What a great independent film! This movie really is a cross between District 9 and Cloverfield;
that
is, the aliens are already here before the movie begins, but we spend a
lot of the movie just trying to get a good look at them.
Fortunately in this one, unlike Cloverfield, we actually do get to have some moments watching the monsters in their
new native habitat. This one also has much more likable characters and a better script.
There are three things about this movie that I really
liked. First, this movie does a good job at societal
introspection. How would we react if aliens landed? Would we build a
wall around them? Would we attack them? Would we try to
figure them out? Something else? What should we do? All great questions, and Monsters explores them all with an
honest eye. I liked that.
Second, this movie just feels very real. The dialogue
is genuine. The situations, although entirely fictional,
feel as though they could actually happen in the way they play out. And
the characters are just ordinary people caught in a bizarre
reality that everyone is having a hard time adjusting to. There are no
super heroes. No one has special talents or abilities; they're
just people. Because of that, it's easy to imagine yourself in these
circumstances, and wondering if you'd be able to do
any better.
Third, and most important, this was a movie that was not
destroyed by studio executives. There is no hidden
agenda. And the film makers were able to build a movie with creative
vision and without a formulaic plot or shoe-horned elements
inserted so that the movie would appeal to the morons... er, masses. It really does make one wonder what this movie could
have been like if it had the budget of a Hollywood movie, but was still
able to leave the studio executives out of the process... and
thus were still able to make a good movie.
A very enjoyable movie. Although there is a slow boil element to this "thriller" that some people may not
like, I thought the slow building tension was a good thing. If you want action from start to finish, watch War of the Worlds,
but if you want to watch the thinking man's version of that film, watch this one instead.
Movie to Skip: 2001: A Space Odyssey
There is probably a special place in Hell reserved for me, but I didn't like this movie. In general, I
like Stanley Kubrick films. I can see where he was coming from in A Clockwork Orange (although the author
did not appreciate that Kubrick chose to leave off the last chapter regarding the main characters ultimate redemption),
and I loved The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket. All of those films are on my "must see"
list. But the Kubrick name doesn't make something automatically great. For me, despite the forward thinking encapsulated
within it, this one was a miss.
My chief complaint about this film is that it moves at the speed of space: it is slooooooooooow. Slow can be
ok, but in this case it just translates to boring. At the end of the day, I just don't see a lot happening in this movie.
I mean, a lot is supposed to be happening, in the subtext of the
film, but you've got to really dig to find it. I don't
think you have to dig as much with most of his other movies. Maybe I'm
just lazy, but I would have appreciated a heads up as to
his overall goal. At least then I could have been trying to deconstruct
the film as I watched it rather than trying not to nod
off.
Theoretically I should be encouraging you to watch this film as an example of a masterpiece from
one of the greatest American film makers of all time (I think I'm
supposed to say it that way), but I can't bring myself
to do it. No, you won't understand why it's funny when someone markets a
monolith "action" figure. No, you won't
get all the Hal references that crop up in popular culture. But
frankly, I'm not really sure it's worth it to be in on the joke.
I could have skipped this one and have been fine with it. There are FAR
better Kubrick movies available to watch, and
infinitely better science fiction movies that borrow the themes of this
one (i.e. Alien, Contact, Terminator, etc.).
