New Release Review - Love and Monsters

Technically not new, considering it premiered in October last year and released in Australia last week, Love and Monsters is the latest Netflix original that also doubles as a Hollywood blockbuster. Their last couple of attempts at those (being Thunder Force and Outside the Wire) were rather terrible, so I was a little nervous going in. Thankfully, I can tell you that I had a lot of fun with this movie for the right reasons.

So the essential story of Love and Monsters is that after nukes were launched to stop a meteor from hitting the earth, the fallout led to the insects, reptiles and amphibians of the earth to mutate into crazy monsters. With humanity driven underground, two former lovebirds are separated into different bunkers and can only communicate by radio, until one of them decides enough is enough and sets out on a cross-California adventure to see his girlfriend again.

Love and Monsters may not be a great film, but it felt so good to watch it. I walked around trying to figure out how to phrase it for a bit, before stumbling on the solution – this is not a great film, but it is a fantastic children’s film. This is the kind of movie that I would have liked to watch when I was young, and perhaps show to my children who I have at the time.

The movie is great as a kid’s film because it never once talks down to its audience or sees them as kids. Characters don’t didactically discuss their backstories to one another, the action is clever and not reliant on cartoon stuff, and there’s a focus on genuine emotional connection as a theme rather than simply “true love, zip it.” Even if the original audience wasn’t children, it’s a film that I can appreciate more because I know that it will entertain all audiences with its mentality, and pass on strong morals to children watching it.

Even better is that the film is unafraid of being violent – admittedly only PG-level violence, but more the kind of stuff you’d see in Tennant-era Doctor Who than a terrible kid’s film like The Smurfs. The monsters all look real and quite intimidating, and the action has genuine tension and drama rather than flippantly treating it as a throwaway moment. If I saw this as a kid, I would bloody love it for treating me as an intelligent person both in storytelling and action-wise. It would spiritually join films like The Goonies or Home Alone or The Kid Who Would Be King as a non-condescending great experience for both children and adults.

So putting aside the kids film bit for a moment, how is Love and Monsters as a film? Well, for one thing, the special effects and action, as I already mentioned, are really good. There’s a surprising amount of practical effects and animatronics in some scenes that again reminded me of Tennant-era Doctor Who (unsurprising, given the effects were done by the same company), and they help add to that enjoyable and yet tension-filled tone that the filmmaker is striving for.

The action isn’t amazing, per se – the stunts aren’t that great, and the scenes don’t have that much tension in them due to the mostly comedic tone of the film and the use of very bright cinematography that undermines the intensity (it’s the same cinematographer and style as Minari, a very relaxed film tone-wise). But it’s way better than most of the action from Netflix originals I’ve seen, and I welcomed it.

In regard to being a comedy, Love and Monsters benefits greatly from the presence of Dylan O’Brien, who I haven’t seen outside of po-faced drama such as Man of Steel or The Maze Runner. O’Brien really integrates himself physically in the comedy and his line delivery is really damn good. It’s a bit of a revelatory performance from my perspective, and he works quite well with the characters surrounding him, especially the dog (best dog I’ve seen in a movie in a while, I’ll say that) which gives the movie a lot of heart.

Aside from him and the Michael Rooker drifter character, none of the other characters are particularly fleshed out or given much to do. Jessica Henwick as his lost other half does get some good stuff in, but is left to only a few scenes and isn’t amazingly developed as a character. There’s also an Australian twist villain which I can’t even count as a spoiler because the second you see him, you think “evil” by reflex.

But I do think that O’Brien and the dog, along with the generally jovial tone of the whole film, are suitable enough for at least one watch. It’s got some good laughs, a big heart and is a movie that will entertain children and adults without pandering to either of them.

I’m giving Love and Monsters a B.

Have you seen this film? If so, what did you think of it? Leave your answers in the comments below.