{"id":25062,"date":"2017-04-20T20:38:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T00:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=25062"},"modified":"2017-04-20T22:33:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T02:33:06","slug":"monster-trucks-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/20\/monster-trucks-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Trucks (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I think Nickelodeon has things bassackwards when it comes to \u201cMonster Trucks.\u201d In the nineties and perhaps even eighties, a normal company would have released a \u201cMonster Trucks\u201d toy line followed by its very own movie. Instead we have a long gestating kids movie about glowing monsters that hide in trucks that transform in to\u2026 monster trucks\u2014or something. And there\u2019s not a toy line to be had. I say that because \u201cMonster Trucks\u201d watches more like a pitch movie for a franchise than it does an actual movie. \u201cMonster Trucks\u201d was created by a four year old (no seriously, look it up), and intended to be aimed at younger kids (Honest) as a sort of pseudo-Transformers. Which in and of itself is pointless when young kids are still very much all about Transformers.<\/p>\n

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Tripp lives in a North Dakota town owned by an oil company named Terravax who are fracking various acres of land. While drilling they accidentally unleash a trio of mysterious tentacled monsters, one of whom gets away in time. Said monster takes shelter in Tripp\u2019s beat up new truck, and the pair forms a relationship when Tripp realizes the monster needs safety. Along the way they bond, and Tripp names his new pal \u201cCreech.\u201d That\u2019s like naming your cat \u201cFeline,\u201d but I digress. In either case, Creech eats oil, and as Terravax begin looking for the monster, Tripp swears to help his friend find his family. Along the way there\u2019s an inexplicably great cast all of whom are pissed away or under used. There\u2019s Rob Lowe, Danny Glover, Barry Pepper, Frank Whaley, Thomas Lennon, and Amy Ryan, who has two short scenes as Tripp\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n

Imagine what a great writing and directing team could do with this kind of cast. \u201cMonster Trucks\u201d watches like a movie made by a committee, that\u2019s tailored specifically to catch on with kids. It has colorful sleek trucks, a handsome hero and his gorgeous girlfriend, and friendly but fierce monsters that can fit in to trucks. Collect all the monsters now! Switch monsters in to different trucks! Trade with your friends! Customize your own monster trucks! It\u2019s like pokemon! But with trucks! Gotta frack \u2018em all! \u201cMonster Trucks\u201d is a very poorly developed and under developed kids adventure movie that begins on the wrong foot almost immediately. Star Lucas Till, who is at least nearing thirty, plays Tripp, a high schooler.<\/p>\n

And when we first meet him, he\u2019s sitting in a school bus headed for home, and rather than a high schooler, he looks more like a substitute teacher who had to hitch a ride with the school bus. It\u2019s awkward, embarrassing, and fails to establish the character as anything but a mopey loser. Faced with his mom being married to the town sheriff he spends most of his time in the local junkyard messing with trucks, and ignoring his only friend in town, Meredith. She\u2019s the love interest who makes her lust for Tripp so obvious, she practically walks around with a sandwich board that reads \u201cMeredith hearts Tripp 4 Ever,\u201d and he basically ignores her in favor of his cars. That is one of the many baffling plot elements since Jane Levy is also nearing thirty, fails to play a high schooler, does not pull off the geek role well, and is so attractive that Tripp ignoring her makes him even more of an oaf.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonster Trucks\u201d pretty much works overtime to establish a bunch of exposition for \u201cCreech\u201d and his family, and leaves a lot of plot threads sloppily open ended and unresolved. When it\u2019s not borrowing from \u201cE.T.\u201d or \u201cThe Iron Giant,\u201d it fails to build any semblance of an entertaining or engaging adventure film. It\u2019s just an abysmal kids film that cares more about universe building for the sake of merchandise, than fleshing out its concept and characters.<\/p>\n