The charming and likeable Dylan O’Brien stars in the adventure comedy Love and Monsters which serves as a bit of a coming-of-age tale for his character, Josh.

Seven years ago, Earth was able to launch enough missiles to stop an asteroid from wiping out the planet, unfortunately, the chemicals used perverted the environment and mutated insect and reptile life into monsters. This forced the surviving members of humanity underground into complexes in hopes to survive.

Josh (O’Brien) lost his family in the initial attack on his town, and his girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick) ended up in another complex. After lots of work on the radio he’s found her, and now, being tired of where he is, and living in fear, he decides to go up to the surface and travel the miles to see her.

He may have bitten off more than he can chew. He’s not ready for the creatures he encounters, but he may meet some allies along the way, including a dog named Boy, and a pair of wanderers, Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt).

He learns to survive, and his heart drives him on to be reunited with the woman he loves. Is it the most romantic thing ever, or is just a little too much?

Josh ends up on a journey of self-discovery and learns more about himself, and the world around him, letting him see a potential not only for his life, but for all of humanity. But it’s not going to be easy.

There are some fun visual effects as Josh wanders California, there’s a lot of humour, and O’Brien is able to walk the line the character requires, charming, self-effacing, and occasionally terrified by the world around him.

Jessica Henwick, is, as always, luminous, and has a nice chemistry with O’Brien that makes you root for the relationship. But my favourite part of the film is the relationship between Josh and Boy. The dog, an Australian Kelpie, is all personality and the pair of dogs who brought the character to life are wonderful.

It’s goofy, fun and has a lot of heart, and if you are looking for something light, enjoyable, and suitable for the whole family this one will probably serve. I had a really good time with this one, and O’Brien and Henwick are absolutely delightful.

I love the way the world has been imagined and brought to life, there’s a nice bit of world-building and the location work combined with some fairly solid visual effects and a very likable cast. It would be interesting to see what would happen in a sequel, but it’s been three years, so this may be our only escapade with Josh and Boy.

But it was very entertaining.