Thin characters, dumbed-down script stall 'Monster Trucks'
The idea for this boy-and-his-blob fantasy adventure reportedly came from the then-4-year-old son of Paramount Film Group President Adam Goodman shortly before the studio shoved him out the corporate door.
That might explain why "Monster Trucks" feels like an expensive Saturday morning live-action cartoon populated by single-dimensional characters who constantly explain what they're doing or thinking, even when no one else can hear them.
Oil company executives become the easy-target villains of this simple-minded, vaguely pro-ecology movie, featuring young heroes who want to do the right thing, even as they recklessly drive around in monster-powered trucks, crashing into other vehicles, crushing others and gleefully threatening the lives and safety of everyone on and off the roads.
Terravex oil company executive Reece Tenneson (Rob Lowe, slathered with sleeze) decides to drill into a deep underground lake, not caring that he might destroy a sensitive biological ecosystem.
Oh, oh!
Oil pumps spit out three creatures resembling bulbous mashups of an octopus and a shark. Terravex employees capture two of the critters.
The third one hides out in a nearby small-town junkyard run by Mr. Weathers (Danny Glover), a kindly old guy in a wheelchair.
High school kid Tripp (Lucas Till) - who looks old enough to have repeated several grades - hangs out at the junkyard and works on an old rust-bucket Dodge truck, hoping to get it to run.
He hates his life in the small town. His dad (Frank Whaley) deserted the family, leaving behind a generically bland wife (Amy Ryan), now dating a pathological neat-Nik sheriff (Barry Pepper).
At the junkyard, Tripp confronts the third beastie, drunk on petroleum and lying on a car crusher, which Tripp accidentally activates.
Tripp "saves" the monster. The two become buddies like "Androcles and the Lion."
Tripp names his new friend "Creech." The critter discovers that by climbing inside Tripp's truck, it can turn the vehicle into a superpowered automotive wheelchair, so to speak.
Meanwhile, a boo-hissable electric-prod-carrying Terravex enforcer named Burke (Holt McCallany) tracks Cheech to the junkyard with orders to neutralize the fierce-looking life-form. (Nobody ever explains why a petroleum-digesting entity would need sharp teeth.)
Tripp, now with a tentative female friend Meredith (Jane Levy) and a rebel Terravex scientist (Thomas Lennon), races to stop Terravex from poisoning the underground lake so the drilling can continue.
"Monster Trucks" comes from "Ice Age" director Chris Wedge, who apparently watched too many old Hal Needham movies before tackling his first live-action comedy.
Trucks fly through the air and people dive, all in slow-motion, not a good thing inasmuch as the cliché puts the brakes on the movie's frequent, robust chases, the last one being an overlong exercise in nonstop CGI effects.
A lot could be forgiven in "Monster Trucks" had Tripp and Creech established a convincing E.T./Elliot bond.
Although Till, the Texas-born actor who plays Havok in the "X-Men" franchise, emotes his heart out opposite a visual-effect-to-be-added-later, Wedge doesn't allow enough time or setup for the relationship to be real.
"This thing is kind of awesome!" Tripp says to nobody.
Clearly, he can't be talking about his movie.
“Monster Trucks”
★ ½
Starring: Lucas Till, Danny Glover, Jane Levy, Rob Lowe, Barry Pepper
Directed by: Chris Wedge
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG. 122 minutes