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Monsters: Dark Continent

Before Gareth Edwards took the mantle of the big one, his 2010 debut was the start of a monster relationship that hit many movie goers with a welcome return to the high stakes creature feature. Fast forward 5 years and the sequel sets about continuing the world in which an alien contamination leads to the creation of monsters across the world.

 

This time, the setting is the middle east as a young private goes on tour for a search and rescue mission with his squad. Not only are they confronted with the armed militia but also a barren wasteland patrolled by the towering monsters that adds further terror to their ordeal.

 

Despite a few run ins, the monsters are left firmly in the background for a film that focuses on the men at war showcasing that when in desperate times, man will still find it in himself to battle for supremacy and control against other men and ultimately leads to the war born men to question their allegiance to their cause.

 

The issue with ‘Monsters’ is that it’s not a bad film, it’s just that it is not the film it should be. A sheep in wolves clothing and interestingly, from the outset there is little that relates this to its predecessor in anything other than name and creature design but even with a few chilling shots of the monsters, there’s never any real sense of danger.

 

Tom Green has a brilliantly written and directed war movie that wouldn’t be amiss in a collection containing the likes of ‘Three Kings’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’ but the scarce sight of any monsters hardly give any justice His character study between Johnny Harris’ leader and new recruit Sam Keeley is gripping to observe, the two show the real casualties of war and when one of their squaddies dies in the line of fire, there’s an emotional drive that leads to the film’s emotional climax.

 

When a monster does appear, the effects are beautifully edited and are believable in a gritty drama, yet despite being grounded in tone and story, fails to deliver anything exceptional. If ‘Dark Continent’ was it’s sole title and the monster scenes omited, this would make a great war movie and would be enough to rival even ‘The Hurt Locker’ in terms of its raw nature and character study. Unfortunately, no Oscar contender had mile high monsters patrolling the borders or Jurassic Park-esque creature moments to deal with. Many faulted ‘Monsters’ for being a romance film at heart but the moments where the monsters did appear, there was a presence that is somehow missing this time round.

 

It’s difficult to criticise a film that is written so well but unfortunately the film being reviewed here is called ‘Monsters’ and it’s target audience wants what is on the tin. It’s a shame that while it keeps with segregating itself from the generic monster mash ups, it also alienates itself too.

 

Director: Tom Green

Released: 31st August 2015

Running Time: 119 minutes

Age Rating: 15

 

Reviewer: Martyn Wakefield

RATING


Plot: 2
Fear: 1
Gore: 3


R2.5/5​

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