Review of Love and Monsters, directed by Michael Matthews

There are some movies you just don’t know exist until one day you’re extremely bored and on the depths of Netflix. Love and Monsters is one of these movies for me, as I had never heard of this movie nor had I come across it in my various endeavors in the film and entertainment industry.

Now, under normal circumstances, I probably would not have watched this. I would have been a little bit snobby and turned my nose away from it, but then I saw the little red banner that announced this movie was leaving Netflix in a week.

And so, because I was extremely bored, I decided to watch it anyways. This was honestly something I watched to clear my brain, and thus it was kind of a mindless watch. It worked for that purpose, if we’re going to be quite honest.

Let’s get into the review.

One young man ventures beyond his home to find a girl in the midst of the monster apocalypse.

The context behind this movie is that an asteroid heading towards Earth is broken up, and then the fallout from it causes certain animals to mutate and become monsters. They then attack humans, which causes a chunk of humanity to be wiped out because these creatures are now roaming the Earth.

Joel is one of the people evacuated from his home, and he’s separated from his girlfriend Aimee in the act. His parents are killed by monsters, and now, years later, he lives in a hunker colony. It seems like everyone else has found love except for him, and he’s been put in the kitchen because he’s been kind of seen as useless throughout all of this time.

As a giant ant breaks into the colony and kills someone, Joel decides to leave the colony and find his girlfriend so he doesn’t die alone. First, he’s attacked by a monster but it saved by a dog that becomes his companion. Its name is Boy, and it teaches Joel not to eat certain berries and whatnot.

Somewhere along the way, Joel befriends Clyde and Minnow, two survivors who teach him how to survive in the mountains. They also teach him not every monster is going to kill him, and when they’re on their way out, Clyde gives Joel the gift of a grenade.

Boy and Joel continue their journey, and Boy is almost killed by a monster before Joel saves him. At an abandoned home, Joel discovers a Mav1s robot with some battery left, which he uses to call Aimee. She tells him about her colony, and the next day, Joel and Boy set out for there.

However, they are attacked by a massive monster after Boy barks, giving them away. Joel manages to kill the grenade, but he harshly yells at Boy, who runs into the woods with his head low. Joel also gets covered in leeches, and passes out from their poison.

He wakes up in Aimee’s colony, which is full of elderly people. Aimee says she is glad to see him, but is a different person. Joel decides to leave after this, but then he realizes through the radio it became unsafe there and they’re fleeing. One of the people at the colony, Cap, gives Joel some berries, but he realizes they’re poisonous.

Joel rushes out to tell Aimee, but he’s knocked out as the rest of the crew is poisoned. They wake up and are tied to the beach, and Cap reveals he wants to raid the colony completely.

His ship is controlled by a crab monster, which he sets on them. Everyone runs around in the chaos, trying to stop the crab, but Joel looks into its eyes and realizes its in pain. He shoots the electrified chain, allowing it to be free. The crab goes and sinks the ship, then kills Cap and his crew.

Joel prepares to leave, and tells Aimee to go north. They kiss, and Joel goes to his colony, who decides to go to the mountains. Joel inspires other colonies to go to the surface and head north, too.

Overall Thoughts

I honestly don’t have much to say about this movie—it’s pretty generic, and it works if you’re going to be mindlessly watching it. If you want something of substance, this probably isn’t the movie for you.

Like sure, it was fun, but it was honestly kind of cliche and I didn’t care for the characters, especially the protagonist. Anyone who yells at a dog and is mean to it for any reason kind of isn’t on my good list in the end.

Go watch it if you’re interested, though.

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