Monsters (2010)

Director: Gareth Edwards
Writer:    Gareth Edwards
Cast:       Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Mario Zuniga

Set 6 years after a NASA space probe crashed into Mexico, carrying samples of life within solar system, parts of Mexico bordered with USA has been classes as infected zone teeming with extra-terrestrial creatures. The film follows the trip of a cynical journalist Kaulder (Sccot McNairy) who is escorting his boss's daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) across the border to apparent safety of United States of America which has created a huge wall to protect itself from the monsters.

Film is a road love story set in the backdrop of humans trying to adapt to the presence of these alien creatures. There is a class difference between the couple and Samantha is engaged and she appears not to be too happy with her choice. It sounds very Bollywoodish but it is handled in a subtle way. Unlike other films of this genre, the film doesn't show the first encounter with the aliens and people living in Mexico have adapted their life around it. They are much more annoyed with the United States for destroying their homes and forcing migration. Obvious comparison will be made with District 9 which also featured aliens being restricted to a zone and its metaphorical depiction of a modern day apartheid. Monsters is very different to it since the title itself is a deception as it concentrates largely on the relationship between the human protagonists which could have very well been set in a war zone in stead of this Aliens backdrop.

The film was produced within a budget of $500,000 and the shooting equipment cost just $15,000. It didn't have a finalized script and most of it was shot in an opportunistic way. Most of the actors were not professionals and they just persuaded the local people to do the acting parts. Much of the dialog was ad-libbed by the characters who were just given an outline of the situation. This gives a Herzogian touch to the film. Gareth Edwards went on to direct $160 million Godzilla which I saw last week. Good that I saw it first because if I had seen Monsters first I would have went with very different expectations and wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did.

Since Monsters is driven largely by the relationship between the two characters, Edwards was looking for a real life couple to portray it to get a good chemistry. Scoot McNairy was dating Whitney Able back then and are now married.

Rating: 4.5/5

Godzilla (2014)

Director: Gareth Edwards
Writers:   Max Borenstein, Dave Callaham
Cast:       Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe

It is a re-boot of the Godzilla franchise in which the world's most famous monster 'Gozilla' is pitted against malevolent creatures that has been named M.U.T.O (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). M.U.T.O's are parasitic in nature and brought about the end of Godzilla's in old times. They feed on radioactivity for their survival and reproduction and mankind's only hope for their own survival is the bigger monster 'Godzilla'.

Continued theme in the film as pronounced by Ken Watanabe's character is that nature balances itself when its order is disturbed and mankind can do nothing to prevent that. In the film the actions taken by the US Army are ineffective when the monsters battle out in San Fransisco and this is a novelty in Hollywood action blockbusters. Many people are complaining about the lack of screen time for the title character. If they want mindless action, they should stick to Michael 'fucking' Bay's monstrosities that are passed as cinemas. What makes this version of Godzilla better than the usual fare is exactly the long buildup some people are complaining about. This foreplay is essential. The payoff is much better and the creators have manged to portray the helplessness the humans are facing with them being just a sideshow as Godzilla and M.U.T.O fight it out. The films works well on a standalone basis with a good but cheesy closure. The proof that they managed to convey the story properly is that people at the cinema in Kerela where I watched this were actively cheering Godzilla in the final battle sequence. Biggest cheer was when it batted the M.U.T.O away using its tail in a fed up manner. The highlight of the film would be the now famous flare parachuters diving into the dark San Fransisco skyline. The version I saw was PG-13 and film has not been released yet in Japan. I guess they would get a version in which there would be some fucked up mating scene involving the M.U.T.Os. 

The original Godzilla series from the 50s were allegorical about Japanese history with the world war and subsequent events. Japanese people were kept in the dark about the setbacks they were facing in the world war and in similar manner the existence of Godzilla was covered up intitially. This 2014 version is a great one-time watch without much Hollywoodization.

Rating: 4/5