Monsters (Gareth Edwards, 2010)

It starts in the territory of Salvador, with an American photojournalist fumbling around for the killer picture in the midst of a disaster, except that the nature of the disaster, an invasion of Mexico by fleetingly glimpsed giant extraterrestrials, makes it Cloverfield in Central America instead. The journalist is then saddled with his editor's daughter to shepherd back to the States, and the film changes tack again to become a burgeoning romantic drama in the midst of a road movie.
It's understandable why the eclectic blend has seduced a host of critics, particularly when it's presented through a visual and audio filter of a Terrence Malick production, and achieves remarkable results on a relative micro-budget. But the male lead never moves properly beyond his initial obnoxiousness, the creatures generate little menace and the political parallels with the aspirations of real Third World would-be immigrants to the States (the US have built a giant wall to hide from the alien threat) are scantly explored. The plot does contain welcome divergences from the monster invasion norm and it looks beautiful throughout, but there's little substance to it all. It could really have done without the sci-fi backdrop, which just serves as a box-office crutch, and worked harder on character development instead.

5/10