Movie Review: Monsters vs. Aliens
By Dennis West
“This place has been X-filed, wrapped in a cover up, and deep fried in a paranoid conspiracy.”
I laughed pretty hard when I saw the first trailer for Monsters vs. Aliens from Dreamworks so I was expecting an extremely funny movie. While there were quite a few laughs in it, I think that this movie has a lot more heart and story than I was expecting.The movie begins on Susan Murphy’s (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) wedding day. As she prepares to tie the knot, we quickly see that the groom and his family are not going to be as appealing as she may have thought they would be. Still, she’s convinced that marrying her fiancé Derek Dietl (voiced by Paul Rudd) will make her happy, so she resolves to take the plunge.
Unfortunately, mere moments before her nuptials, she’s hit by a meteor. This puts a damper on her wedding as she begins to glow, and then grow into a 30-foot tall giant.
The military quickly shows up, takes her into custody and locks her away with 4 other monsters they’ve apprehended over the years. First there’s the hilariously brainless, gelatinous mass named B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen), the brainy Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. (voiced by Hugh Laurie), the half-man/half-fish The Missing Link (voiced by Will Arnett), and the gigantic Insectosaurus (voiced by what sounds like Godzilla)
Just like most Dreamworks animated movies, there are plenty of pop-culture references in this flick, but I enjoyed all of them as they played homage to many of the B-movies from years back and often included references to Stephen Spielberg’s movies E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
My least favorite parts of this movie involved the military and government characters. It’s easy to see that the filmmakers don’t have a high opinion of the military and poke fun at them a lot. I especially groaned when they introduced the military leader, General W.R. Monger (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland). Giving a character the name “War Monger” immediately gave me the impression that he was going to be a bad guy, but the total opposite was true so I concluded that it was just bad writing that was just trying to put in digs at anything they didn’t like.
The only other aspect of this movie that I didn’t enjoy relates to the animation. With computer graphic technology improving so much over recent years they can make human characters so realistic with their skin and modeling that I thought the human characters in this movie verged on the creepy side.
Fortunately, the President (voiced by Stephen Colbert) and the other humans in the government don’t take up too much of the movie. Contrary to what the trailers show, the story revolves almost entirely around the character Susan Murphy, who is codenamed Ginormica, and her struggle to become a person who takes charge of her own life and destiny. All while battling an alien invasion led by the dastardly Gallaxhar (voiced by Rainn Wilson).
All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. I would recommend it to anyone who’s up for a fun time, although it wasn’t as full of laughs as I thought it would be, what it lacked in constant hilarity, it made up for with heart. Bear in mind, though, that there are parts that might be seen as inappropriate and even scary for little children—an unfortunately common staple for Dreamworks movies—but nothing was terribly over the top and should be enjoyed by most everyone.
The military quickly shows up, takes her into custody and locks her away with 4 other monsters they’ve apprehended over the years. First there’s the hilariously brainless, gelatinous mass named B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen), the brainy Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. (voiced by Hugh Laurie), the half-man/half-fish The Missing Link (voiced by Will Arnett), and the gigantic Insectosaurus (voiced by what sounds like Godzilla)
Just like most Dreamworks animated movies, there are plenty of pop-culture references in this flick, but I enjoyed all of them as they played homage to many of the B-movies from years back and often included references to Stephen Spielberg’s movies E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
My least favorite parts of this movie involved the military and government characters. It’s easy to see that the filmmakers don’t have a high opinion of the military and poke fun at them a lot. I especially groaned when they introduced the military leader, General W.R. Monger (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland). Giving a character the name “War Monger” immediately gave me the impression that he was going to be a bad guy, but the total opposite was true so I concluded that it was just bad writing that was just trying to put in digs at anything they didn’t like.
Fortunately, the President (voiced by Stephen Colbert) and the other humans in the government don’t take up too much of the movie. Contrary to what the trailers show, the story revolves almost entirely around the character Susan Murphy, who is codenamed Ginormica, and her struggle to become a person who takes charge of her own life and destiny. All while battling an alien invasion led by the dastardly Gallaxhar (voiced by Rainn Wilson).
All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. I would recommend it to anyone who’s up for a fun time, although it wasn’t as full of laughs as I thought it would be, what it lacked in constant hilarity, it made up for with heart. Bear in mind, though, that there are parts that might be seen as inappropriate and even scary for little children—an unfortunately common staple for Dreamworks movies—but nothing was terribly over the top and should be enjoyed by most everyone.
Labels: By Dennis West, Dreamworks, movie, review
posted by Dennis West at 3/27/2009 10:26:00 PM
5 Comments:
Woah, hold on a second! You didn't mention anything about the film being in 3D!!! The whole reason half the country wants to see this film is because it's the first digitally animated film to be created specifically for the 3D market (they spent an extra 20 million in production to make it 3D). Did you get to see it in Real D, or did you watch it on a normal screen?
I'm really looking forward to this film, though I definitely agree that some of the animation looks a little creepy (i.e. the General's facial stubble, yuck). Thanks for the review!
Yeah, we didn't see it in 3-D, so I guess I didn't think to mention it. On this point I guess I could say that I didn't notice any obvious efforts to take advantage of the 3-D format. You know, like someone throwing a yo-yo at the audience, or anything like that.
As an update to these comments, the AP posted some info about this movie today. Apparently only 2,080 screens showed the film in 3-D, while it played on a total of 7,300 screens. However, the 3-D screens accounted for 56% of the revenues. Yeah baby!
3-D is the wave of the future. Film makers have finally decided that it's no longer a gimmick, so we shouldn't be seeing too many of the traditional 3-D "gags" in films (thank goodness). Disney is releasing their next 10 digital films in 3-D, and Spielberg, Lucas, and all the other major players are getting involved. In fact, James Cameron has signed on with Panasonic to create TV's and players that are 3-D compliant (none of those red/blue glasses, but rather ones with clear polarized lenses). They should be available sometime in 2010!
I've seen a few of the new 3-D films, and they're phenomenal (though I missed out on Coraline...bum deal)! It has made going to the theater an exciting experience once again! It's coming!
no obvious efforts to take advantage of the 3-d format? that's because you didn't see it in 3-d.
the opening sequence of a rubber ball bouncing on a paddle seems to come right at you, in 3-d.
the meteors come right at you. the trip thru the galaxy feels as if you're there.
in the action sequences, which is most of the movie, most of the shots took advantage of the 3-d format. hands and other appendages come out into the audience. bullets whiz over your head.
etc. etc. etc. in fact, it's easy to lose the plot watching the 3-d effects go by.
Well, I finally saw this in 3D tonight and I was quite impressed! it's the first time I've seen a movie in the new 3D and I'd say it's worth the trip to the theater.
But I don't think that I'd want to see every movie like this. it would have to be something that's a visual spectacle without too heavy of a story because my eyes did start to strain after a while and I thought that if it was much longer than a short animated movie, I might not have enjoyed it as well.
Still, it's a fun ride and my two daughters really enjoyed seeing it in 3D. Now we're looking forward to seeing UP in 3D when it comes out.
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