He travels on with only his dog companion meets a robot on the way which kinda came out of nowhere but was a nice addition. It also made for maybe the most visually interesting frames of the movie.
I’d watch this spin-off
Then he fights a queen sandgobbler(a worm monster with some great gooy effects) and is finally rescued by his soulmate: Aimee
A tale as old as time
Instead of a clichéd love prevails approach the movie does deviate a bit but not by much. It turns out Aimee had moved on to someone else, but then the guy died around a year ago (just perfect timing for the mourning to be over), and the movie makes it look like maybe they won’t get together.
Now, the whole love side of things is where I feel like the movie wants to have its cake and eat it too (a saying that makes no sense to me, what else do you do with a cake?). Because on one side of things the message seems to be, romantic love is not the most important thing in the world and that even if you don’t have a partner the love you share with your family and friends is just as if not more important.
But then he still gets the girl in the end, which kind of undercuts this message so who knows.
Also for even more manufactured tension, they introduce a jockish sea captain, here to rescue Aimee and her bunker-mates, and if you didn’t guess that this guy would turn out to be evil by the end, this really must be the first movie/series/book that you’ve ever seen.
See what I mean by too much happening all at once, while it keeps the pace of the movie up it also makes the story feel very disjointed. I honestly believe this would have been better as a three episode mini-series rather than a movie.
So the final showdown is against the evil sea captain and his pet giant crab (No this is not a mad lib) and this is where the movie fails me in the effects department. While the monster effects till now were thoroughly impressive and grossly realistic at some points, the final Crab monster was cartoonish looking and dumb. Why they decided to save the worst CGI for the final battle I don’t know, but the crab looked like it walked in from a much worse movie.
Seriously this thing should have been the last boss fight…freaking nightmare fuel
But Joel defeats the evil sea captain, by turning his own crab monster against him, saves the day and gets the girl the end.
Conclusion
I would have respected the movie a lot more if he didn’t land the girl at the end (and if they had a better crab monster) because that seemed to be the message the movie was going for. Just because Joel didn’t have a partner, did not mean he didn’t have people who cared about him in his life and that his life still had meaning. The journey he took was an amazing one and how he overcame his fears and anxieties was the actual purpose of the story. The clichéd he gets the girl in the end and the overly “happily ever after love story” sort of brings it down a bit.
Love and monsters is an easy watch that is definitely worth your time. A good little movie to kill time with or to put on while munching on a bag of chips and relaxing. An easy and harmless recommendation to anyone, as long as they are not terrified of giant ants!
Greek mythology monster fans! Check out the NEW WORLD ODYSSEY series!
You must be logged in to post a comment.