Movie Review: Monsters vs. Aliens

“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.

Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda

When I saw the first trailer for Kung Fu Panda, I was more interested in the comedic prospects of Jack Black than I was in a martial arts movie set in the animal kingdom. What I wasn't expacting was how wonderfully the comedic acting would be portrayed through animation and how much I would care about all the characters by the end.

Kung Fu Panda is about Po (Jack Black), a panda who is inexplicably chosen to become the Dragon Warrior—the lead fighter of the marial arts team he idolizes. The only problem is that the closest he has come to kung fu training is his fantasies with his action figures in his bedroom. What follows is an entertaining exposition of what can happen when you try to fit a very round, bloated peg into a very square, ultra disciplined and trained Kung Fu hole.



As a long time fan of animation, I was pleased to see how they used very understated animation when the characters were interacting. They never resorted to the over exaggerated, Tex Avery-style of movement that can easily become a crutch for animators—the clearest example of which is Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It was really just a joy to watch the simplest dialogue scenes.

With an excellent cast of supporting voice actors, I was dissapointed that we didn't hear more from them. For example, Jackie Chan was the voice of Monkey, but, sadly, he only had about two short lines. However, I am starting to get a greater appreciation of Dustin Hoffman, who voiced Master Shifu, who'd unfortunately burdened with helping Po become the Dragon Warrior. Even though this is an animated film, Hoffman doesn't shy away from altering his voice and delivery to become the character, when it would have been just as easy to give a straight delivery so that his presence could be instantly recognized—which shows me that improving the quality of the movie was his ultimate goal.



My favorite sequence is when Master Shifu realizes the technique to bring the fighting talent out of Po. I was disappointed when this "special talent" of Po's didn't resurface more than once during the climactic battle with Tai Lung (voiced by Ian McShane), the snow leopard bent on claiming the title of Dragon Warrior for himself. I thought it would have made that sequence more entertaining than it already was.



I would definitely recommend this movie for the whole family. I don't think any kids would be disturbed by the action in this movie. It's all very stylized and there are very few, if any, visible deaths—although there are a few implied. There is even enough great sophisticated humor in it to keep child deprived adults entertained.