Love and Monsters: an amazing gamer movie

Love and Monsters

A young protagonist armed with some gadgets and a lot of determination. A bestiary to complete. Adventure companions who enter and leave the party. An open world to explore. And of course huge monsters lurking around every corner. No, it is not a new video game, even if these characteristics are reminiscent of many, from The Last of Us to Pokémon passing through an avalanche of JRPG, but Love and Monsters, a film that you can find on Netflix for a few days (here the review of Movieplayer). In the United States it actually came out last October, only to land on various digital distribution platforms worldwide only recently: nominated for an Oscar for special effects, the film directed by Michael Matthews lost to Christopher Nolan's Tenet, but however, it remains a fun post-apocalyptic adventure that overturns the conventions of the genre. It passed a bit on the sly, but after seeing it we realized that it would be a crime not to talk about it, also because in some ways it really looks like a video game that comes to life on the screen.

The plot in a nutshell

The asteroid Agatha 616 risks crashing into the earth and the American government, as in the most classic disaster movie, responds with a volley of missiles that destroys it . The problem is that the toxic waste released into the atmosphere at the moment of the explosion ends up mutating the cold-blooded creatures on the surface, turning them into ferocious monsters. The survivors are forced to take refuge underground, forming real colonies: seven years after the catastrophe, Joel Dawson is one of them. He lived in Fairfield, one of the places most affected by the crisis, and shortly before the evacuation he had separated from his girlfriend Aimee to run away with his parents. Also lost, Joel was saved by a group of survivors who welcomed him into their colony, a sort of dysfunctional family in which Joel is not only the youngest, but also the only one left single: for this reason, our protagonist decides to go on a long journey to the surface to reach Aimee, who lives in another colony.

Love and Monsters: Dylan O'Brien in one scene. The problem is that Joel is fairly clumsy and the outside world has completely changed: nature has reconquered urban centers, and monsters are hiding in every corner ready to devour human beings. Joel, however, is a determined boy and has a passion for drawing; for this reason, he keeps a book of illustrations in which he depicts the monsters he encounters and notes all the information that can help him. He will be joined by some unlikely travel companions: Boy, a very intelligent and faithful stray dog, and the adventurers Clyde and Minnow, who will teach him to survive. Obviously Joel will reach Aimee's colony, but there awaits him a twist that overturns the conventions of the genre and an action-packed final segment that opens the door to a potential sequel.

A film for everyone ...

Love and Monsters: a poster of the film. Difficult to place Love and Monsters in a specific genre. It belongs to the post-apocalyptic, but it is not macabre or desperate like The Road or I am legend; it is part of horror, more because monsters provoke repulsion and not because it scares; it's a John Hughes-esque love story, but also a Zombieland-style thriller and action movie. Above all, it is a young adult adventure, even if a bit more adult than young: Joel, the protagonist, is already twenty-four when the story begins, but still faces a journey that leads him to grow and rediscover himself, a little. as happens in Stand by Me. Dylan O'Brien, who we have already seen protagonist in the film series Maze Runner, is adorable: he does not play the usual action movie hero, but a completely normal guy, and also a bit clumsy , which is easy to identify with. He is an ordinary mortal, with his strengths and so many defects, who repeatedly questions his choices: O'Brien's performance is excellent both in the action scenes and in the most introspective moments, and in this sense the direction of Matthews manages to put the pieces of the puzzle together perfectly.

Love and Monsters: one of the monsters in CGI. There isn't a scene out of place, a free gag, or a cringe moment; indeed, on several occasions Love and Monsters even manages to move, but it does so in a genuine way, without forcing your hand too much, taking advantage of the storytelling and the setting so that Joel earns his moments of glory only when the time is right . La di lui is a heart-warming adventure, thanks in part to a balanced cast. Michael Rooker, who we have already seen in the role of Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy, returns to interpret the gruff with a heart of gold who acts as a counterbalance to the little Minnow who accompanies him, a girl full of determination who immediately becomes attached to Joel. Also good Jessica Henwick in the role of Aimee: far from the usual damsel in difficulty ™ is a character who reserves many surprises and reverses, for the first time, the expectations of the spectator who has followed Joel's journey up to that point in the story.

Love and Monsters: a not very nice toad. We won't tell you anything else about the last act of the film and the supporting actors involved, but we can't help but dedicate a few lines to Boy, the stray who follows Joel everywhere and who will almost certainly also become your favorite character in the film. The bond that forms between the two is an obvious reference to Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog - which in turn inspired the Fallout series! - but also in this case Love and Monsters gives almost more prominence to this relationship than to that between Joel and the other human protagonists. Then there are the world and the monsters to complete the picture: the creatures designed and created in computer graphics by Mill Film are convincing and horrible at the right point, but they maintain a perfect balance between fantasy and realism. In the end, and this is an important point in the narrative, they are the same animals that populated the Earth even before Agatha 616 and that we hardly considered until they got much, much bigger.

... and for those who love video games

Love and Monsters: Dylan O'Brien is the protagonist Joel. The scenes in which Joel makes his way between the vehicles and the buildings covered with vegetation, while the sounds of nature and the creatures that roam the surroundings anticipate a daring scene that will come, or not, reminded us of the moments spent filming between the abandoned suburbs of the cities of The Last of Us. Love and Monsters, let's face it, has more than one moment reminiscent of video games, especially adventures and RPGs. Meanwhile, there is an open world: once out of the bunker, Joel knows he has to continue in a certain direction to get to Aimee, but he often finds himself making stops and discoveries along the way, like when, for example, he runs into a still functioning Mav1s offering a moment of tender introspection. In this open world, Joel cannot do what he wants but he must keep a low profile, move cautiously and without making too much noise, otherwise he would attract the attention of the monsters. The latter reveal themselves in the most varied shapes and sizes: gigantic toads, strange harmless snails, disgusting leeches and so on.

Love and Monsters: Michael Rooker in one scene. Joel escapes most of the time like in a real survival horror, but to continue he must necessarily defeat some bosses, using cunning and firepower. Each fight, each experience, increases his level, so to speak: Joel gains more and more confidence in himself, increases the wealth of experience and learns new survival and fighting techniques. The supporting actors who come and go from the party at the right moments in his campaign help him. Clyde and Minnow are the mentors, the highest level NPCs who accompany him at the beginning of the adventure and then leave him to himself after teaching him the basics of combat. Boy is the trusted partner who follows him everywhere: a living gimmick who helps Joel with his special talents and who at some point leaves him in the most difficult moment because the spectator / player must feel alone and desperate, questioning himself before the moment of the cathartic redemption.

Love and Monsters: a monster emerges from the underground. Mind you, what we are doing is a little pretentious game that does not require who knows what commitment: we could find a video game structure in any film, forcing similarities like boss fights. The point is that in recent years some video games have become so similar to cinema, and vice versa, that we tend to forget the pleasure of sitting in front of the TV for a couple of hours of normal entertainment. Some video games risk becoming too busy or demanding, so much so that once placed on the shelf they no longer touch, while films belonging to the categories in which Love and Monsters fall into end up taking themselves too seriously or not at all, between unbearably introspections. long or continuous heartless action scenes. Michael Matthews' film was refreshing: it slips quickly, leaves a small mark and lets you watch it with pleasure. A bit like the video games of the past.

Love and Monsters: the poster. Have you noticed any errors?