FILM SPOT - Monsters (2010)

Monsters is a very special film. Very special indeed. I am not sure how to express this without going overboard with my praise, but this is a seriously exciting film that everyone has to see. I can also say that with no hesitation, it is better than District 9, a film which I loved but was far too heavy handed in its political message. Monsters is a far more subtle film, more deft in its characterisation and handles itself in a far more assured way. It follows Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) and Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able), two individuals thrown together after the latter suffers a minor arm injury in San Jose and he is ordered by his newspaper editor, whose daughter Sam happens to be, to escort her to the coast so she can get home. Naturally, things don't quite work out that way, and the two are forced to make a highly dangerous and illegal journey through 'The Infected Zone'. I won't read off anymore to you about precise nuances of the plot without ruining it, but I will present certain events from the film without ruining it too much. Whereas District 9 had the aforementioned district, creating a simplistic 'aliens have invaded, we've put them in a camp and people don't like them' situation, we have here the Infected Zone, a far more complicated situation.

The monsters of the title are aliens, we gather, but intriguingly no mention is made of their origin or how they evolved to be what they are. The only thing we know is that the zone itself, a huge part of the US and Mexico, is fenced off and the militaries of both nations bomb them day and night. The monsters are clearly capable of causing chaos, but it is subtly pointed out (in that it is never mentioned, but we see it in news reports and graffiti and thus accumulate the information by visual osmosis) that the damage that seems to decimate so much of the local area and which creates so much chaos is caused by us. In fact, very little of the violence and chaos that occurs is as a result of the alien actions. The bombings appear to have claimed the majority of casualties. The film sets up the aliens themselves to be fairly frightening, hulking things that have 'invaded our planet' and stalk the land, but seem to be of little harm unless they are first attacked. A telling scene at about the midway point has some mercenaries, who are escorting our twosome across the land, showing them how the aliens have 'infected' thr trees. What we see however are alien eggs, which according to the mercenaries, are laid and then when they hatch, disappear off into the river never to be seen again. Infection? Or is it just nature doing what it does best? These creatures have an ecology that is not understood or even studied, and thus it is destroyed. It is quite a sad film, a road movie across a strange land where our characters (both very well portrayed) encounter death, corruption and devastation, all come about because of the alien-human combat.

It doesn't feel the need to explain too much, which is good. If the film suddenly got exposition heavy, it might have become a little dull or even didactic. Instead, it lets us work it out for ourselves. First-time director Gareth Edwards has, staggeringly, not only written and directed this film but also did all of its visual effects on a laptop, amazing considering you see some extremely good creature effects in this film. Perhaps its finest scene is the final one, which I will not ruin, but is so poignant, so sweet and so understated (and it DOES involve the aliens, amazingly) that it will literally leave you wide-eyed in wonder. The gentleness of the film and the affection it has for its leads takes the edge off its occasionally very sad nature, and has a poignancy that is not normally synchronous with science fiction at all. Not that the film is slow and dull; there is plenty of action that is brilliantly choreographed, and things are kept thumping along at a great pace with just the right amount of action and character drama without getting too heavy handed. I can't say much more, but this wonderful film is one you have to see. All of you. In light of recent events, of our mistrust of each other and government deceptions, perhaps what we can learn from Monsters is that maybe stopping for a moment and trying to understand what we cannot comprehend will make us a better species.