DreamWorks continues its streak of lagging noticeably behind Pixar
with its newest release, the 3-D animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens.
It’s the story of Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon), whose wedding to a
local weatherman is tragically derailed when she is hit by a meteor and
becomes 50 feet tall. She is then whisked away to a secret military
facility where she meets a host of other monsters: B.O.B. (Seth Rogen),
The Missing Link (Will Arnett), Dr. Cockroach, and the
adorable/retarded Insectosaurus. After two months of imprisonment with
her ragtag band of good-hearted yet uniquely flawed compatriots, Susan,
now known as Ginormica, and the gang are mobilized to fight a sinister
alien who wants to destroy the earth. It’s monsters versus aliens,
people.
The movie is packed with bright colors, stupid jokes, and very
little downtime, as well as some mindless 3-D showing off to keep kids
glued to the screen (3-D is like child catnip). Adults, however, will
have less to rave about. The film is loaded with pop-culture references
(Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dr. Strangelove, Attack of the Killer
Tomatoes) that will probably be lost on the young ones and were
obviously thrown in for the parents. But beyond the initial, “Oh, hey,
that’s from The Fly,” they fail to materialize into anything
interesting.
In that same spirit of trying to wrangle in grown-ups, the movie is
also bursting with celebrity cameos. It is crammed full of them. Nearly
every single character is voiced by an A- or B-list star. Renée
Zellweger has something like two lines. Insectosaurus doesn’t even have
lines, he just growls and roars, and yet the producers still decided to
hire Jimmy Kimmel to do his voice. I doubt there will be scores of
little kids nudging each other and pointing out that Dr. Cockroach is
voiced by the guy from House M.D., so it’s easy enough to conclude that
the stunt casting was, yet again, a little treat for mom and dad.
Unfortunately, the money spent on Kiefer Sutherland’s voice box could
have been better used to improve some of the lackluster visuals—a
mass of boring, pastel rectangles does not a San Francisco make.
Monsters vs. Aliens is nothing special, but it’s still cute. And I’ll
be damned if it wasn’t entertaining to giggle along with a bunch of
6-year-olds at Rogen’s THC-soaked chuckle. 
OMFG! – this writer, Evan Stewart – he is a master of the craft – Stranger – you really should hire him – full time at the very least.
Thanks
I saw this movie on Saturday and I found it pretty boring. Most adults laughed at the credits rather than the actual movie.
Man, I could not disagree more with Evan. I found Monsters vs. Aliens hilarious, witty, perfectly cast, and visually sumptuous. Character design was fun, and the gorgeous environmental design really captured a sense of scale. I thought it was the best non-Pixar CG cartoon I’ve seen.
Everyone I know loved this movie – men, women, pre-teens, teens.
Thumbs up!
The whole character of Ginormica is also a reference to the classic Attack of the 50-foot Woman.
I rather liked this movie. Maybe because of this bad review? It gave me low expectations. I also liked that the characters didn’t have negative stereotypical roles that kids movies often have.