Love and Monsters (2020)
If you haven’t seen Zombieland, this movie might seem fresh and exciting. If you have seen Zombieland, this really feels like a repeat of that film except the zombies are giant cold-blooded animals. Throughout the film, I kept seeing Dylan O’Brien as Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus character and it didn’t make a difference to the movie. Couldn’t they at least have changed the gender of the main character to mix it up some? Maybe it’s just my complete disinterest in zombie films, but I enjoyed this one better, despite having a protagonist that is the most uninteresting character in the entire film and a really stupid third act. It also imagines a post-apocalyptic world where the only romantic configuration is coupling, outright ignoring the needs/wants/desires of singles. It annoyed me in Deluge and it’s really disappointing that it’s where we still are 90 years later. I had gone into this really suspicious of this film’s Oscar nomination, but the monsters are really gorgeous to look at and fit seamlessly into the world.
Oscar Nomination: Best Achievement in Visual Effects