Monsters (2010)

IMDb plot summary: Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.
Directed by Gareth Edwards. Starring Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, and Mario Zuniga Benavides.

(Mild spoilers ahead.)

This was a really interesting little movie. A very quiet alien invasion flick that chooses its alien scenes wisely. The titular monsters are genuinely terrifying in the tiny glimpses we see early on, and the ending scene at the gas station is inexplicable but somehow wholly captivating and mysterious. The movie's fatal flaw, however, is in the dialogue. The film looks great, but as soon as the characters open their mouths we get nothing but laughable attempts at casual conversation. Fortunately, in the latter half of the film there are fewer and fewer chatty scenes, allowing the focus to remain where it is strongest: on the monsters themselves. Impressive little film, but a worthy scriptwriter could have moved it up to being a very good one.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Monsters > Good Morning, Vietnam
Monsters < Argo
Monsters < Children of Paradise
Monsters > Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen
Monsters > Marathon
Monsters < The Front Page (1974)
Monsters < Lyle, the Kindly Viking
Monsters < The Tourist
Monsters < The Revenant
Monsters > John Dies at the End
Monsters > October Sky

Final spot: #1002 out of 2478.