Love And Monsters

Chasing Aimee

Love And Monsters
USA/Canada/Australia 200
Directed by Michael Matthews
Paramount Pictures

Love And Monsters is a really cute little film which flirts with the sci-fi/horror genres but manages to retain a lot of humour and heart to still fall within the boundaries of romantic comedy at the same time. The film is set in Earth’s near future and tells the tale of Joel, played by Dylan O'Brien, who writes letters to his once girlfriend Aimee (played by Jessica Henwick) which never get posted but which we hear by way of his narrative voice over to apprise the audience of what they need to know in any given scene.

The reason why the letters never get posted is because, like many survivors in this post-apocalyptic time frame, he lives with just a handful of humans, hiding in an underground bunker. The film starts off with a brilliant, animated sequence filling us in on what’s happened, which is... in the near future, an asteroid named Agatha was due to collide with the Earth and kill us all. So the military sent a load of missiles to intercept it and, job well done, the asteroid was obliterated. However, the many chemicals from all those rockets fell back to Earth and started mutating all the cold blooded creatures... insects, fish. crabs etc... until they quickly became huge and started eating the humans on the planet. It took just a year for almost everyone to die and be left with various scattered outposts, like the underground bunker Joel hides in, as mankind’s last survivors. A place where they’ve now been for seven years. Although, he can still sometimes get radio contact with Aimee’s bunker on occasion.

Then, one day after a bunker breach in which another of his companions is eaten, the very scared and useless at survival Joel decides to go on a seven day trip across the surface so he can be reunited with Amiee. And that’s the main plot and I won’t spoil what happens for you but he does acquire a dog and make two other human friends, played by Michael Rooker and Ariana Greenblatt, who teach him survival techniques against the various monsters, along the way.

And the film is a total delight as we follow the antics of Joel and his new four legged companion Boy across the forest looking regions of the Earth (I’m guessing going through decimated cities would have been too big for the budget) and the various things he does to survive. And, like any quest, the end result isn’t necessarily what he was expecting to find but there are further adventures to be had when he finally reaches his destination, for sure.

The film is not especially interesting in the way the shots are designed, for the most part but, it’s very competently put together and never fails to be anything other than intense, suspenseful, charming and captivating throughout. O'Brien seems pretty good in the lead role and brings a certain warmth to proceedings. It even has a very moving sequence where he finds the last working ‘MAV1S’ robot, which he knows about but has never interacted with in person (he has a dead shell of one back in his bunker) and he shares her last 50 minutes of time with her before the power runs out on her... after which he buries her.

This one also had a nice score by Marco Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp, which really helps move the film along and which is even on CD (that’s one for this year’s Christmas list I think). It’s also edited very well and, despite some really quite scary and drawn out monster encounters, it actually takes a decision to stay away from the gore and is definitely in the ‘family adventure’ category, it seems to me. There are also some nice learning curves in the growth of the characters as we watch Joel go from scared witless to a responsible but daring survivor and possibly leader. There’s a beautiful moment when he’s face to face with a giant killer crab that’s about to eat him which really hammers home the point that the lead protagonist has evolved into someone more accepting and wise as his personal journey has educated him to a large degree.

And that’s all I’ve got to say, really, about Love And Monsters other than it’s an easy film to recommend and that it has a cool, joyful dog character to make sure the poor humans don’t get led too astray (played by two dogs in real life). This is a charming movie with a lot of heart and definitely worth seeking out if you can get an opportunity. Loved it.

Underwater

Flash, Bang, Wallop! 
Water Picture.

Underwater
2020 USA Directed by William Eubank
UK cinema release print.

Warning: A big spoiler on the ending 
in here, which I’ll flag when it comes up. 

Okay, so by far my favourite movie I saw this weekend was Underwater, which... was absolutely less interesting and arguably less original than the other two (The Lighthouse, reviewed here and Birds Of Prey - The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn, reviewed here) but made up for in sheer entertainment value what those other two lacked. And yeah, this movie was shot three years ago and has been languishing at the studio it was made, Twentieth Century Fox (the last film to bear that name) due to, among other things, the company’s acquisition by Disney.

