Love And Monsters – An Honest Review 7/10

By definition this is a monster movie, so be prepared for a few jumps and ugly looking mofos! But at the heart of this movie is the story of Joel, a love-struck twenty-something year old who has been searching for his girlfriend for over 7 years now, since the dreadful day that changed the lives of everybody, and wiped out most of the human race – the day of the Monsterpocalypse!

The survivors have been living underground since the day that an asteroid from space rained down upon Earth – but that wasn’t the kicker – it was the mutations in the wildlife and animals that caused the problems! Cockroaches went from being a measly few inches in length; hardly intimidating, to a 15-foot long behemoth. When you’re on the surface, you’re as good as dead. Joel is the only known survivor from his town, known to be the core area affected by the asteroid and all that came from it. His colony is small but they’ve become quite the family, and our antagonist is given the role of chef. The rest of the team are hunters and gatherers, bar the resident mother who gave birth recently (there’s always someone who gets knocked up in these sort of situations), and don’t see Joel as a dominant figure or someone who is able to provide in quite the same way. Since joining the colony he’s been persistent on the radios contacting other colonies in order to find his girlfriend who drove away from the area the day of the crash, and after a breakdown in the communication device he decides to go rogue and venture out into the open to find her. But how will the weakest member of the colony fare?

The story isn’t completely original as there are similar end of the world type movies with monsters reigning and the surviving humans living in fear, but I did like the way it was done. Joel meets a few friends along the way and I think the characters he comes across on his journey certainly add a little bit of depth to the character, unlike the members of his colony who I didn’t connect with at all. At first he comes across as quite weak and lacks any survival instincts one might be instilled with under the circumstances. As he navigates his way across the dangerous route to his girlfriend Aimee, who is 80 miles away, he learns more about the monsters he has to face both in terms of his fear and the gigantic insects and amphibians that have taken over.

Dylan O’Brien’s performance was certainly enjoyable! I loved watching the Maze Runner movies, and I found this movie to take course in a similar direction. It was easy to empathize with his character throughout the turbulent patches, and I’m sure that we might all think we could do what he needed to if the shoe was on the other foot but in reality, I think it would be exceptionally challenging to build the courage necessary to take on the task at hand. I was a little bit disappointed with Jessica Henwick and I don’t know if it was because I expected more from her or Aimee. There wasn’t anything that made her particularly likable other than the car scene but that was mostly thanks to Joel’s most excellent drawing of her.

I liked the special effects used, and thought the design of the creatures we encountered was quite thorough. My absolute favourite character had to be Mav1s the android. She had more charisma than many of the humans that’s for sure. And the scene with the flying jellyfish – so much love for that!

Not particularly scary, but it was entertaining. I actually think the original name of Monster Problems could have been more suitable, as I didn’t feel there was enough love to warrant the word in the title! If it was released at a cinema near me that was actually open, I would have happily gone to see it on the big screen!

A review by CB