Monsters: Dark Continent

Dir: Tom Green

2015

**

Gareth Edward’s 2010 film Monsters was a spectacular debut that got the attention of film makers and audiences alike. I thought it was a little sad that he was lured into making the Godzilla remake as it was a little obvious and he could have been in danger of being type-cast (or whatever the director equivalent is?) after just two films. Monsters was also the evolution of the big monster film, a remake of Godzilla felt like it was a giant monster-size step back but I guess I can’t blame him, it was a big deal to be asked, lots of money would have been involved and as a result he got to make Star Wars: Rouge One, which is an excellent addition to the franchise. I thought Godzilla was pretty entertaining too. I wasn’t surprised that a sequel was made and I’m not surprised Edwards let someone else direct it, but I am surprised it was so awful. Edwards and Monsters star Scoot McNairy both executively produced it, so there really isn’t any excuse. Monsters: Dark Continent was directed by Tom Green and written by Green and Jay Basu. It is as if neither man had actually watched or understood the original. The beauty of the original film was the ambiguity of what the title ‘monster’ was actually referring to. Sure, it had big fleshy spider monsters but it also explored other things that could be considered unwelcome. The film was a fascinating two-person play, with the real monsters acting as background symbolism in regards to whatever they were discussing at the time. I still haven’t quite made up my mind about what I believe the actual monster was, which I think is the sign of a powerful and intelligent film. Monsters: Dark Continent is far less inventive and far less interesting. It starts with a bunch of meat-headed friends who seem excited about being deployed to the Middle East to fight a terrorist insurgency and a couple of monsters they might meet along the way. The opening scenes look like a poor-man’s Terrance Malick, I didn’t warm to the characters and that didn’t change over time. The big meaty spider Monsters are really in the film as they were in the last one but their presence is far clearer. The solders are fighting terrorist insurgences, the monsters are just there, occasionally attacking both sides. War is the monster and maybe, just maybe, western countries attacking poorer nations are monsters. No sugar Sherlock. It’s such an obvious premise that you sit and hope that a twist will come and flip it on its back but alas, the twist never comes. It’s predictable and uninteresting. You know things have gone wrong when an original and brilliant film gets a military-themed sequel. It is so unimaginative it hurts. The original Monsters made Cloverfield (which was made just two years before it) look like out hat. 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane was a brilliant expansion of the Cloverfield universe that has almost improved the original and has opened the franchise up to many exciting possibilities. Monsters: Dark Continent has killed the Monsters franchise dead in the water, unless someone else thinks of a great idea and convinces the studio to fund it, and even if they do, it’ll always look like it is trying to compete with Cloverfield, even though it blew it out of the water back in 2010. Not many sequels live up to their predecessors but to get it so wrong, after all the many examples of other films doing the exact same thing, it’s no wonder that so many have been vocal in their hatred for the film. For me, it’s more a case of having little good to say about it, rather than having lots of bad to say. It’s a woefully disappointing missed opportunity, not a terrible idea, just far too obvious and about a decade too late.