Ten years on from the events of Monsters, and the 'Infected Zones' have now spread worldwide. In the Middle East a new insurgency has begun. At the same time there has also been a proliferation of Monsters in that region. The Army decide to draft in more numbers to help deal with this insurgency.

Wasn't expecting much from this, To be honest, I just went to kill a few hours on a slow Friday afternoon. However, the film was much, much better than some of the reviews on here would lead you to believe. No, it isn't another Battle: Los Angeles – Nor is it meant to be. It actually stays true to the original Monsters film in that it's about relationships. The first was a love story, this is more about relationships under strain in the pressure cooker of a war zone. While the film was a little overlong (it got a bit navel-gazey in places, especially toward the end), it mostly had me gripped for its entire running time: the action was visceral (the dogfight, for example), there was an almost-constant feeling of tension and the special effects were breathtaking: the monsters have had some serious creature design done on them, introducing the young and some (I think) subspecies. Every time they appeared on screen I was captivated by their depiction: of course, their appearance at the Bedouin camp was the highlight of the film along, I suppose, with the tantalising half-reveal at the end.

The performances from a not well-known troupe of actors were excellent, especially from Sam Keeley as Parkes, Nicholas Pinnock as Forrest (even if his character was a bit Underused) and Johnny Harris as Frater. And the message is still there: what, exactly are we fighting, and why? The 'monsters' are never shown destroying anything (other than minor damage caused by what seems to be natural curiosity) and the scenes with the smaller monsters galloping along side the jeeps shows them to be rather beautiful, exuberant creatures.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable and, at times, thought-provoking film. Very, very pleasantly surprised.