Often the post-apocalypse as a genre is very dark and gritty and has a pessimistic view of humanity. Anyone to have survived the wasteland this long, goes the argument, is necessarily gruff and hardened at best and a sadistic monster at worst. The main character do not only have to fight whatever the post-apocalyse left them with but also - and often even primarily - other people who would want to harm them. Survival is for the strong in these cases, fearlessness and the willingness to do violence are valued.
A post-apocalyptic movie like this does not have to be derivative or devoid of meaning. Mad Max: Fury Road, which presents us with just such a world, deals with the post-apocalyptic staples in a much more nuanced way and offers up a narrative that instead focuses on rediscovering kindness and remaking a tyrannical rule (see also the Hopepunk post). All I am saying is that often stories in this genre feel too pessimistic and hopeless.
Love and Monsters does not.
In it, the world is plagued by giant reptiles, anarchids, insects, and amphibians that mutated from radiation after Earth successfully shot down a meteor about to destroy it. The humans that survive live in colonies in various bunkers and bunker-like structures, trying their hardest to make it. Joel (Dylan O'Brien), the main character, one day starts a journey of 140 miles to get to his girlfriend in another colony (Jessica Henwick) because he feels useless in his own. He is, to put it mildly, not really equipped to handle the trip and only makes it through sheer determination, dumb luck, and the help of strangers and a very good dog.
There is a lot to like about the movie. For example, its creature design is extraordinary, the monsters look alive, otherworldly, scary and at times strangely endearing. Then, the 'love story' that is the catalyst for this whole movie is handled refreshingly realistic. While Joel hangs onto the idea of Amy and what they had five years ago, Amy moved on in the time when they did not hear from each other. She still cares for him and what they were but what they were is in the past for her. She, reasonably, never expects him to actually attempt the trip to her and when he arrives she is overjoyed to see him but she is a different person than she was before the apocalypse. And the movie does not treat her behavior as wrong or bad or condemnable at all, nor does it treat Joel's devotion and drive as silly. Both are valid reactions to dealing with the trauma of surviving the apocalypse. Both characters are sympathetic and right.
What I want to elaborate on, however, is the fact that Love and Monsters is so beautifully optimistic in tone that it made me tear up. The emotional arc in this movie centers around Joel believing himself to be the fifth wheel in his colony so to speak. Everyone else is paired up and his contributions are weak at best. He surmises that it won't be a great loss to them if he leaves and decides to go. However, from even before he leaves, it is clear that his colony loves him, they tell him so and attempt to convince him to stay. Joel plays this off as them just trying to be nice until the point where he arrives in his sweetheart's colony and finds things different than he expected. He pulls out a map they gave him and discovers that they wrote encouraging and love-filled messages on the back, boiling down to 'we love you, stay safe, come back to us'. When he manages to reach them over radio, they are ecstatic to discover that he's alive and positively shower him in affection. Joel realizes that he is loved and that he has a family who believe he is worth it, no matter what he might think. It allows him to free himself from the past and look to the future and just makes me very emotional.
Another aspect is that every person - barring three human antagonists at the end - is kind and helpful and welcoming. The strangers that save his life during his journey, travel with him, teach him how to shoot and what they know about the creatures, attempt to convince him to join them on their search for a safe place and give him gifts to help him survive. Amy's colony not only saves him when he is passed out from venom but is also immediately willing and ready to take him in. Even in the flashback scene detailing Joel's escape from his hometown when he is standing frozen on the street, people in a truck driving by, stop the car to pick him up. Yes, people can be bad and selfish but mostly people are kind and trustworthy and community-oriented. And that's just refreshing to see in a post-apocalypse.
Lastly, I want to talk about the general tone of the movie. Because even though it is tense sometimes, its tone is generally light. The fact that Joel's drive is pure and he is friendly if naive, the people he meets are nice and in the one case where they aren't, at least the monster is. Joel grows during his journey, into himself and away from the past. While the colonies become less and less safe as time goes on, he discovers that it is not impossible to survive outside a bunker and he brings that message to desperate people. First on foot to Amy's colony and his own, then via radio to people sequestered all over the country, who start on their own journey. A journey that the movie presents through framing and score as perilous but hopeful.
All in all, Love and Monsters is enjoyable and engaging, because it asks 'what if a post-apocalyptic world wasn't just all terror, gloom and desaturation?'. It looks at human behavior and decides that mostly, humans would help and love and support each other in the face of grave danger. It takes a genre widely known for its pessimissm and chooses differently.
It's on Netflix. Give it a watch!
Satori over and out
