Monsters VS Aliens Review
-
Monsters vs. Aliens
Dreamworks
PG 90 min
OK so as often we try, I’m grading on the curve, or at least trying to compare apples to apples. This is an animated film and no matter how much we may want to, you just can’t put ‘em in with live action.
Yes there have been great ones but rules are rules.
These days one almost has to split hand drawn cell animation and computer graphics. The computer stuff is amazing but I hope the traditional form lives on somewhere, like real orchestras and pianos in a digital world…
Anyway this one is not only computer generated imagery but 3 D as well. I saw the regular cut of CORALINE but this time decided to road trip to the fancy-shmancy troisième dimension screening of MONSTERS V ALIENS. (BTW I looked that French translation up)
First impression is that the effects are pretty cool; a hell of a lot better than those old red and blue cellophane buggers we had decades ago (Not to mention that you keep the polarized shades to wear on the way home) but they’re not enough to carry an entire film.
The animation itself is impressive but not quite up to the mark set by Disney’s Pixar.
So, we’re back to what a movie of any kind needs to work, that is characters and a story.
We have Susan (Reese Witherspoon) a happy young woman about to be married to a self-centered news guy. On her wedding day a meteor covers her with, uh, meteor stuff and she’s transformed into a non-copyrighted version of the FIFTY FOOT WOMAN.
Of course the mean old general captures and deposits her in a secret facility with other “monsters” including such royalty-free characters as the Fly-like Dr Cockroach (Hugh Laurie) Blob clone BOB, (Seth Rogen) and Black Lagooner The Missing Link (Will Arnett).
A life sentence in a government experimentation lab looks imminent until a nasty little space goon and his giant robot attack the earth. Now it’s monsters to the rescue!!
Actually the characters are not bad but the slapstick heavy story is geared more toward kids. The attempt at political humor falls flat but even still I doubt the grown ups will be as engrossed as we were by THE INCREDIBLES. Or WALL-E. Or BOLT.
The little ones will probably enjoy it; that is unless the 3D specs and giant Jujube/popcorn/Coke combo don’t make them puke.
C+
WSS
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login