Monsters (2010)

5/10

Not very impressive. The premise is that alien life forms have taken over mid-to-northern Mexico. A rich girl and a photojournalist are trying to get from southern Mexico back to the US. The problem is that, for some reason, only ferries can take people back. Ground travel I can understand, since that would require traveling through the quarantined zone. But, ah, airplanes? Anyway, for some reason the (massively) expensive ferry ride tickets plus their passports are stolen, so they have to buy an illegal ground transport through the quarantine zone.

The cinematography is spotty. Daylight shots are fine, but the night scenes are way too dark. It looks like this was a conscious decision, but near total blackness does not enhance the mood, it makes you wonder why there is not at least a little bit of light. Sound levels and dialogue are also fine.

The problem is the plot. The two protagonists are supposed to be traveling across dangerous, quarantined ground, yes? Guess what, there is approximately five minutes of creature footage in the entire film. So basically the film turns into a standard trying to get away from dangerous area (usually South Amercian or African war zones) movie. (I'd lump in Middle East escape movies, except there are few rain forests there.)

The little bit of "monsters" we see are CGI'd. They look nice, but the obvious CGI does turn down the scare factor. Mainly, this movie is boring. Guy and girl talk to each other, they talk to other people, they're on a truck, then a boat, etc. etc.

The movie is fine technically, but there really is not a whole lot going on. It actually feels more like a travelogue then anything else. One would think that calling a movie "Monsters" would have, well, lots of monsters. Nope.

5/10- +5 for technical execution, -5 for lack of anything interesting happening.