Love and Monsters (2020)

Love and Monsters (2020)

7/10

Starring

Dylan O'Brien

Michael Rooker

Ariana Greenblatt

Jessica Henwick

Directed by Michael Matthews

Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, Love and Monsters is a movie that hits all the right notes, thanks to some talented story and screenwriting. The director did a great job of keeping the movie on track with some well-executed characterization, and I have to commend Dylan O’Brien for his acting skills. O’Brien gave us a character who was focused, determined, and just silly enough to think love is all he needs to make an unbelievable journey.

The director held the movie together with some nice narration from O’Brien’s character, Joel, and the introduction of cool characters, including a dog.

Imagine a future where a large meteor is heading toward Earth, and we fired all the nuclear weapons we had at it. We finally destroyed the meteor, but the nuclear fallout messed up the entire planet. The radioactive waste from the weapons led to the mutation of almost all the creatures on Earth, and they started coming after us. These creatures killed over ninety-five percent of the world’s human population, and the survivors are now hiding in bunkers.

We meet Joel, who lives in a bunker with a lot of people who have all coupled up. The movie starts with this setup, which can be confusing at first. Initially, I thought the introduction of sex in the beginning meant the movie would be very sexually focused. It turns out that this was the only sexual tone in the film, so don’t get flustered by it.

In Joel’s bunker, he is the cook because Joel has a thing where, when he gets scared, he freezes. He also keeps a diary and writes letters to his former girlfriend from seven years ago, before the world turned into what we see now. It turns out that she is in another bunker, and he’s been able to make contact with her and keep in touch for about a year.

Then, when their bunker is breached, Joel decides, out of the blue, that he’s going to make the journey to meet her at her bunker. His colleagues are shocked that he would want to make such a journey, because it’s obvious that Joel won’t survive a day in the outside world. Yet, he’s determined to make a seven-day journey to find his old lover.

The adventure leads him to find a dog, who then goes with him on his ridiculous journey. They nearly get killed but are saved by a man and a little girl. The duo is heading toward a cold mountainous area, and Joel joins them, learning how to survive. At this point, the movie takes an exciting shift in the third act, from a comedic, thrilling adventure to an action-packed journey. It ends in a way that leaves room for future additions to the story.

I enjoyed the movie, and I think you will too.