Our last cinema trip of 2016 saw us see Monster Trucks a film which must like the reboot of Ghostbusters was being destroyed on the Internetas nowadays everyone is a critic!
Yet from the trailers, we just thought it looked a fun family flick with hints of classic horror B movies with some comedy and science fiction thrown in. All the potential to be a cult classic in years to come maybe!
The basis of the film story is nothing new, Boy finds ‘X ‘ and goes on a journey whilst making friends and discovering more about himself. E.T.; Gremlins and Free Willy I guess are good examples of this genre.
When a huge company drilling for oil, release 3 strange creatures from a trench, they capture 2, who we will learn are a mum and dad of the 3rd who escapes.
The reason they capture the creature is probably our biggest issue with the film, the company director Reece (Rob Lowe) believes that they will lose millions if they share the discovery, as will stop their oil drilling.
I’m pretty sure if one of these creatures were discovered, the money to be made from TV appearances, interviews etc would compensate any oil loss, but that is just being picky on a film made for all the family especially younger viewers!
The 3rd creature has managed to hide in Weathers Scrapyard, run by Mr Weathers (Danny Glover) here he is discovered by Tripp (Lucas Till) who is having a hard time, his mum Cindy (Amy Ryan) has separated from his dad, Wade (Frank Whaley) and he isn’t really bonding with her new boyfriend and work colleague at the police force, Rick (Barry Pepper)
Tripp discovers the hiding creature, who he names Creech, just loves to drink oil, the 2 become unlikely friends. Creech has a taste for speed so finds home within a truck that Tripp has saved from the scrapheap and has been rebuilding.
Along the way, Tripp becomes close to Meredith (Jane Levy), a shy girl who has been trying to help him study, her knowledge of biology being a great asset to learning more about Creech.
All is going well until Burke (Holt McCallany) is hired to hunt down the creature and to make matters worse, they learn from the Oil Company’s Dr. Down (Thomas Lennon) that once captured, it is planned that Creech and his parents will be killed and the trench they were discovered in be poisoned.
This sets up a rescue plan to reunite Creech with his parents, which will include more Monster Trucks as the race to get the strange creatures back home and to stop the oil firm causing further damage is on.
Along the way, we get some great action sequences involving the Monster Truck, we see Tripp learn to accept his Mum’s new partner, after being hurt badly by his real dad and find a budding romance with Meredith, as well as get ‘one over’ on the rich kids at school who have teased him for not having a vehicle.
This is a really great fun family film, Creech is a wonderful creation, bringing back memories of Disney’s Stitch with a bit of Bailey the whale from Finding Dory about him. He and most of the film’s CGI is done well.
Till makes a good lead as Tripp in the film scripted by Derek Connolly who also has under his credits ‘Safety not Guaranteed’ and ‘Jurassic World’. The film is also directed by Chris Wedge, who has moved from his animated hits such as Robots; Epic and Ice Age (in which he also voices Scrat) to this his first Live Action feature.
The film works best when Creech is on screen but it does have its faults, our biggest issue is the Meredith character, she seems very one dimensional, yet being a smart student, she isn’t used much other than to look dreamy at Tripp.
However, it is hinted that she has issues with her family too, especially her absent father but these are not addressed, which is a shame as we know Levy to be a strong actress from her ‘scream queen’ roles in the Evil Dead remake and this year’s Don’t Breathe.
Overall though if you want a fun creature feature, we do highly recommend you give Momster Trucks a chance, if you watch the trailer and think Creech is a fun and cute monster, we believe you are half way there to enjoying this movie
You can watch the Monster Trucks trailer at the film website, which also has lots of fun and activities to do here:
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