If you’re bored during lockdown, fret not because the latest action flick is here. If you’re 

tired of superhero, spy ‘or’ war films than you should check out “Love and Monsters” directed 

by Michael Matthews. The story begins with narration by the protagonist Joel Dawson played 

by Dylan O’Brien. He explains how the earth was almost destroyed by an asteroid, but all 

nations around the world sent nuclear bombs to destroy it. Surprisingly it worked however 

when the radiation rained back down it mutated small animals such as craps and frogs and 

insects such as ants and centipedes. All these creatures and more turned into monsters and 

began devouring humanity and thus came the end of civilization and mankind being on the top 

of the food chain. 

The plot starts with Joel seven years later in an underground bunker (like most of 

humanity) in fear of what lies above the surface. Everyone in his colony has a lover but him, 

prior to the end of the world Joel had a girlfriend named Aimee but they were split up at the 

beginning of the apocalypse. However, he managed to find her colony via radio and they 

actually communicate quite often until one day giant ant breaks into his colony and even kills a 

few of their members. Because of this tragic event Joel decides to leave his colony and find 

Aimee fueled by a sense of purpose to protect her and believing that by reaching her, life would 

return back to normal and of course there is the fear of not wanting to die alone. Therefore, he 

sets of on his journey to find Aimee. Along his journey he finds a dog, meets a man named 

Clyde Dutton played by Micheal Rooker and learns how to survive in the wild even meets a 

robot. 

The film follows all the beats of “The Hero’s Journey,” a young character who can’t quite 

do for self but meets others who helps them and trains them along the way ending with the 

protagonist a changed a new person. We’ve seen it all before right? Yes, however although you 

may consider this a B+ film it surprisingly had some emotional moments and very good 

character development. On top of this the visuals were beautiful, especially at a scene in the 

film were you see glowing, flying jelly fish. Something about that scene with, Ben E. King’s 

“Stand By Me” playing in the background is very satisfying and reminds me of James Cameron 

Avatar film.

Now you maybe wondering if the film has a lot of death and mayhem although we do 

have monsters and they do eat people you never directly see it. The film isn’t gore when it 

comes to human death scenes and for a film with monsters set in the end of the world you may 

assume it could be very sad. Although there are emotional moments, the film isn’t depressing, 

at times its actually funny. Most of the humor coming from three human characters and even a 

dog. So, if you fear that this movie could depress you fret not because it may uplift you.

As for sexual content there are only a few kissing scenes and a couple in bed but you 

only see the legs and no actual sex. The film is rated PG-13 thus only so much can be shown, so 

if you want to watch this with the family on Thanksgiving go right ahead. As for language it’s 

mild and there aren’t any F-Bombs but it does have a few more curse words than a typical live-

action Disney film. Over-all this is a great film to watch if you have nothing else to watch and I 

would say still watch it even if you have something to watch. When you get a chance check out 

“Love and Monsters,” shown on Video on Demand or AppleTV.