Monsters

In the very near future, a spacecraft crashes in Mexico, scattering large, tentacled creatures. The United States erects a mammoth wall protecting its land from the literal alien neighbors in the Infected Zone. And south of the border, where the U.S. military subdues larger threats while local law enforcement occupies the ground, a photojournalist escorts his publisher’s daughter back to the States é a dangerous journey where illegal-immigration parallels couldn’t be more obvious. Director Gareth Edwards tries to wrap a District 9-style political parable around this fantasy setup, and while he’s got too many idea balls in the air to say anything provocative about any one of his concerns, Monsters entertains because of its smallness. It’s a blockbuster sci-fi idea used to tell an intimate story, which is refreshing in and of itself.