Last year, about October time, in the run up to Crimson Peak, a film I was very much looking forward to, I watched and reviewed all of Guillermo del Toro's movies. I had a lot of fun doing that, since I adore del Toro, but he's not making a film this year, which makes me very sad. But luckily another director I really like the work of has a film coming out this year, that film is Rogue One, and that director is Gareth Edwards; a nobody who seems to have become one hell of a somebody in the movie business, first getting Godzilla, and then Star Wars, fucking Star Wars. Edwards' list of directorial efforts is, however, a bit shorter than del Toro's, so we're starting in 2010 with his first; a little movie called Monsters.
This film may mislead you at first, opening with a visceral battle with a creature, filmed in shaky night vision, it's an interesting enough scene, but does a poor job of setting up the kind of movie Monsters is. One criticism a lot of people had with Edwards' next film; Godzilla, was the slow burning nature of the film, focusing less on the titular monster, and more on the human characters, Monsters is very much the same, only slower, focusing on the exploits of Andrew and Sam as they make their way to the American border. Andrew and Sam, pretty much the only characters you have, are a pair of oddities for me, because I feel like I should find them boring, with their completely mundane conversations, and their relatively uneventful adventure through the film's dangerous world, but I don't. The conversations they have, while very mundane, are surprisingly interesting to listen to, when they discuss their surroundings, or their pasts, or just talk utter irrelevance, it sells that they aren't just characters, more over that they aren't special or important, just two normal people going about their lives. That element of humanity really adds to the pair of them, and provides a very interesting angle on not just them, but on the situation they're in, and the world they're in. This is a very grounded film, don't expect any heroics, anything fantastical, really anything exciting, because that's not what this film is about; the world it exists in is a really interesting one, with America building a wall along its southern border to keep out the aliens, which, come to think about it, actually sounds really funny, given recent events. News broadcasts are always on the TV, documenting developments in the fight against the creatures, which makes the whole film feel more real, and it really works. As said previously, like Godzilla, this is a slow burn, only this one's even slower, the monsters only make brief appearances, and the film will often just take time to slow right down and let you take something in, whether that be something interesting, like a crashed helicopter or rotting building, or something more unpleasant like scenes of death and destruction. Andrew is a photographer, and he'll usually pull out his camera and start snapping during these really slow moments, which adds to the notion that you are seeing the world as he and Sam are seeing it, which is a really subtle and really cool touch. The film doesn't have any major twists or turns in it, aside from something I won't spoil that adds a whole new layer of sombre to the already sombre film, it's fairly straight forward, as the pair cross the infected zone, running into the odd local, scene of destruction, or local wildlife; there's no big overarching plot to any of it, which does mean the film doesn't adhere to the three-act structure at all; there's no big climax or resolution, as there often isn't in the real world.
The deliberate use of Andrew's camera and news broadcasts is a clever touch, but to really bring it home, Edwards refrains from more conventional filming techniques a fair bit of the time, not using aerial shots very often for example, keeping the camera at head high or lower most of the time, and using neutral and low angle shots, the camera never strays far from Andrew and Sam, meaning you literally get to see the film from their perspective, it's an interesting way of filming a film that Edwards also used in Godzilla, and it makes for a very interesting looking film. It's impressive as shit what this film does on the budget, because this is not a big budget film, costing less than $1 million to make, in my Shin Godzilla review, I said that Gareth Edwards did a better job using the special effects than Anno and Higuchi did in Shin Godzilla, but this film is a much better example of what I meant. Edwards uses special effects sparingly, only showing the monsters a few times, not having any big explosions or anything typical of a conventional action movie, the scenes of war are always on the TV, or in the distance, out of sight, very much like how people witness wars in the real world, and you never get a good look at the creatures until the very end of the film, this is obviously cost effective, but it adds to the grounded feel of the film. even more cost effective, Edwards uses simple trickery, obscuring the monsters behind fog or darkness, that coupled with all the already mentioned clever camera work and narrative structure, or lack thereof, gives the monsters an otherworldly presence when they do appear, while not breaking the film's realism, and when CG effects are used, it doesn't look half-arsed, frankly how this film was made on such a tight budget is something I still struggle to work out, but then again, Wikipedia calls Edwards a visual effects artist. If I really had to work out a negative in this film, some of the effects, most notably in the first half or so, are a bit more spotty, and the film could be seen as boring, I don't think it's boring, but if I need to find a negative, it's slow.
A lot of people may find Monsters boring, and to a degree, I can understand why; it's slow, the monsters are barely in it, there aren't any big action scenes, and the film revolves entirely around two people, who don't exhibit any unique or special traits. But if you want a film that takes its time, has restraint, and embraces that slower pace and more personal perspective, Monsters is a film you can really get stuck into, as I did, it's not perfect, but I still love it, and it's definitely worth watching.
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