Ramshackle romp that fails to engage
(PG, 104 mins)
TRIPP (Lucas Till) is a senior high school student who lives with his mother Cindy (Amy Ryan) in a town where everyone relies on oil drilled by Terravex Energy.
Emotionally scarred by the abandonment of his father (Frank Whaley), Tripp forgoes his classes to work at the local scrapyard, where he scours for spare parts to bolt together his own monster truck.
Or as Tripp puts it: “Something with four wheels that will get me out of here.”
A disaster at one of the Terravex drill sites unleashes three aquatic creatures, which feed on the oil. The company’s Machiavellian president (Rob Lowe) and chief scientist Dr Bill Dowd (Thomas Lennon) capture two of the critters, but the third ends up in the scrapyard and befriends Tripp.
The teenager discovers that the tentacled oddity, which he christens Creech, likes to hide inside the shell of his truck and has the ability to power the ramshackle vehicle.
When Terravex dispatches a thug called Burke (Holt McCallany) to capture and exterminate Creech, Tripp vows to protect his new friend.
The student joins forces with classmates Meredith (Jane Levy) and Sam (Tucker Albrizzi) to return all three creatures to their watery, subterranean home.
Monster Trucks is a curious, souped-up hybrid of expensive parts that have been soldered together without any obvious consideration of whether the elements will work in unison.