Monsters of War

The CGI was really good, but the acting came out of a Cracker Jack Box. The facial expression you can tell the lead actress was trying too hard with extra long eyelashes. The kids had no emotion. I want my time back.

I like low budget movies, I understand the CGI might not be great or the story might not be original, but what made me quit this movie was the acting, it was horrible. Sorry Mr. Director, but you need better actors.

I cannot imagine a single redeeming feature of this film. The acting is so wooden that cadboard cut outs would have been far superior to any of the performaces rendered by this cast. The plot is contrived in theworst sense of the term and is almost a stream of consciousness affair. Not worth even a ten minute look-see! The British should be tried for War Crimes for this movie!

I think that says it all.

You'll understand if you watch this movie.

It's a monster movie. Bunch of weird monsters.

The opening family is really weird. All through the movie, you'll be thinking that they were really robots, or something to explain their weirdness and stiffness.

But it never happens.

In its defense, I'll say that it certainly looks like some very important information was CUT. Maybe more was filmed, maybe more was scheduled to be filmed. It wouldn't take much to add for some coherent story line or character line.

Mostly, the military angle looked like something was cut. The two surviving soldiers who join the isolated group have weapons that never work. That is possibly what is missing from the story. Were they given decrepit weapons on purpose by humans, or was there a supernatural reason? Nothing is indicated either way. Was there a scene cut from the movie to explain this? The woman playing the military leader gets top billing, even though the family is center stage, so I'm inclined to believe there was initially more to the script.

Until that is added on to the movie, I have to grade it on its merits as is. So, here goes:

We learn many lessons. The people in the military are given weapons that don't function. And eventually the ones who survive learn to just toss those weapons away.

We learn that if a beast is about to eat you, to stand and talk and don't run away or drive away for a good 15 seconds. This is to ensure that the slower beasts don't get their meal, and you get to feed faster beasts who will breed faster beasts.

Many such lessons.

The motivations for the characters? Well, some are motivated, and some are just kind of "lets just have this character do this thing here". Notably a stereotypical religious nut and the family from the beginning.

I'll be lax on the rating, because I do believe the panic in panic situations. That's the only thing going for this movie. People not acting calm and cool when huge dangerous beasts are maiming and tearing their bodies apart.

But it total?

I think it can all be summed up with:

Huh?

The story of this movie had potential. The acting, therefore, is ridiculously bad. The children who are cast have null charisma and what the children lack in acting talent the rest compensates for with terrible overacting. The local amateur drama society employs more credible actors. The monsters in this movie are quite imaginative, but the execution is downright bad. The CGI looks ridiculously cheap. I can't believe anyone put the time and money into making this. Sometimes there are those movies that are so bad it's still funny to watch but this just hurts your eyes. Avoid this movie at all costs. Go do something fun with your time. Go scrub a toilet, iron the laundry, or literate your stamp collection. These are 81 minutes of your life you will never get back.