Monster trucks
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Monster trucks |
| Original title | Monster trucks |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 8 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Chris Wedge |
| script |
Matthew Robinson , Jonathan Aibel , Glenn Berger , Derek Connolly |
| production |
Mary Parent , Denis L. Stewart |
| music | David Sardy |
| camera | Don Burgess |
| cut | Conrad Buff |
| occupation | |
| |
Monster Trucks is a US action - comedy film from the year 2016 , produced by Paramount Animation , Disruption Entertainment and Nickelodeon Movies directed by Chris Wedge . It stars Lucas Till , Jane Levy , Amy Ryan , Rob Lowe , Danny Glover , Barry Pepper and Holt McCallany . Monster Trucks was the last film actor Jon Polito worked on before he died on September 1, 2016.
action
In a fracking well near a small town in North Dakota , the oil company discovers three previously unknown creatures that have a kind of swarm intelligence and feed on oil . These live above a gigantic oil deposit in an underground river. One of the creatures that can survive both in water and on land and can move around with its tentacles can escape. Researchers are keen to keep their discovery a secret as it can be very costly for the drilling company. So a team sets out to capture the runaway creature.
Meanwhile, high school student Tripp Coley wants a change from life. In the old scrap yard , where he works next to school, he builds his own monster truck . The mysterious creature appears there. Coley informs the police, including his stepfather, but nobody believes him. The police leave without having done anything. Tripp finally finds out that the creature is very friendly and the two become friends. He baptizes the creature with the name "Creech". Creech prefers to hang out in the monster truck and hide there when the men from the oil company appear and search the square. Meredith, Tripp's mentor, also shows up. Tripp notices the danger that the men pose for Creech and, with Creech hiding in the monster truck, the two can escape. He makes a virtue out of necessity: he builds the monster truck in such a way that the creature serves as a kind of drive and engine. Meredith decides to help them both.
First they want to visit Tripp's father, who works for the oil company. But this betrays the three and in a crazy chase, Tripp, Meredith and Creech manage to escape the hunters. They retreat to an abandoned mountain hut, but the next morning Creech is gone. While searching for his parents, he is caught and imprisoned by the oil company. Tripps tries to free his friend, but fails. But they find an ally in one of the researchers who can help them. Tripp assembles two more trucks while the researcher kidnaps the creatures in a truck. The oil company plans to poison the underground lake and use it to kill all creatures that are there. This is how a race against time begins.
Tripp and his friends succeed in preventing the oil company from doing so. He then releases Creech and his family into freedom. They then release an endangered species of toad lizard and prevent further drilling in this area.
background
On July 31, 2013, Paramount Animation announced the production of a new live-action franchise and the title of the first film, Monster Trucks , the story of which would be written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. The main features of the plot itself came from Paramount boss Adam Goodman , who got the idea while playing with his four-year-old son when he took the word monster truck literally. Chris Wedge was announced as director and Mary Parent as producer. The theatrical release was originally planned for May 29, 2015. For film director Chris Wedge, it is his first live-action film after directing animated films such as Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005) and Epic - Hidden Kingdom (2013).
In December 2013 it was announced that production would start in Vancouver in early April 2014 and that filming would take place through mid-July. At this point, the Vancouver Film Studios were booked for production. Main production began on April 4, 2014 in Kamloops, British Columbia. However, production was delayed, so that the film, which was produced in 2D and 3D, was only released in US cinemas on January 13, 2017. The film had previously been released in France and the United Kingdom in December 2016. The film opened in Germany on January 26, 2017.
Success and criticism
Thought as a kind of Transformers- esque franchise with a toy deal with Hasbro , the long production time and the multiple postponed release dates were not a good sign. The first trailers in June also suggested a flop. The first professional reviews were also very bad. As early as September 2016, Viacom , the parent company of Paramount, wrote off the $ 115 million production as a loss, a procedure that is relatively uncommon in the industry. On the opening weekend, the film only grossed $ 10.3 million. In fact, the film, which was postponed several times, could not bring in its costs and, at 57 million US dollars in the box office, fell far short of its expectations.
Criticisms of the film mainly concerned the script and the basic idea of the film. Falk Straub wrote on Spielfilm.de :
"Monster Trucks" already fails because of its ridiculous basic idea. But even those who ignore this will never really warm up to this mixture of science fiction, action and adventure comedy, because the chemistry between the young main character and the eponymous monster is not right. A few successful gags and solid action do not hide the fact that "Monster Trucks" would have done more heart and significantly more brains. "
Straub repeats this in his more detailed review for the Kino-Zeit.de website:
“The rest is solid, age-approved action with an environmentally conscious message, barely tolerable product placement and a role model that is difficult to bear. After all, Ice Age director Chris Wedge managed a few nice gags in his first real film. Monster Trucks, however, never really gets going. "
The criticism of the Cinema editorial team was somewhat more positive :
“The final chase takes a long time, but a monstrous flop looks different. Conclusion: Absurd mixture of formulaic script and partly anarchic joke. "
The reviewer of the screen reporter draws an even more positive conclusion:
“It's understandable why Paramount didn't really have confidence in the end result of this uneven film. There are sometimes outrageously wrong decisions made here in almost all directions. But that in no way ensures that the fantasy adventure is ever boring or (despite the bizarre body count) unsympathetic. In the end, "Monster Trucks" is a big mess, which in its strange way you almost have to like it again. "
Web links
- Monster Trucks in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official site for the film (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Monster Trucks . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Age rating for Monster Trucks . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ a b Monster Trucks (2017). Cinema , accessed February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Monster Trucks. Moviepilot , accessed February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Brent Lang: Box Office: 'Hidden Figures,' 'Patriot's Day' in Tight Race, 'Monster Trucks,' 'Live by Night' Brace to Flop. Variety , January 12, 2017, accessed February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Ryan Faughnder: 2017's first big flop? How Paramount's 'Monster Trucks' went awry. Los Angeles Times , January 13, 2017, accessed February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Box Office: Ben Affleck, Martin Scorsese, And 'Monster Trucks' Flop Over MLK Weekend. Forbes.com , January 16, 2017, accessed February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Falk Straub: Review: Monster Trucks (2015). Spielfilm.de, accessed on February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Falk Straub: Monster Trucks: First driven off, then stalled. Kino-zeit.de, accessed on February 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Review: Monster Trucks (cinema). Canvasreporter.com, January 22, 2017, accessed February 9, 2017 .