Review – Monster Trucks

A movie like Monster Trucks is hard to review.  How do I go about judging this movie?  Do I judge it based on how I, as a 28 year old man, view the movie, even though the film is not for my demographic?  Or, do I judge it as if I am a six year old boy, the film’s target demographic?  I have this issue with kids movies all the time.

I started watching the movie as the 28 year old that I am and it didn’t start well.  The film, about a high school senior named Tripp (Lucas Till) who, while building a monster truck out scrap parts, encounters an oil-loving, adrenalin fueled creature from deep within the earth that became free after an oil drilling accident and is now wanted by the government, wasn’t horrible, but just wasn’t for me.  Till looks like a 30 year old man amongst his fellow high schoolers, the jokes were juvenile (obviously), and I knew exactly where the movie was going.  I knew I had a long morning ahead of me.

However, about 45 minutes into Monster Trucks, when I was mildly spacing out and judging the plausibility and collateral damage Tripp and his alien truck were causing to this small North Dakota town, I became more aware of what, or who, was around me.  Behind me, a child of maybe ten years old who was kicking the back of my chair like he was Pelé.  This continued the whole rest of the movie and I hope he spilled his drink on the way out.  To my right, another child, about seven or eight years old, who, up to this point, was regulating people talking during with an emphatic, “Shhhhhhh!” anytime anyone said anything.  It was at this moment I began focusing on this child, because if this movie was made for anyone, it was him.

For regulating conversation throughout the theater, this kid had a lot to say about what was going on in the film, but it was all relevant to the movie.  He was really quick in knowing what was going to happen, showing the film’s predictability.  Like when the government was searching for the creature at the junkyard Tripp works at, the creature hides in a bunker on the floor of a garage.  When the government opens the garage and is going to open the bunker door, the kid says, “He’s not there.”  He was right.

Or, like the scene where Tripp and his lady friend/tutor Meredith (Jane Levy) are speeding through the streets in the creature run truck, the creature sees a car dealership with a row of shiny, new cars.  The kid says, “Uh oh.”  The truck then proceeds to crush every single car at the lot.  Uh oh, indeed.

For the last half hour of the movie, the action revs up, with a lot of chases, destruction, and chaos.  The kid slowly scoots to the edge of his seat, not blinking, and eating his popcorn diligently.  Consistent, “Whoa!”‘s and “Wow!”‘s come from the kid, especially when the creature-controlled truck is being pushed into a wall by another truck and the creature uses his tentacles to push the truck off the wall, do a flip, and land, causing the other truck to crash into a boulder.  The kid says, “That was the cool part.”  In a film of not a lot of cool things, he was right, it was pretty cool.

The 28 year old man that I am did not hate Monster Trucks, but also did not love it.  The eight year old next to me, I assume, thinks differently.  I assume he enjoyed the film even though it may have been slightly predictable.  My opinion doesn’t matter to Paramount and Nickelodeon Studios, because I’m not who’s suppose to see or like this movie.  The kid next to me is who they want to see the movie and who’s opinion matters.  Good job, guys, I think he liked it!

KID NEXT TO ME’S RATING – 3.5/4 

MY RATING – 2/4 

Also, shout out to kid for making my film watching experience one of my favorites ever.

Did you see Monster Trucks?  What did you think? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, and on Facebook and YouTube by searching Kevflix.