Monsters: Dark Continent

Monsters: Dark Continent ~ I watched the first Monsters film because I was intrigued to see the work of writer/director Gareth Edwards, specifically to see what has gotten him the gig of the then-yet-to-be reboot of Godzilla. I was not impressed. I was more than a little disturbed by the monster love scene, and Edwards' aversion to showing us the monsters bled over into his Godzilla.

So it was with great trepidation that I watched the Gareth Edwards-less sequel, Monsters: Dark Continent. While the original was a bad human story, commentating on the US immigration policy, with the monsters as both allegory and backdrop, the sequel is something far beyond, and yet the same. The monsters have invaded the Middle East, and the US is fighting them, but there's still a war going on.

While we actually do get to see the monsters this time, the movie is not about them this time either. It takes place in the Monsters world, but this is Full Metal Jacket meets The Hurt Locker. This is a war movie, with far more in common with the films above or Three Kings than any kaiju eiga you could name.

The special effects are good, better for a war movie than a monster movie, but apparently they made their choice. It seems fairly obvious that someone (writer/director Tom Green, no, not that Tom Green) wanted to make a war movie, and used the contractual sequel for Monsters as the vehicle. I really feel like I've been invited to a steak dinner, but ended up at a vegetarian restaurant.