Monster Trucks

This review may contain spoilers!

Forget animated films this year; live action family films are dominating 2017 thus far! I would give Monster Trucks a 7.5/10.

Main protagonist, Tripp, is an outsider in his hometown and is constantly looking to escape; struggling over the divorce of his parents and a superficial cop/stepdad trying to become his father figure. Tripp finally finds companionship and a sense of belonging when Kreech, a subterranean monster who has been displaced by oil drilling (topical!) barrels into Tripp's life. What ensues is a journey to fight against the corporate 'man', make friends, save an endangered species and have some fun car chase scenes while doing it. This is a film that will make you laugh, have you fascinated with it's playful creativity and engaged with some compelling characters and performances. The special effects used to create Kreech and his kind look really good, it's a unique monster in it's appearance and the CGI never looks out of place in this film. The soundtrack for the film does great at providing a 'feel good' tone; yet it's the score that is the crowning feat, being able to cast the film from foreboding scenes to light and peppy action.

Lucas Till, who played Tripp, makes for a great protagonist in this film; Till does a great job of playing a hardened figure who acts as if he doesn't care about anyone or anything yet by the time the film concludes you have seen several great moments in which Till has exposed his character's vulnerability and empathy towards others. Jane Levy, who played Meredith, is quite witty as the savvy tutor who's curiosity gets the better of her more often than not; I felt that Levy did a lot of work in this film to stand out as more than just the damsel in distress or token love interest which did wonders for her role. Barry Pepper, who played Sheriff Rick, was a gruff and distant character towards Till at the start of this film; I really enjoyed how he charged into action at the end of the film and really cemented his relationship with Till. Danny Glover, who played Mr. Weathers, trades sharp witty lines back and forth with Till amusingly when we meet his character; despite being a minor role it's easy to see that Glover makes for a kind and charismatic mentor.

However the best performance came from Holt McCallany, who played Burke. This is a character who is driven by a loyalty to who pays him, a bit of a wild card who is extremely dangerous and will go to whatever lengths to see the job through. I liked seeing McCallany deal with other characters, be that attempting to convince them he's a kinder person than he is or threatening to strip them of their job. Burke is a tough antagonist who sets the bar high in this family film, played expertly by McCallany.

This film did have some points where the emotional responses felt extremely off, Tripp's goodbye to Kreech being a prime example; in this exchange Tripp still refuses to consider Kreech to be anything more than a truck which makes all this plot feel a little futile. Furthermore you have to go to great lengths to believe some of the aspects of the film, I'm not just talking about believing Lucas Till is in high school; rather no one in the town spotting Kreech inside the truck or Jim Dowd ditching the 'evil' oil drilling company to suddenly save the animals. The cinematography also left a lot to be desired, even in action/chase sequences the camera failed to be as exciting as the effects or the music.

Thomas Lennon, who played Jim Dowd, is a character who's sudden change of heart at the end of the film feels very forced and isn't a greatly convincing aspect of the plot; Lennon flops when it comes to his comedic delivery throughout the feature and doesn't really suit the scientist character - even repeatedly stating he is a scientist in one scene. Rob Lowe, who played Reece Tenneson, is just far too stereotypical as an antagonist to take seriously; his constant speeches about how much he loves to make profit and pump oil gets tired somewhere during his first scene. Amy Ryan, who played Cindy, darts in to be a mother figure for about five seconds and then the film promptly forgets about her; it's a wasted use of Ryan and denies Till's character the chance to examine his relationship with his mother. Frank Whaley, who played Wade Coley, is just a drift in role who doesn't matter for much; the distant relationship act between father and son could have worked but Whaley goes far enough that you wonder if he even remembers he had a kid. Jedidiah Goodacre and Samara Weaving, who played Jake and Brianne respectively, felt like gimmick roles; they were there to empathise what Till's role didn't have right up until he was able to show them up - a classic but rather transparent narrative technique. Tucker Albrizzi, who played Sam Geldon, just felt like one cast member too many; his relationship to Till never really became clear and it just seemed like they needed a way to shoehorn in access to cool new trucks for the final act.