This film was among the casualties of the pandemic, forced to be released online instead of in cinemas. I think it largely flew under the radar as a result and I wouldn’t have paid attention to it myself if it weren’t for strong recommendations on Broken Forum. This may not exactly be great art but it a perfectly cromulent action-adventure film set amidst the apocalypse and featuring giant monsters. I especially love how it proves that you don’t need to rely on existing intellectual property to make a solid action movie. Unfortunately it also seems to prove that you may need to in order to make a financially successful one.

The combination of an asteroid strike and the world’s militaries’ response to it results in the end of human civilization. The survivors shelter in underground colonies away from the mutated giant monsters that now roam the surface. Seven years later, Joel, one such survivor, stays safe and underground all the time as he freezes up whenever confronted by a monster and is unable to fight. He dreams of reuniting with his girlfriend Aimee from before and actually manages to contact her on the CB radio. His friends tell him that her colony is seven days’ travel overland and it would be extremely dangerous given Joel’s total lack of survival skills. When their shelter is breached and a member of their community is killed however, Joel decides to stop waiting and to pursue his dreams. He sets out armed with a crossbow and would have been quickly killed by the first monster he meets if it weren’t for a friendly dog helping him. Later he also meets up with an older man and a little girl who are veteran survivors on the surface who despair of his uselessness and naivety but help train him up anyway.

First off, the protagonist here really irritates me. I detest the trope of clueless and unprepared dorks somehow surviving through dumb luck. Conversely Hollywood likes to show the supposedly skilled and well-armed die quickly as a form of dramatic irony. In this instance, the film makes such a huge show of Joel’s incompetence and zero situational awareness that it pains me that he actually lives. With that out of the way, at least the other characters do call Joel out and he does get better at fighting later. Despite the apocalyptic setting and the massive casualties, this is a light-hearted film that tries hard to put a positive spin on things so I can cut it some slack. What’s more, it even has a clever and loyal dog so it has that familiar boy and his dog on a journey wholesomeness, a robot that provides emotional support and a kick-ass little girl who mocks Joel for how useless he is. None of this is particularly original but the film brings everything together very nicely and it boasts cool monsters and awesome action scenes to boot, so what’s not to like.

It is a little disappointing that the monsters seem so fragile and unbelievable that Joel piddly little crossbow is actually effective, but the monster designs themselves are fantastic. Joel’s character does redeem himself over the course of the film and the awkward romance between him and Aimee is adroitly handled. Plus of course this film has an awesome dog in it and that’s worth a lot of points. Ultimately this film isn’t one for the ages but it works very well as an action movie. I especially like that it’s a reasonable enough of a post-apocalyptic setting and doesn’t require the audience to be positively stupid. It’s a real shame that this wasn’t more successful as I’m certain that this is the kind of entertainment almost anyone would enjoy.