A Boy and His Pet

No, seriously, Monster Trucks is literally a Boy and His Pet movie. Here’s the deal:

Oil company is drilling. They find a water pocket. The scientists say “ok we should tell someone ‘cause it’s weird to find water so deep and could mean life.” The big money maker guy (played by Rob Lowe) is all “no because $$$.” So they drill. And then their equipment goes kablooey (that’s a technical term).

They realize some things have come out and yes there was life down there. They successfully catch two of them but the audience realizes the third is hiding in a destroyed truck. This truck is sent to our hero’s work where he is supposed to crush it. 

It turns out that our hero really wants a truck and also is kind of lonely. The rest of the movie is him making friends with the thing (who he lovingly names Kreatch. I have no idea how he spells that and I like my spelling so I’m not gonna IMDb it), the creature taking over his shell of a truck, and him getting close to his biology tutor who has the most obvious crush on him ever (and he has literally no idea and it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time). And also the oil people who don’t want to be shut down trying to get Kreatch back.

It’s pretty good. I enjoyed it. It’s a feel good thing. Not super deep and fairly predictable. The acting is fine (ok it turns out all neutral language about acting makes it sound like it’s bad but you’re trying to be nice. That is not the case. I just mean this isn’t a movie you walk out of going “oh my god that person needs a thousand awards.” But those movies tend to be dramas anyway. If the feelings they are eliciting are happy, you’re not gonna be impressed by the acting. I don’t know why but I’m completely sure I’m right). The music was fun.

It didn’t pass the Bechtel test. It literally had two female characters. I’m still deciding how I feel about the girl. The mom was completely flat. I thought the girl had character and developed and had weaknesses and had to learn things. She wasn’t a Mary Sue and had some dimension basically. I would have to watch it again to really talk character development, but honestly the character with the most development would be Kreatch (who kind of reminded me of Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon). None of the bad guys had any dimension or development at all.

But I liked it. It was fun. It was goofy. Kreatch was a little Star Trek-y, but that’s ok. If you need a fun movie to watch for entertainment’s sake or feel like being told very very blatantly that doing things for the sake of money and nothing else (oh yeah, there was definitely a science good, greed bad moral. I wouldn’t call it anti money or anti capitalist. But definitely anti greed), then I definitely recommend this movie. I probably won’t see it again in theaters (although you never know… If anyone tells me not to see it again, I almost certainly will. Which is my way of saying I’ve seen Rogue One five times and stay tuned for a review), but I liked it and will consider buying the DVD when it comes out.

Also this is not actually about the movie but I saw this in a totally empty theater which is one of my favorite ways to watch movies.

***obligatory special shout out TO ME. THE BIRTHDAY GIRL. BECAUSE THIS WAS PART OF MY BIRTHDAY MOVIE DOUBLE FEATURE***