Monsters (2010)

I came across this movie by sheer chance. There was some praise for it on the imdb circuit, & there was plenty of abuse too. I decided to give it a try without trying to find out anything about it. I still had 'District 9' in my mind when I had read the tagline on the movie-poster.

The movie starts off with a blurry middle-of-the-night attack captured on night-vision camera & I immediately hoped it wasn't a Cloverfield-ripoff. That's the problem with monster-movies these days... everything seems to have already been done & dusted. Original material is immensely difficult to come by. Ok, moving on.. the next scene explains the plot - our leading man had to escort his boss's daughter to safety from an alien-infested zone. Simple plot; & not much time wasted on getting the pitch on the road. Quickly the little gestures fed in the back-story; most of the story-telling was of the 'blink-n-you-miss-it' variety. The hints of a blooming romance amidst the dangers of a battlefield...

I gave this movie a slightly higher ranking, just because of the start & the end; & how they both are the same.

Favourite scenes include: the drunken flirting, the Incan pyramid detour, the beginning-is-the-end twist.

Alternate Ending: The question whether the aliens really attack the rescue-team remains unanswered. Or did the heroine die because of the air-bombings ?? It really was a clever way to show the end at the start of the movie, so that the audience leave with a happy thought at the end of the movie. This I think was fabulous; & wouldn't change it at all.

First Viewed: Alone at Harborne in Parramatta.

Rating-3