“Love and Monsters” takes a unique approach to a post-apocalyptic coming of age story

Courtesy of IMDb

By Ally Jorgensen

Sometime in the future, an asteroid big enough to wipe out the human race finds its way to Earth. Agatha 616 was supposed to be the end of the world, but the people on Earth did everything they could to stop it and almost succeeded.

They destroyed the asteroid with rockets but were left with a much bigger problem. The chemical compounds in the rockets caused a worldwide mutation of all cold-blooded creatures. These creatures knocked humans off the top of the food chain and wiped out 95% of the world’s population. This is where our story begins.

Seven years after the Monsterpocalypse, 24-year-old Joel Dawson made an 85-mile journey to find his long lost lover, Aimee. Joel and Aimee, played by Dylan O’Brien and Jessica Henwick, fell in love in their teens and got split when the world ended. Joel never stopped thinking about Aimee and vowed to find her one day.

All humans who survived the apocalypse continued life in bunkers underground. They created colonies all around the country and communicated with radios. Joel made it his mission to find Aimee’s colony by radio, and after finally finding it, he made the journey to see her again.

In the first half of the film, the viewer follows O’Brien’s character, Joel, as he travels to Aimee’s colony. Joel is portrayed as a very clumsy, helpless character. He can hardly defend himself against a mouse in the beginning.

On his journey, he is forced to learn how to survive and slowly gains confidence along the way. He also meets his new companion, a dog named “Boy”. After many life-threatening situations, they do end up making it to Aimee, but there is so much more to the story.

The tone of the film was very laid back and lighthearted. It would be a great movie to watch with friends and family. Overall, it was very entertaining.