How much you enjoy Monsters will depend entirely on your penchant for watching DVD bonus features... But I digress (and I haven't even begun).
As I'm no longer the spry movie viewing pup I once was, I am officially allowed to talk about the 'good old days' (that's the nineties to you) of film releases onto the new, space age format of DVD... This was a time when studios and production companies went all out to seduce the viewer into a relationship with this (then) unknown quantity (which looked an awful lot like the ageing Laserdisc format to the wary film fan, not a good thing if you lived in the UK). Some releases were packaged with the usual TV spots and puff pieces, some featured comprehensive 'Making Of's' with a wealth of genuinely interesting new material (a prime example being The Phantom Menace, a release so exhaustive that it almost redeemed the film itself... Almost...) and some featured an entirely new beast altogether... The Alternative Movie Set Within The Movie!*
*Not the official name.
As a rule, these would be mini movies that followed minor characters from the main feature, usually filmed on Digital Video with pared down production values that provided the answers to the burning questions raised by the main story such as 'Hey, I wonder what happened to That One Guy?' or 'What the French? How'd they get there?!' That sort of thing...
Anyone who owns Zach Snyder's rather good Dawn Of The Dead remake/reboot/totally different film with the same name should find themselves familliar with this... There is a whole mini movie on the DVD release about Andy, the gun store owner that the main cast interact with via whiteboards who later turns up dead(ish) in a sequence designed to cull the main cast down to a reasonable number. I doubt that anyone in the cinema really gave his journey too much thought (they were probably too focused on waiting to see if Sarah Polley's facial expression would change at any point during the movie) but his little mini narrative is actually rather touching and provides a nice juxtaposition to the primary narrative. Andy is alone and trapped in a confined space with very limited resources (other than a LOT of bullets), a sharp contrast to the fairly lavish mall surroundings of the main group. It changes nothing about the central plot but does serve to open up the world of the lean main narrative and provide some depth and texture. More importantly, it makes the proactive film fan feel like they have been rewarded for physically buying the movie by being given access to a secret part of the story that your casual 'Joe Schmo' will never know about.
It's that elusive 'Bonus Feature' that so many Discs claim to be 'Loaded With'... The cinematic equivalent of a Masonic Handshake.
Which brings me back to the point at hand...
Monsters.
I had the good fortune to not see this film at the cinema... I think it benefits from being viewed at home, in a more intimate surround than the generic mulitplex. Also, it gave me the opportunity to look at the plot synopsis before watching, so I experienced no outrage or sense of being 'hoodwinked' when I wasn't presented with Wham Bam Monster Mash upon viewing (although the Blu Ray does have a lenticular cover that is SO aggressively three dimensional that it made me feel a little queasy... Does that count as a complaint against a film?). Also, during it's run at the cinema, the reviews I read were faily explicit about the narrative of this film and what to expect, so I don't really consider a lack of all out Monster War to be a fair critique to level at a film that has never had any intention of showing you that or promised that you'd see it.
So why were people so annoyed?
Firstly, it's set six years after the (suprisingly plausible) arrival of the titular Monsters. SIX YEARS! What manner of excitement are you expecting? Take a look at that dusty copy of
Godzilla sat there on your movie shelf... Force yourself... Remember how excited you were when it was released? Remember the last time you gave it any real thought? There you go then...
The characters in
Monsters have been living wih this for a long time, the novelty has clearly worn off for them and they're not going to have the 'Will Smith Double Take' that allows the audience their first good look at the Menace/Phenomenon/Badly Dated Optical Effect as it conveniently rises up from the depths/hovers over the city. This is a film about people living in a world that also happens to have some monsters living in it... The creatures are a visual aside who probably have less screen time than Bruce The Shark does in
Jaws and are extremely effect as a result.
It helps enormously that director
Gareth Edwards has a background in accomplished but low key visual effects. His experience is in the subtle augmentation of practical shots and location plates rather than grandstanding set pieces and the film benefits hugely from it. The titular creatures become a part of the overall look and feel of the piece rather than a key feature and are (very wisely) never shown interacting directly with the human cast (a mistake made with all but the most deft CGI that can instantly destroy an audiences suspension of disbelief and the credibility of your imagined world... Anyone who has watched a SyFy 'Original' movie will testify to this). The whole visual finish of the film clean and polished and (most important to a pedant such as myself) the creatures never change scale to suit the needs of the script (I'm looking at you
Sharktopus!).
It is the characters and the actors who portray them that ultimately give the film it's DVD Special Feature feel. The central pairing of
Whitney Able and
Scoot McNairy and how we, the audience, meet them feel like elements that have been established and fleshed out in a larger narrative (that we have already seen in the non existent Feature Presentation that this Alternate Movie Within A Movie accompanies) where they played second male and female lead to a more cinematic (and, in the real world, more famous) pairing. The actors are solid and handle the material well (with some better than Blair Witch improvising), blessed again by not having to do battle with any 'added in post production' menaces. Their physical journey is fraught (if a little brief) and their emotional one is bearable. Long time (or jaded) Creature Feature viewers will be thrilled to discover that the moment normally reserved for the dreaded 'first kiss' scene is here replaced by a genuinely moving moment where two of the creatures bump into one another and share a moment of companionship before moving on... A great scene (achieving all of the emotional impact and catharsis that 'Another Film Couple Kissing' would have missed by a mile) that reveals the ultimate twist of
Monsters. This is a film about the search for companionship, about communication, loneliness and the transience of those brief moments where we find another lost soul before inevitably continuing on alone. In a neat twist on the usual narrative, our human leads here act as a cypher for the story of the creatures and that is the ultimate trick of the film.
Like the equally devisive
District 9, this is a film of touches and moments that wanted you to do some of the mental heavy lifting rather than hand you a narrative on a plate. Is that a bad thing? Is it wrong for a film to feel like it belongs in a much larger story arc that our characters can't show us this time around? Ultimately, watching
Monsters left me with questions... Not about the characters whose journey I had just followed but rather the world they inhabited. I actively wanted to know more and see more... I would like to see the film that this one alludes to.
Personally, I don't find that to the problem that many (re)viewers have and would posite that it may actually be a testament to a quietly impressive achievement in this age of shoddy cinema fare... A film that left me wanting to see more rather just wanting.
