , to be sure , but Edwards and company do n’t seem particularly concerned in exploit the subject matter for any sociopolitical subtext or commentary on one bridge player , or the obvious action / risky venture or horror potential on the other . More than anything , this is a dear story , one in which an improbable couple get off to a wobbly start , and will they or wo n’t they ? All that . And the travelog nature of the tale is one that calls to mind tons of previous picture , from “ Beyond Rangoon ” , “ City of Ghosts ” , “ Blood Diamond ” , even “ Salvador ” , but never achieve the richness or dignity of such efforts , and suffer from the resemblance .

Polaroid Flip 09

In terms of the sci - fi - specific tone and scope , “ Monsters ” is clearly hoping to be group with the recent craw of more sophisticated sci - fi like “ child of Men ” or “ Moon ” that puts the human element of the chronicle as much in the forefront as the more fantastic elements . But its two main ( and essentially only ) characters are only slightly more interesting and appealing than the single in , say , “ Cloverfield ” , and their love story is flat and obligatory . Both are attractive , have fantabulous hair , and are too young and self - draw for their story to gather much in the way of sympathy or respect . Which would be all right , I guess , if their journeying involved some waking up or at least a contrast of cultural perspectives , but that ’s never addressed here .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH9NswxZyAQ

The most interesting deviations from the distinctive occur in particular in the portrayal of the few Mexicans who get a moment or two in the spotlight . The gun - wield guides that appear in the second act ( it ’s hinted that these men were all revolutionaries before the alien seem ) , are n’t the stereotype we ’re used to run across more often than not , and during a campfire talk with Andrew and Samantha offer up more insight into the nature of the creatures themselves . And wIth the exception of the ferry manager , who charges Sam $ 5,000 for a ticket , every other Mexican role ( each of them admittedly nonaged ) is depicted as just another regular guy or gallon , trying to get by and make a keep in the shadow of impendent disaster . Andrew ’s and Samantha ’s dynamic , while frustratingly distinctive in every other section , has an interesting twist in that Andrew is n’t especially good as a guide or protector . He mainly contract pictures and gripes , while Samantha is the one with a more informed intellect of the countryside , and is a relatively fluid Spanish speaker . The smattering of peculiar effect are occasionally pretty telling , too , and make good use of the limited budget , specially in the climax when we ’re given the most extensive look at the aliens , although some of the CGI tanks and ruins come across as jarringly plastic .

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While “ Monsters ” belike wo n’t justify much in the way of repeat viewings , it ’s still deserving checking out as a further exemplar of how science fiction cinema is steady broadening its horizons into surface area of mainstream acceptability . This one might have seemed on paper like a mod - day “ African Queen ” with unknown , and the Sojourner Truth is that it would n’t take a drastic amount of work to turn this into a vehicle for Jennifer Aniston or pre - Oscar Sandra Bullock . all right if you ’re into that sorting of thing , but the premiss deserves better . While I can recover something to look up to in the film producer ’ resistor to a gorier or more “ skill - fable - atomic number 39 ” approach to the material , what we cease up with is an uneasy mix , one that makes me wish the filmmakers had tried a little hard to find a clever elbow room to get the ancestry up .

Originally published by rochefort , onQuiet Earth .

UPDATE : Monsters just got a distribution mass ( via HR ) . No word on when we ’ll see it in theaters , but hopefully this class .

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