Yeah, so let out a big groan, perhaps, as I tell you that Underwater is, not so much like The Abyss (as you might suspect it to be) but much more like a seafaring version of an Alien movie (not quite Aliens and the one with the tightest analogy to this would perhaps be the fourth, Alien Resurrection, I think) cross pollinated with The Poseidon Adventure. I wasn’t expecting much from this and it did have a little problem with the ending, I felt but, yeah, like I said it was my favourite of the three I saw this weekend and I had a lot of fun with it.

The film’s main protagonist, Norah, is played by Kristen Stewart... an actress who I’ve only recently discovered (after seeing her a year or so ago in Personal Shopper, reviewed here). She is pretty cool as a technical expert on the crew of a deep sea, submarine station diving rig, one of a family of such stationery vessels situated between 5 and 7 miles beneath the sea. The film starts off with her monologue on the soundtrack, reliving the experiences of her tale to the audience and it’s this specific viewpoint where my one big problem with the film starts up... but I’ll come back to that later. So...

Norah tells us the story from a first person viewpoint and it has a really strong opening... all that stuff you see in the trailer where the water bursts through the vessel and everyone is just trying to survive it all takes place within the first five minutes of the film. That’s just the set up. Two survivors, including Norah, try to get to a less damaged part of the vessel to safety, picking up a few of the crew as they work their way through wrecked areas that they shouldn’t even be able to fit in and while the audience is all holding their breath (I’m assuming everybody else watching movies with scenes underwater do this, it’s not just me right?). The various actors and actresses include T. J. Miller, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick and John Gallagher Jr. (who you may remember from 10 Cloverfield Lane, reviewed here) and, frankly, there’s not a bad one among them. Sure they go through all the clichés you’d expect as they try to plot a course going down to the ocean bed so they can walk many miles to the next base and also figure out what kind of earthquake activity has wrecked their, now less than airtight, submersible home... but that’s okay.

Of course, it’s not long before they realise they are being stalked by the real culprit behind the damage and destruction of, not just their vessel but all the others. Yes, that’s right, a bunch of aggressively violent, sea creature predators who want to eat the human contents of said vessel for breakfast.

And it’s about everything you’d expect from this kind of thrill a minute horror movie but the point is, it accomplishes the little it sets out to do really well. I don’t know who William Eubank is but the direction and whole feel of the film is that someone’s taken an old, much used template and replicated it in a really competent and watchable manner. And you really can’t complain about that with the kind of movie it is, I think.

So yeah, good acting, some nice photography and a score by Marco Beltrami and Brandon Roberts which is good enough to make me lament that there’s been no proper CD release of the thing, just a stupid electronic download. So I guess I won’t be listening to that one as a stand alone then.

Okay, big spoiler warning right now.

Now, normally at this point I would tell you that the film has no surprises but, unfortunately, by the end of the movie is does pull out one surprise but... yeah, it’s not the best thought through surprise as far as I’m concerned. All the way through we’ve been following Kirsten Stewart’s character as she rescues various colleagues from death in various states of undress, finishing in something which is basically just a bikini (did I mention this movie had some spectacular visuals?) but at the end, she pulls a fast one on the last two of her surviving colleagues who she’s finally managed to get into escape pods, surface bound and then sacrifices herself to save their lives. Um... no... what? Yeah, so the person who has been telling us her story on the soundtrack, I think even in past tense for a lot of the film, dies at the end. Frankly, that makes no sense unless you believe she’s telling her tall tale from somewhere ethereal like heaven so, yeah, no marks for the writers here. This isn't Sunset Boulevard.

End of spoiler.

However, regardless of the ‘quite possibly accidental’ trick ending, Underwater is a solid ‘monsters in the wet’ movie and if you are into those kinds of horror/action pieces, well I think you’ll probably have a good time with it. It has it’s moments and with her ‘shaved head and not much else look’ in a lot of the scenes, Kristen Stewart manages to carry the movie along with her obvious enthusiasm for the role. This is never going to be anybody’s favourite horror movie and it’s not even that jumpy most of the time but it’s a highly competently put together survival horror yarn and I’ve got no problems recommending this to people. Water way to go.