Monster Trucks movie review & film summary (2017)

And yet a scrappy underdog status might actually benefit this vintage vehicle about small-town truck-obsessed high-school senior Tripp (Lucas Till, Havok in the “X-Men” series whose mechanical ingenuity shown in the recent “MacGyver” TV reboot comes in handy here), class brain Meredith (Jane Levy of “Don’t Breathe” and sitcom “Suburgatory”) who harbors a crush on him and an oil-guzzling, octopus-like creature that acts like a super-charged engine under the hood of his pickup built from spare parts. “Monster Trucks” (yes, a pun) never approaches the soaring moon-glow heights of "E.T."’s Elliott and his adorable alien buddy. And, based on the early word, I came into it with fairly low-octane expectations. But at least it never made me want to sink ever deeper in my seat with despair at every plot turn as some flat-out lemons do.

The main problem of “Monster Trucks” is how content it is to take its sweet time before shifting into high-action gear, including some not-bad vehicle stunts that feature the sight of a 4X4 somehow clamoring up the side of a building and speeding across rooftops, as it engages in pokey exposition and introduces numerous characters. We meet the shady oil company boss (a duly slick Rob Lowe) who badgers a corporate scientist (Thomas Lennon, amusingly underplaying his part) into giving his approval to drilling in a lake, even though there are signs that a thriving ecosystem exists down there that might get harmed. As a result, a fiery explosion releases a squishy aquatic beast with long tentacles, shark-like teeth and a Flipper-like smile that finds its way to the local junkyard run by a kindly Danny Glover that serves as Tripp’s refuge.

While Tripp gets to know Creech, the name he gives to his new pet, we learn this teen outsider has a rocky domestic situation. His mom (a blink-and-she’s-gone Amy Ryan) has been hanging with the local sheriff (Barry Pepper, who does what he can as a neat-freak law enforcer) ever since her sad-sack hubby (Frank Whaley) left her and their son behind. But Creech doesn’t just allow him to go on joy rides. It turns this rebel into an eco-warrior as he and biology-loving Meredith try to save their multi-legged pal while the bad guys see Creech as evidence of their wrong-doing that needs to exterminated.