Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2011

An alien-invasion saga boasting a character-based, well-written narrative with adequate acting that reportedly cost less than $20,000 to make? Right. Apparently a NASA probe carrying samples back from the Jovian moon Europa crashed in Mexico, soon after which these giant squid-tree-thingies, kind of like LOTR’s Ents, except really mean when attacked, began to appear. The Mexican and US militaries have declared the northern half of Mexico a “zona infectado” and are waging war on the creatures. A photojournalist is ordered by his publisher to find his daughter down there and bring her to safety, but to do this the two must cross the forbidden zona, where the monsters are rapidly multiplying. The not-new road-movie storyline focuses on the changes they undergo as they make the hazardous trek. The CG sequences are of course not top-flight, but they work well enough. Look for a few allegories about undocumented aliens and expensive wars, but these are not belabored. The suspenseful, even poetic final scene may alter your initial take on the “monsters,” and there’s an intriguing serpent-eating-its-own-tail coda. Schlockmeister Michael Bay et al could learn a thing or two from first-time writer/director Gareth Edwards