I wasn't overly keen on Gareth Edwards 2010 sci-fi indie film MONSTERS down to the fact that it was marketed as science fiction featuring an alien invasion when the main bulk of the story revolved around what was a back packing romance . It was a rather slow moving introspective affair and I could see Edwards trying to gain a reputation as an English language Wim Wenders and despite being a British production there is a strong element of commentary on the American war on terror . With this sequel director and co-writer Tom Green goes one better and makes an out and out war film set in the Middle East where the aliens are peripheral
As stated I wasn't impressed with the original and was rather puzzled with the high praise it received from many quarters . I'm even more puzzled by the hatred it's sequel is receiving from some people . If you're expecting something in the way of WAR OF THE WORLDS then fair enough and despite being a different genre in that a sappy love story becomes a hard hitting war film MONSTERS DARK CONTINENT at least has the stylistic look and feel that it is a spin off from the 2010 film
Apart from having alien monsters in the background it doesn't do a lot different from what you might expect from a straight war movie . Young man from the inner city projects joins the US Army and finds himself in the front line battling jihadists . It's at this point the audience might be asking themselves why with an alien incursion going on human beings are killing human beings but I guess that's the point the film is trying to make - man will always be man . I'm not entirely sure if I agree with this in the scenario presented . Look at the ongoing conflict against ISIS which has a coalition of Syrian Ba'athists , Iranian militias , Kurdish leftists , Iraqi government forces and Western air power fighting against the Islamic state or the second world war where Stalin's Soviet Union and Western democracy united to defeat Nazism . The aliens here seem a mere slight diversion . That said for a relatively low budget independent film the action scenes are handled well and might have been very impressive as a straight forward war movie
As stated I wasn't impressed with the original and was rather puzzled with the high praise it received from many quarters . I'm even more puzzled by the hatred it's sequel is receiving from some people . If you're expecting something in the way of WAR OF THE WORLDS then fair enough and despite being a different genre in that a sappy love story becomes a hard hitting war film MONSTERS DARK CONTINENT at least has the stylistic look and feel that it is a spin off from the 2010 film
Apart from having alien monsters in the background it doesn't do a lot different from what you might expect from a straight war movie . Young man from the inner city projects joins the US Army and finds himself in the front line battling jihadists . It's at this point the audience might be asking themselves why with an alien incursion going on human beings are killing human beings but I guess that's the point the film is trying to make - man will always be man . I'm not entirely sure if I agree with this in the scenario presented . Look at the ongoing conflict against ISIS which has a coalition of Syrian Ba'athists , Iranian militias , Kurdish leftists , Iraqi government forces and Western air power fighting against the Islamic state or the second world war where Stalin's Soviet Union and Western democracy united to defeat Nazism . The aliens here seem a mere slight diversion . That said for a relatively low budget independent film the action scenes are handled well and might have been very impressive as a straight forward war movie