What happens
when you try to shoehorn a monster movie into the failed screenplay for a Hurt Locker rip-off? You get the sequel
to Gareth Edwards’ indi-hit, Monsters
(which was good enough to land him Godzilla).
First of all, the reason movies like The
Hurt Locker, Lone Survivor and American Sniper are successful seems
reliant on the fact that they are based on true stories, so these original
screenplays trying to mimic the success are doomed from the start. The choice
to then take the film even further from reality by adding monsters as the enemy
may sound like a solid solution. The only problem is that the monsters aren’t
the enemies in Monsters: Dark Continent.
While there are
attacks against the giant monsters in the Middle East ,
the soldiers we are following only fight against the local insurgents. The
reason for their fighting is indirectly related to the monsters, which are
usually just passing through as the soldiers fight each other. Even with better
special effects, Monsters: Dark Continent
is a sadly lackluster sequel that is often bogged down by the human characters.
This was my biggest problem with the original film as well; how can you title a
film Monsters and have so little of
them in the movie?
Instead we are
given a nearly two-hour film about three rowdy friends from Detroit
who join the army to fight the monsters in the Middle East ,
ten years after the occurrences in the original film. Heading up the cast as
one of the Detroit
The monsters
really do look good in most of the scenes, and this is enhanced by the high
definition of the Blu-ray for the handful of scenes that actually have them.
The disc’s special features include a featurette with on-set footage of the
production. Also included is a trailer.
Entertainment Value:
4/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 2/10
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