Review: ‘Monster Trucks’ is a fun-fueled hybrid of live action and CGI

One of the best things about the 1988 comedy “Big” was Tom Hanks’ main character, a kid stuck in an adult’s body who used his playful imagination to rise through the ranks of a toy company. At one point, he pitches the idea of a robot toy that turns into a bug, arguing that kids will prefer something that’s both unexpected and fun.

The premise of “Monster Trucks” is in that same spirit. What would happen, the film wonders, if cute, otherworldly creatures operated hulking cars (which already appeal to children)? The idea is unabashedly silly, yet “Monster Trucks” is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

Lucas Till plays Tripp, a sullen high school student who dreams of escaping the North Dakota hamlet where he lives. Tripp has a part-time job in a junkyard, where, during an evening shift, he makes a startling discovery: a giant, oil-guzzling monster with tentacles is hiding there, scrounging through scrapped vehicles for any drop of oil it can find. The monster was once living deep beneath Earth’s surface until a greedy oil executive named Reece (Rob Lowe) destroyed its underground habitat.

Tripp nicknames the monster Creech (short for Creature), becoming buddies with it, since it is smart and has big, dopey eyes and a friendly disposition. When the monster takes refuge inside the metal body of the vintage pickup truck Tripp is restoring, the boy sees an opportunity. He rigs the truck so that Creech can serve as its de facto engine.

In addition to Lowe, “Monster Trucks” features many familiar character actors in supporting roles. Danny Glover, Amy Ryan, Barry Pepper and Thomas Lennon all make appearances, dialing down their screen personas so that younger audiences can focus on the plot.

Since the oil company wants to destroy the monsters – the presence of a new species would mean they must halt drilling operations – the film turns into a contest of wills between Tripp and the evil corporation. Help comes from unexpected sources: Lennon plays a scientist who joins the good guys, and Jane Levy plays Meredith, the plucky if stereotypical girl next door.

Screenwriter Derek Connolly shrewdly uses archetypes for many characters, while also leaving room for modest surprises. Motivations may not be complex exactly, but they bear a satisfying resemblance to actual human behavior.

The special effects strike an admirable balance between the cutesy and the creepy. Creech, for example, is less humanoid than E.T., but the CGI character designers give him personality and heft. More importantly, Wedge uses the monster-in-a-truck conceit as a springboard for some imaginative chase sequences. With Creech inside, Tripp’s truck can jump, tilt and even climb walls.

Unlike Michael Bay of “Transformers” fame, Hedge shoots these sequences carefully, so that we always understand where Tripp is in relation to his pursuers. Camera placement and editing are coherent, not chaotic. (Note to more “serious” action filmmakers: You could learn a thing or two from this film’s respect for spatial elegance.)

“Monster Trucks” is far from deep. The good guys don’t experience major life lessons, and the comeuppance meted out to the bad guys is only perfunctory. But the conflict is simple enough so that kids can recognize what’s at stake. Broad gags are thrown in alongside sly jokes – including asides that suggest that the filmmakers know that the 26-year-old Till is way too old to play a teenager.

This is a film where adults needn’t count the minutes until the end credits. “Monster Trucks” does not rely on bright, flashy colors to maintain the attention of the intended audience. Long after the novelty of the premise runs out of gas, it’s sheer moviemaking craft that fuels this effects-driven action-family hybrid.