From the pens of Stephen Lister and Eric Poppen came this action/sci-fi story that opens with a nice hook but starts losing its grip on the plot, leaving the viewers wondering where it might end up. How many of the viewers would actually feel lost at some point on this ride?
Directed by John Eyres, Monolith (1993) features two LA cops Tucker and Terri (Bill Paxton and Lindsay Frost) who arrest a child killer off the streets only to witness the case take multiple strange turns – the child’s dead body explodes into flames inside the vehicle carrying it and the mentally distressed killer is taken from the police into federal custody. Soon it becomes obvious the federal government is running some kind of top secret project involving an invisible alien entity.
The premise isn’t bad, though far from mind-blowing, but the plot gets looser and looser until one sees it’s surely going to end very loosely, leaving them feeling rushed or entirely lost. We are told it’s some lifeform that existed on earth before humans arrived, but that’s about it. Nothing on what, how, why… the screen is shaken with action – chase and gunshots sequences – which has mostly worked for stories running out of science. So the explosions and shootings can keep the action fans entertained. But don’t worry about the lost sci-fi plot as it gets buried under the rubble.
The backstory of how Tucker’s family died gets a few seconds in flashbacks a few times as in an attempt to add depth to his character – explaining why he is cynical. Not much success here either. It just feels like a misfit of an effort. At the end, you just have to go with the action.
Now what’s really good in Eyres’ Monolith? The easy answer would be – chemistry. It’s way more a buddy cop movie than sci-fi and the Tucker-Terri partnership against crime gives out sparks of the conflicting personalities that have kept cop action fans amused from Dirty Harry to Hunter and Dempsey and Makepeace. No harm in seeing a new duo in the old game!
