'Love and Monsters' by Michael Matthews Review: A fun adventure in personal growth

I first stumbled across Love and Monsters a few months ago, browsing through Netflix while I still had it, searching through its catalogue and discovering a ton of shows and films that were just never appearing when I searched on other devices. Netflix has a weird tendency to make much of its library impossible to discover, and with a UI that's just atrocious to navigate through. It took me a while to finally find the time to check this film out, but I'm really glad I did. It appears that Love and Monsters suffered a terrible fate, a release date just at the launch of the pandemic, resulting in the film being a total box office failure as ticket sales were very thin. This failure of a launch as a result of its timing seemed to have also resulted in it becoming buried shortly after by other releases and the inevitable opening up of society again. Especially as people looked to streaming services for their fix of series and movies.

Love and Monsters felt like a film you'd find around the year 2007. A blockbuster sort of epic but with a very simple cast and story. Full of adventure, little laughs, and some solid filmmaking. It was quite a surprise. It felt rather distanced from modern Hollywood's agenda and depressing grasp; and definitely tragic that it didn't get the success it deserved. With a small budget if around $30,000,000 it even seems surprising that it has the quality is does. Putting much larger productions to shame that have many times the budget and significantly less quality. Hopefully, this film can make back its money and somehow profit from the release over time through streaming licensing. Some other films have managed to do it recently!

As always, there may be the odd spoiler here and there in this review, though I tend to ensure that I don't reveal too much about the plot and events that take place. No major moments will be discussed

Love and Monsters

Love and Monsters takes place during what one would consider the end of the world. After humanity suffers a great threat in the form of an asteroid hurling towards the Earth from space, mankind decides to nuke it in efforts to save the planet. The result being massive amounts of radiated material then falling to the Earth. The nature genetically mutating from the radiation and turning animals into massive monsters, increasing their sizes and abilities. Settlements still exist, but stay tucked away underground, hidden from the creatures that roam the land. It is a pretty simple setup, but one that is amplified by a mediocre protagonist. A regular guy with very little courage, basically being his settlement's chef while others do most of the work. Tired of his life and thinking of the times before, full of life and full of love, he aims to leave the settlement and reach his ex girlfriend's settlement in hopes of regaining what was lost.

This film is really creative in how simple and effective it is. Being a film about a guy's attempts to regain a lost love. Surrounded by many threats of the modern world. His call to action being that hopeful rekindling of that relationship, the film is actually full of character growth and influence of self-discovery, throwing yourself out into the world and accepting your weaknesses and fears. While also remembering those who were around you, ensuring you don't forget the strength of community even if you search for and find love. There is plenty to be said about this film and how it approaches this story. Many ways in which we can attempt to analyse it and assume the main point it tries to tell us. Is this a film speaking on the acceptance of loss and learning to move on? Or a film on the dangers of being incapable of moving on, instead only sabotaging yourself and the connections you have around you? Perhaps, instead, it is a film speaking on the importance of community itself, and how the pursuit of love and the expectations it brings can only result in more isolation. Ultimately being blind to the other type of love that surrounds you.

In a way there are elements of each of these within the story, and it definitely leaves you uncertain as to which one it actually is. Though I like that about this film, it's light and enjoyable with plenty of adventure, and if you are to attempt to look deeper into it, it's sort of up to you to decide what it all means. Perhaps the conclusion to which you land on is instead an aspect of your own struggles in life, helping you discover what sort of person you are, and perhaps even discovering the potential things you may have left underappreciated or neglected. For our protagonist, there's a bit of everything to be discovered. Adventure, the beauty of nature and life, the ability to trust and learn from others. While also ensuring you don't become too reliant on them and have room to be independent. Refraining from relying on a particular person too much, ultimately setting yourself up for disappointment or failure.

Despite these themes, the film is full of adventure. Our protagonist stumbles across alerts of the wasteland, growing from it and seeing how the rest of humanity has been living in fear, scared of venturing out and gaining the necessary skills to survive. This starts off with our character coming across a dog, which seems very well trained and has managed to survive. Becoming his companion and following around with the travels. The dog adds to the removal of a lot of the isolation, being a useful part of the plot in many scenes while also being effective in detailing more of the challenges and world. Much of which looks really good, with the special effects being very good too. The monster designs were really creative, being a hybrid of existing creatures with minor mutations that make them massive and slightly different depending on the environment. I was quite surprised at how good these looked, animated quite well and not looking like they're smothered in that low budget special effects grease that often appears. And scenes are composed around these creatures, which helps display their scale and threats, also adding to the immersion.

The last thing to note is the cinematography. This film surprised me throughout with creative compositions, some from various perspectives of the empty world itself, as if we are watching from afar. Inside a building or behind objects. It allowed us to see a lot of this empty world that is mostly overgrown and often full of unsuspecting threats. It all looked very good, even up to the moments of intense action. Partially seeming like this is inspired by other media, mostly videogames for their unique worlds, designs, and ways of interacting with the viewer to increase that worldbuilding that is felt through exploration. Much of this connecting to the idea of self-discovery and growth through challenge again. I really enjoyed it, and I definitely recommend it for a fun viewing. A relatively normal runtime, but it flies by before you know it. Constantly in motion, and not disappointing at all. Even in regards to the love side of things, it ensures it doesn't push it too much and fall into some romance narrative. Love ultimately just being this character's excuse for getting up, in attempt to pursue something greater than what they lived before. Only to discover that they had all they needed before.

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