Bullet Points: Monsters of Man
There are currently hundreds of robotics companies building and testing prototypes to sell to militaries all over the world. I know this because it’s one of the first things that Monsters of Man puts on screen and I’ve also seen those wild videos of the robots doing back flips and dancing to old hip hop songs. This film has had an interesting existence and has been on my radar for a few months now. If you’re like me, the thought of some sort of robot war has been on your mind since The Terminator and Monsters of Man is just one more reason to stock up on tannerite for the looming conflict.
- Techies go to East Asia: The film opens up by telling us how important that whole line about robotics companies will be for us over the next two hours plus. Then we blast over to East Asia as some tech gurus are being brought in and used by Major Robert Green (Neil McDonough) for some classified robot shit. You can just tell by the way he’s cooped up in his robotics division office and sneaking around that this whole operation isn’t on the up and up.
- Doctors without borders OR brains: At the same time, a bus full of young and attractive medical students are making their way to some village in the middle of nowhere. We’re somewhere along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border but it doesn’t really matter to us or them. Their bus breaks down and instead of walking back the way the came (which was a long way) they take the old shoelace express into one of the most heavily mined jungles in the world.
- CIA op: The tech gurus get all set up and a CIA operative who looks like he could snap their necks at any time hangs out with them and uses the threat of force to keep them working. The mission appears to be to drop four military robots into the jungle to test out some of their capabilities. The techies are able to control them due to the control modules implanted into each bot. It’s a real unexpected shame when one of the bots’ parachutes doesn’t open all the way and it slams to the ground and renders it inoperable.
- Robot Jerx: Seeing how three of the robots are still in working condition, the techies move along with their plans. Number 4 is written off and the plan is to find it after the mission and blow it in place. What they don’t know, however, is that a group of kids from a local village come upon it and remove the control module from its head. It immediately stands up and starts thinking for itself. This could end badly.
- A SEAL in every town: By this time, the med students have found the small village without being blown to bits by landmines and we meet Mason, a former Navy SEAL who lives in the small village. Is he the white savior? Pretty much, but we eventually hear his reasons for living in this remote village out in the middle of nowhere. What is important for our story is that the students have someone they can communicate with and it isn’t long before they stop talking and are forced to fight/run for their lives.
- On the run: The three robots find their way to the village and the CIA dudes change the mission. It suddenly becomes a test for their fighting skills and even more so when they properly identify who the random white dude living in Cambodian village is. They see his SEAL ass as just another test for the robots and sick the machines on him and the rest of survivors of the onslaught. Most of the film turns into a chase between the humans and the three robots. Every once in a while they are forced to make a stand and we get to see Mason use some of his handy-dandy SEAL skills to fight them off. If there is ever a point where the film could have cut some time it would have probably been this section. It’s hard to take action away from an action film but running, hiding, and being chased by a robot starts to get redundant after I’ve seen it so many times.
- The muscle: The film jumps back and forth between the village survivors and the tech team who are having massive issues with what is happening. They are initially told that the village was just a bunch of drug-runners but it isn’t look before they learn that there are American students there along with women and children. They try to stop it all from happening but the CIA muscle is there to push them through. Eventually, the action gets to the point where he has to drive himself to where the survivors are and lead the robots in an attack on Mason and the rest.
- An explosive ending: One of the good things about Monsters of Man is that I expected all of the American students to be complete idiots and douchebags but most of them turned out not to be. It doesn’t look good, especially when we first meet them, but they turn out to be somewhat useful. Mason also isn’t some extreme Stallone badass but he is good enough to evade the robots for some time. The CIA guy shows up and we get a proper finale set up with shootouts, knife fights, and some very expected explosions. All four robots are accounted for by the finale, as well. It adds something to the mix that #4 is constantly learning new things (especially cool when he uploads everything from one of the student’s ipads and then dissects a dead dude to confirm the human anatomy that he just learned) and trying to upload to the robotics handlers system. They have to constantly disconnect from the system and it gives us plenty of reasons to accept that these people are still safely on the run from their killer robots.
The Verdict: Monsters of Man could easily attract the same kind of cult following that takes an unknown film which went direct to video or streaming and make it the type of film that has three or four sequels. It’s a very simple story and one that doesn’t need you to be locked in for the duration of the runtime. Speaking of the runtime, I could have used 20 minutes less of the movie as it felt like it did a couple laps of the same thing during the second act. The robot visuals were cool, though, and there was a substantial amount of blood and gruesomeness. For a first time director in Mark Toia, I think it’s a home run and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
