In Love and Monsters, in order to destroy an asteroid, humanity launches a series of missiles, the impact of which turns wildlife into hungry giant creatures. Years later, a young man comes out of his shelter in search of his childhood sweetheart. A starting point that reminds many others, for an adventure that is meant to give pride to a place of romance, giant bugs and Netflix.

The Young Adult, a hybrid genre targeting teens and young adults thanks to stories navigating between science fiction, fantasy, and other adventure stories, has experienced comet growth with the rise of Twilight and then The Hunger Games respectively. Often adapted from the bookstore phenomenon, this production continued to suffer enough setbacks at the box office to almost disappear.

Therefore, without much hope we found Love and Monsters, by Michael Matthews, whose ingredients seem to be out of date. The presence of Dylan O’Brien, revealed by the Labyrinth trilogy, lends itself to a forgotten sock atmosphere at the bottom of a gym bag.

And indeed, we found there the bluette mix of romance, an early search on autopilot and photocopying issues that quickly snuffed out interest in this industry’s product. To this equation is added another obvious influence, namely Welcome to Zombieland, from which some characters seem to be directly extracted. The lured hero wants to be a transfer from Jesse Eisenberg, as for the bourrino-comico-tender duo Michael Rooker and Ariana Greenblatt, he clearly owes his existence to Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin. Humor and brash lacking.

Curts is too strong, but above all disembodied, whose screenplay Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson never managed to break free of himself, content with his soft ramblings. Even more embarrassing, once he pulls himself out of this harness to explore his universe for the first 60 minutes, the narrative stutters, placing the monsters in such a mechanical and predictable way that you’re never excited about their appearance, or theirs. they produce.

However, Love and Monsters are surprising in some places. First of all, while the standards of making this type of work too often sting the eye, we feel here that genuine care and generosity has been carried over to the bestiary and in the artistic direction in general. From the first appearance of Insect Monster, we suddenly notice that the photo is enriched, that the shots become a little more complex, and that it’s simple enough that this mix of post-apocalyptic pastiche and cartoon beasts works.

Thanks to the very true special effects throughout, the design which is always pleasing, we are surprised to watch the slightest attack, even though it is an often too simplistic cenography, except for the climax which has a good sense of kicking. For Ray Harryhausen.

It’s also the final third of the film that allows the company to remain relatively sympathetic, while in the end, Dylan O’Brien is used to his handsome boy, rather than a rag of fear that he can’t embody. Confronted with this finally functioning character, the film suddenly distills a certain melancholic idea, which Jessica Henwick embodies so well. It’s too little and too late, but it might be enough to satisfy teen popcorn nostalgia.

Love and Monsters tells the story of a post apocalypse world filled with monsters. It is said that several years earlier there was a threat of an asteroid hitting the earth. Therefore, deployed a number of rockets to destroy the asteroid so as not to reach the earth. Even though the mission was a success and the asteroid was no longer a threat, the chemicals from the rockets that were destroyed are now spreading across the earth and causing genetic mutations that turn various animals into vicious monsters.

It didn’t take long for these monsters to kill almost half the humans on earth. During the evacuation process in the city of Fairfield, Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien) is separated from his girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick). Joel’s parents did not survive the monster attack. 7 years later, Joel lives in one of the underground bunkers called ‘colonies’ with other survivors.

In the colony, everyone has their own partner and is tasked with getting supplies for the bunker, except for Joel who is left alone to work in the kitchen because he often freezes in fear. When one of the monsters manages to break through the bunker and kill a member of his colony, Joel realizes that he wants to reunite with Aimee so he doesn’t end up alone.