Monsters (2010): A Look into a Young Director’s Potential

Monsters is a low budget sci-fi film that was released in 2010 starring Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able. It was the first feature film of director Gareth Edwards, whose latest feature film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) comes out in December. Edwards served as writer, director, cinematographer, and visual effects artist on the film. The movie was released to moderate critical praise and was a box office success mainly due to its miniscule budget of under $500,000. However, upon release most audiences view it unfavorably. A similar instance occurred with Edward’s next feature, Godzilla (2014), which was well received by critics and a box office smash but was criticized for not showing enough of the monsters and having characters that the audience couldn’t be invested in. These were complaints also made about Monsters. So, with Rogue One coming out next month I think it is appropriate to examine this promising directors strengths and flaws through his first movie.

The story is at is core a road trip movie with the backdrop of an alien invasion, or rather an infestation. The film follows Andrew Kaulder (McNairy), a photojournalist taking pictures of the alien attacks, and Samantha Wynden (Able) a tourist and the daughter of Kaulder’s boss. It all takes place in alien infested Mexico as our protagonists travel to the U.S.-Mexican border to escape the alien attacks which are becoming increasingly common.

McNairy and Able do a wonderful job of holding the film together. As the only two real actors in the film, the movie relies on their chemistry and the depth they are able to give to their thinly written characters. The movie was shot guerilla style, meaning that McNairy and Able were the only real actors in the film, all the other characters were portrayed, with a few exceptions, by random people Edwards and his crew found on location. Therefore, the weight of the movie’s story is on their shoulders.

Andrew Kaulder is a fairly interesting character. In the beginning, he has a cynical attitude towards the entire situation and is very reluctant to escort Samantha to the border. However, as they continue on their journey, he, of course, begins to develop feelings for her. As the movie continues, he makes a few mistakes but becomes a very likeable character that one can easily be invested in. He isn’t a normal character for a monster movie, and is much more interesting than the protagonist of Edward’s Godzilla movie.

Whitney Able’s character, Samantha Wynden, certainly isn’t as compelling as Kaulder. On the surface she is fairly shallow. She’s a rich tourist who doesn’t want to marry the man her father wants her to. How original. She is important to the plot as she can speak Spanish, an important skill while travelling through Mexico, and she has a few scenes that make her slightly endearing to the audience. Yet, it’s hard to ignore her dour demeanor and helplessness throughout the film. Overall the characters do their job and the actors elevated what material is there.

Even if the characters were worse, it could be forgiven, because the characters aren’t really the star of the film, it’s the setting. In the beginning, alien infested Mexico resembles a conflict riddled Middle East, the opening alien attack on the military convoy more than resembles a terrorist ambush. When we are introduced to our characters we see destroyed buildings, dead bodies being taken away and military jets, and helicopters patrolling the skies. As the film goes on we see more of the culture that has developed due to these aliens lumbering around Mexico. There is an especially poignant, however on the nose, scene where our characters enjoy the lively Mexican culture only to stumble onto a candle lit shrine to those killed in alien attacks. We see desperate people trying to make it to America in order to escape the alien attacks. This is a thinly veiled attempt at commentary about illegal immigration, and, for the most part, it works. Corrupt government officials have turned this situation into a business, extorting desperate people trying to make it to America. Looking back, it would have been interesting to view this situation from the point of view of an average family of Mexican immigrants instead of American tourists.

Once they begin their journey our characters travel to through the jungles of Northern Mexico (In reality the these scenes were filmed in several Central American countries) where Edwards takes advantage of the natural beauty of the landscape and blends the special effects almost perfectly into the environment. In these scenes the environment is littered with abandoned ruins and towns, downed military jets, and a strange alien fungus that covers the trees. All of this is great, but I do think that the movie doesn’t take full advantage of it's setup. It introduces a group of guides that escort people to the American border and generally treats them as set dressing, even though you could make a movie just about them doing their job.

The most famous part of this movie, and of Godzilla, is the monster designs/special effects work. With budget of less than five hundred thousand dollars Edwards is able to do a great deal. The monster design is interesting, if simple, as they seem to be giant walking octopi. These alien creatures are well developed, as we learn throughout the movie about their true nature. This builds up to the climax to the movie (which is the only time when we get a clear look at the creatures). A lot of people expecting a Cloverfield (2008) like action movie will be disappointed. Much like Godzilla, Most of the time the action is shown on TVs or in the dark. There is a sense of realism that most monster movies don’t have. The monsters aren’t portrayed as evil, just animals that are trying to survive and mate in this environment. People are the real monsters of the movie, as they take advantage of the situation and extort desperate immigrants. This is furthered in Godzilla as the MUTOs in that movie are just trying to find a place to mate and lay their eggs. It seems like he will continue this in Rogue One, hopefully making the film less of a black and white conflict than most Star Wars movies and more grounded in characters. This unique combination of the fantastical and starkly real is something that I believe will let him go far in Hollywood.

Up and coming directors will need something like that, some gimmick, in order to have a chance at making it in the ultra competitive entertainment industry. Edwards is part of a new generation of directors that Hollywood seems to be investing their future in. These young people have followed a distinct career path. First, direct a surprisingly successful low budget indie film that catches the attention of studio executives, then be handed the reigns to hundred million dollar franchise. This has lead to mixed results, with some great successes [Colin Trevorrow who started with Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) and went on to direct Jurassic World (2015)] and several failures [Josh Trank going from Chronicle (2012) to Fantastic Four (2015) and Marc Webb's transition from 500 Days of Summer (2009) to The Amazing Spider-Man (2012-2014) series]. Monsters was Edward’s jumping off point into Hollywood. Before this he had just directed a handful of short films, and had done some visual effects for PBS and BBC. But after this film, he was entrusted with a project in which hundreds of jobs, and millions of dollars were on the line. He was able to successfully make the transition to big budget movies where many others failed. It's clear that this generation of indie directors are going to become the filmmakers that will replace the aging film legends that are nearing retirement. These directors are going succeed Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, and they are going to have to work in an increasingly restrictive studio system. Not only will directors have to worry about marketing appeal in the U.S. but they will also have to make concessions so the film appeals to international audiences. Still filmmakers coming from small indie films should better understand the importance of characters and dialog over spectacle than directors coming from commercials or music videos. Hopefully, they will be able to squeeze some artistic merit into their films despite the demands of executives. Edwards didn’t exactly accomplish that when he first transitioned to one hundred million dollar films. Godzilla seems like a poor imitation of Monsters, just without the heart or realism. Hopefully, Edwards was able to go back to his roots when making Rogue One.

On it's own, I would highly recommend Monsters. While it's not action packed and is a bit slow at times, it builds a fascinating world and puts two solid characters at the center of it, slowly allowing them to grow throughout their journey. I would give it a solid 7/10, but it's a film that’s not for everyone. It can be boring and I can see why the characters wouldn’t interest everyone.

Most importantly, it sets a standard for indie filmmaking. A small budget doesn’t limit creativity. If Edwards was able to design and bring to life these giant roving Octopi with less than $500,000, than you have no excuse for your lack of creativity. If anything, this film should inspire prospective filmmakers to take a chance and create something. Who knows, you might direct a Star Wars movie one day.