TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

ted-mcwhirter If the first one was a road movie then this one was just as surprising flipping, what should have been a shoot 'em up sequel, into a thoughtful examination of military imperialism and the psychological pressures of combat. This was in the vein of The Hurt Locker or Jarhead showing soldiers on the edge of nervous and physical exhaustion pitted not only against extra-terrestrial monsters but an indigenous population whose death and mutilation is deemed to be acceptable to combat the alien threat. The reality is that the monsters are just a metaphor for a nameless faceless enemy and, by depicting the flesh, blood and emotions of the Arab people, we're left to wriggle uncomfortably at the sights and sounds of what collateral damage really looks like. Some of the photography is breathtaking, first the urban desolation of bankrupt Detroit, then the wild spaces of the nameless Arab state where the monsters are thriving and finally to the close ups of the faces and especially the eyes of the soldiers. The shots of the remaining two on motorbikes in the desert and the huge creatures against a distant sunset are reminiscent of Easy Rider or Lawrence of Arabia. The performances are equally strong. Johnny Harris as Frater and Sam Keeley as Parkes are excellent; both spiralling downwards with the horrors they're witnessing and participating in but still vainly trying to do their job. There's a particularly moving scene where the two are rescued and then fed by a Bedouin tribe whist in the background the casualties from a bombed school bus are washed, shrouded and buried. The reality of precision bombing.

SnoopyStyle It's 10 years after Monsters. In the Middle East, the US military struggles to fight both the monsters and insurgents. Staff Sgt Frater has served 17 years. In Detroit, best friends Michael Parkes, Frankie Maguire, Karl Inkelaar, and new father Sean Williams head off as green soldiers.I don't know how much Gareth Edwards has to do with this production. I don't know if he could help as the director. It's not strictly the director's fault. It's more about the writing. It's a bunch of characters that I don't know and don't care about. The monsters are back but this is lifeless. One would think that the US military would draw back out of the Middle East to consolidate the homeland defense. After Monsters, a sequel should be about stemming the tide on American soil. The original was a happy surprise. This one is a disappointment but not necessarily a surprising one.

Leofwine_draca I should admit from the start that I was no fan of the original MONSTERS, which I found to be an arty bore. Sadly, this terrible sequel is even worse, a near-plot less affair that manages to convey a weird apocalyptic world populated by a giant alien race co-existing alongside mankind. However, much of this is mere subtext and instead DARK CONTINENT seems to be your typical men-on-a-mission war film.It's gritty and hand-held throughout, but suffers hugely from an excruciatingly lunk-headed script which is full of profanity and no wit. There's a lot of screaming, shouting, and crying, which all gets very tiresome very quickly. The CGI effects are used sparingly and are pretty good, but for me the writing is the thing and it's really poor here. It's a shame, as a couple of the main actors have been great elsewhere (Johnny Harris in THIS IS ENGLAND, Joe Dempsie in GAME OF THRONES) but they're really struggling here.

latakiahaze What a totally bizarre movie. First off it's called "Dark Continent" but the action takes place in the Middle East, not Africa.The first third of the film is populated by irritating and unlikeable jar heads whose idea of a good night out is sex with prostitutes, drugs and animal cruelty in downtown Detroit.Next, we move these Einstein's on to the Middle East (where I, for one, couldn't really care if they live or die). Now we introduce some strange looking aliens, the largest of which are like huge lumbering giraffes with hydra heads, who make whale- like noises. There is apparently a smaller breed who run like cheetahs mainly, it seems, to lure the clueless Marines into IED's.Later we are introduced to the baby of the species, one of which lives in a kids toy box and pops out like something out of a Disney movie to sprinkle fairy dust onto the desert floor.Now add to the mix the main "meat" of the movie, a violent and visceral incursion by the American Marines into Taliban territory. Yes, this is basically a war movie with monsters thrown in (for goodness only knows what reason). This is not a metaphor, not a satire, certainly not art-house, in fact, I can't really say what it is at all. I just kept thinking how Starship Troopers addressed the issues of patriotism and war (with aliens) in such better context so many decades before.Not totally without merit as some of the scenes are quite haunting but this film desperately needed an editorial snip to cut at least a half hour off the run-time and a much firmer focus on intention. The acting is also pretty mediocre, but then, if the director was as confused about his vision as he seems to have been, you can't really blame the players.All in all a major mess that needed far more real monsters and far less of the "real monster is man" cliché.