Monster Run (2020)

Though an extremely simple story, it was not well told. The CGI/Special Effects were very good but should enhance the story and not be the star of it. The two humans were simply along for the ride.

Unless one is familiar with the book it's hard to get a handle on how this world works, because they simply did not spend the time needed to build it for us. The leads bonded together faster than Wolverine and Rogue with a similar relationship dynamic. The gruff, world weary, reluctant hero and the abandoned young woman with a power that frightens people.

It felt like the FL's one acting note she was given was to stand there and look pretty and forlorn. Not a lot of depth to the performance. The ML spent most of his time running and jumping which to his credit, he did well.

The CGI was very good and creative. The problem for me was that the story overly-relied on it and over-estimated how interesting it is without an emotional story to propel the characters through the monsters and labyrinths.

It's a shame they didn't spend a few more minutes developing these characters because there is an interesting story behind the wall of CGI.

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Light & Fun

This film came out of nowhere - I got a notification from Netflix saying they think I would enjoy it, so I put it on last night and it did not disappoint. Given, I didn't have high expectations of it, but I still had a good time watching it.

It has a basic and simple plot, with an adventure twist with monsters. Both the mains were mediocre people - a small-time monster hunter, trying to live up to his famous monster-hunting brother's name and a girl who was thought to be insane for being the only person who could see monsters but ended up being super powerful and the next gatekeeper. Together, they try to survive the next 3 days until Ji Wei's powers settle into her body and she takes on her new role.

The film was only an hour and 45 minutes, so I didn't expect a lot of world-building and expected the relationship between the two mains to be instant through a quick montage. But I will say those were my two favorite things about this film. For as much world-building that they did give us, it was pretty. I applaud whoever decided on how to build the sets - especially the labyrinth tunnel. The colors were all super vibrant, and I was pulled in. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Meng Ge and Ji Wei, even though it seemed more like an older brother looking out for a younger sister relationship. I was a little disappointed as I wanted more emotion from Ji Wei because I didn't know how she would have acted in certain situations. I would like to think that she is a brave soul and fights for the people she trusts, but she gave up super quickly when she was "given" the chance to have a normal life. It kind of made it come off like Ji Wei was very young and was put in an adult situation, but in what Ji Wei lacked, Meng Ge made up for, which is why I really liked his character. Even though everything was against him, he wanted to protect Ji Wei the way his older brother protected him. He was honestly the real hero of this film.

Everything with the plot was super generic and nothing special, but sometimes it is really nice watching a film that you know how it going to play out. I also really liked how it wasn't a story about normal people doing extravagant things to save the world - it was a story about 2 normal to mediocre people who even though might not have been the strongest physically, but had common sense and one another (and heart because that is always important).

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