Monsters: Dark Continent - BLU-RAY

A war Movie where Monsters share the screen with soldiers fighting. Sometimes the monsters are just in the background, other times they are part of the fighting. It might be best if the monsters win. Not sure who the good guys are.

It was hard giving this one a 3 star rating. Should have given it less. Disappointed in the film. It could have been a lot better. Action started out great, then fizzled out immediately. Film is rated "R" for language, violence and nudity. The single nude scene in the movie was totally unnecessary - it should have been cut out. Parts of this movie made no sense - bad continuity. Some good disturbing scenes. At first I thought this was just another Iraq/Afgan war movie with aliens in it. But realized later that this was a sequel movie to "Monsters" (2010). Bonus features on the bluray were almost non-existent. Only the Trailer and a "On the set feature" which lasted less than 5 minutes. The ending left you hanging, and will just lead into another sequel. The movie was still worth watching - but wait for it to hit the $7.99 bin.

I was excited when the movie "Monsters" came out in 2010. I'd heard what a great movie it was..especially because if the tiny budget it was made on. Director Gareth Edwards hadn't done much up to that point, but he got some notoriety for his visionary work on this film. Of course, he went on the direct the blockbuster version of "Godzilla" in 2014, and he has a "Star wars" project in the works before making a sequel to "Godzilla" in 2017. Unfortunately, he didn't have a hand in making this sequel to "Monsters"..and it shows. The movie tends to be all over the place as far as character development and action sequences go. If the movie had just been a war movie....or just a movie with 200 foot monsters in it and soldiers battling them...then it might have been really cool. As is, though, it's a bit of a mess. Technically, though, the disc is superb. The audio and video quality is outstanding. If you saw this movie during it's limited theatrical run, you'll be very happy with this disc. If you didn't see the original "Monsters", though, this movie really won't make any sense. I'd have to rate this movie as something for fans only...but would give very good technical marks to the disc.

I had seen the original and gave this sequel a shot. Set in a world where monsters of all sizes roam the earth, this one was really more about a group of soldiers (4 friends from Detroit as the intro goes through) on their first tour of duty in the Mid East. At first it looked like it was going to be a monster hunting force. They ride in on a helicopter while jets drop bombs on a herd of the giant creatures, but then it changes tone to the eight special forces going on a mission to retrieve 4 lost soldiers. There is more about the impact of the US making as many enemies as they kill monsters. Indiscriminately often killing locals while trying to exterminate the alien creatures, the soldiers find themselves fighting the insurgent forces that want them out. If you want a commandos against the world kind of movie with a scifi environment, it would probably suit your needs.

While I purchased this movie thinking it was your basic monster movie, it falls into a different category instead. This is a character study, where the situations men are put in make monsters of them. This resembles many Vietnam movies in this respect...but with monsters. In this case, the movies on Vietnam were better at this type of character study. I'll give the movie credit for the attempt but I will not praise it because it has been done better.