Kid's Korner: Monster Trucks - A monstrous, but seemingly harmless disaster - 1 star

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Popcorn, Chocolate tops and a large drink. Check, check, and check! 

Now, roll the film... There is a reason this caliber of film is released in January. 

Kid's Korner rating: 1 star    Parents rating: 1 star
      North Dakota is a land of beautiful scenery and has become a vast supply of mineral resources for corporations to consider. On the outskirts of Williston, an oil drilling expedition comes upon an underground ecosystem that is inhabited by undiscovered lifeforms. In an attempt to keep this monstrous habitat under wraps, the corporation tries to study the creatures with the intention to eliminate these environmental pests. The problem comes when one of the beasts escapes and find its way into town. 
       Unaware of this subterranean invasion, the sleepy North Dakota community is anything but a dream lifestyle for teenagers and Tripp(Lucas Till) has a goal to make his escape from his small town existence. The one solace he has in amongst his monotonous life is the rebuilding of an old truck after the completion of work at the local junk yard. Then one night this brooding youth comes in contact with the creature from the centre of the earth. Instead of being a lesson in horror, he finds out that this multi-tentacled beast, Creech, has special gifts that provide his beloved truck with 'monstrous' powers. 
      Soon after this new found friend and biological discovery, Tripp finds out that he must partner with his friends to help Creech to reconnect with his family. Their adventure keeps them a few steps ahead of the local law enforcement and the henchmen who work for the oil corporation. This adolescent team must work to deliver these creatures back to this buried residence and out of the reach of the corporate villains who want to eradicate them. 
      In the hands of a master film maker, this bizarre concept could have been a magical journey into the captivating world of Creech, his family and their affinity with monster trucks. While director of Ice Age and Robots, Chris Wedge, has the pedigree to put together good animated films, this live action teen-comedy places him out of his depth. In the attempt to pull this film out of two years of production purgatory, he strives to piece together a plausible storyline from an endemic script, a poorly thought out premise and a wasted talent pool. How Rob Lowe, Amy Ryan, Barry Peppers and Danny Glover could have signed on for this project can only be explained as a financial decision and not for the advancement of their careers. Lucas Till and Jane Levy do provide the necessary chemistry for a sci-fi comedy, but there was one glaring problem with the casting of these lead actors. The casting director must not have read the brief that they are meant to be teenagers. Understanding that many actors play characters from different age brackets, the issue is that Till and Levy look older than most of the teachers and authority figures in the film. This merely adds to the multiple problems with this film, but there was one thing that may help with this creature feature's box office appeal. 

       From the audience response at the film's screening, Paramount Pictures has successfully managed to target boys under the age of 10 years old. Monster Trucks had this market sector transfixed with the monster trucks and the monsters inside of the trucks. Hearing the belly laughs and cheers after each truck crash and whenever the lovable monsters make an appearance would have made the marketing team hopeful. This element alone could satisfy the studio to be relegated to an audience that prefers to be entertained by prat falls and explosions as opposed to a reasonable plot or quality acting performances. This monstrous outing is harmless for children, but will cause most parents to yearn for the next Pixar release. 
What should parents know about Monster Trucks?  Harmless is a relative term to Monster Trucks. For the sake of small children, there are few scary elements to cause sleepless nights. Where the harm could be found is in moral lessons learnt. The animal conservation message at the core of the screenplay is undermined by the inexcusable behaviour of the lead characters to achieve their goals. To save these threatened fictional species, societal accountability gets pushed to the side. The endangerment of human life, the destruction of property and outright theft become acceptable means to an ends. What is meant to be a lesson in taking the moral high ground against corporate greed becomes a lesson in moral relativism that leaves this production team with some explaining to parents of young children. 

Reel Dialogue: What are the bigger questions to consider from this film? 

1. What does the bible say about living a moral life? 
(Proverbs 22:6, James 1:22-25, 2 Timothy 2:15)
2. What are the passages that talk about fighting for your beliefs? 
(Psalm 119: 89-91, 1 Corinthians 15:58, 16:13)

Best Kid's & Tweens Korner films of 2016 
Ranked with the assistance of our junior reviewer

The qualifications do say that they are kid friendly, but check the ratings. Some films on the list may not be suitable for young children. 
  1. Zootopia
  2. The Jungle Book
  3. Sing
  4. Finding Dory
  5. Moana
  6. Pete's Dragon
  7. The BFG
  8. Trolls
  9. The Secret Life of Pets
  10. Storks
Tween's Korner 
What is Kid's Korner? 
Click on the link and see. 

Kid's Korner are reviews written by Russell Matthews' with his kid's perspective and based on a five star rating system @ Russelling Reviews #russellingrevs #kidskorner #monstertrucks 

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