10 Great Sci-Fi Movies With Terrible Concepts
3. Monsters
It’s not easy to make a giant monster movie whose entire conceit is based around not really focusing on the monsters at all.
But it's no wonder that Gareth Edwards went on to direct 2014's long-awaited Godzilla reboot, as his 2010 indie Monsters pulled off this seemingly impossible trick handsomely.
By focusing on a pair of survivors manoeuvring their slow way through a country devastated by kaiju attacks, the film depicted the reality of what most monster movies would look like from the perspective of an average civilian. Less flashy and bleak than the comparable Cloverfield, this film's occasional glimpses of its monsters provided some truly beautiful and fascinating designs.
This strange and innovative creature design is mirrored in the film's unusual perspective, with the action focusing on a photographer escorting his boss's daughter across the country rather than the military or scientists and experts.
The monsters look like none that creature feature fans have ever encountered before because the viewer is seeing them with the fresh eyes, not as a threat to be neutralised or a problem to be overcome but just as a new, surreal fact of life for the people on the ground.