November 10, 2020
Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) was the only survivor when her Native American reservation, including her father, was destroyed by a strong force that was reportedly a tornado. She was brought to a hospital run by Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga), who told her that she survived because of her inherent mutant powers, which were yet unknown. The other teenagers in the hospital with her were: Sam (Charlie Heaton) with forceful aero-propulsive powers, Illyana (Anna Taylor Joy) who was both sorceress and warrior, Roberto (Henry Zaga) whose body generated solar energy and Rahne (Maisie Williams) with her wolf-like abilities.
When I first saw the trailers of this film maybe a year or two ago felt like a horror movie. Actually, it was more angsty drama of teen mutants we have all seen before with the rebooted X-Men or other superheroes. The young actors in the cast were familiar from other very popular TV series, but only Anna Taylor-Joy looked genuinely bad-ass. Maisie Williams, in particular, looked ill-at-ease outside Winterfell, and her lycan powers looked pathetically weak beside everyone else. The CG imagery of the nightmarish past experiences the teens relived, including the final showdown with the giant bear monster, were not exactly very well-conceptualized or executed. There is limited display of their powers as these are still undeveloped at this stage, so the action scenes should be better in future sequels, should these come. 5/10.
Because of the chemicals released by these bombs detonated to avert an asteroid disaster, all cold-blooded creatures were turned into giant monsters which soon wiped out all but 10% of the world's population. Joel Dawson (Dylan O'Brien) was in one of these survivors and he is the cook of his underground bunker community. One day, Joel was able to talk to his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) on the radio. Despite his tendency to freeze up in terror, Joel resolved to go to the surface to seek out Aimee's seaside colony to reunite with her.
Overall, the film was very entertaining and well-paced by director Michael Matthews, although for me the momentum sort of petered out a bit by the time it reached the climax. One of the cool things about this film was how they reimagined insects, crustaceans, amphibians and reptiles as man-eating monsters. 29 year-old Dylan O'Brien (best known as lead character Thomas in "The Maze Runner" films) gave a solid and engaging performance as Joel, that you'd root for him to succeed in his quest for his first love. Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt), whom Joel met en route, were also very likable characters, reminiscent of Tallahassee and Little Rock in the similarly post-apocalyptic "Zombieland" films. 7/10.
Oliver (Azhy Robertson) was an autistic boy who could only used a special app on his smartphone to communicate with others. His difficult condition caused him to be bullied in school, as well raise tensiCon between his parents Sarah (Gillian Jacobs) and Marty (John Gallagher, Jr.). One night Oliver sees an ebook on his phone entitled "Misunderstood Monsters." It told the story of a monster named "Larry", who just wants a friend. However, when Oliver read the story, the light bulbs around him would all going out and a tall lanky shadowy figure emerged from the gadget.
There had already been previous films about young children who believe they are seeing monsters. This new film gave the boy an additional challenge -- non-verbal autism. The inability of Oliver to articulate the terrors he was experiencing definitely made his plight a lot more distressing. Despite having several horror film cliches, he techniques writer-director Jacob Chase used to set-up the scares were very effective, especially those scenes during the boys sleepover and those set in Marty's cramped booth at the parking lot. Unlike other monster films which reveal the monster entire body as it terrorized the victims, Chase wisely kept Larry's appearance mysterious for the whole the film, showing only bits and pieces of the monster's body at any one time. There is of course an underlying warning to viewers about our obsession with screens (phones, tablets, laptops, PC monitors, televisions) in our lives. 6/10.
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