Monsters vs. Aliens Reviews

Ok, let’s give DreamWorks some credit here, they managed to release a film with a female lead before Pixar. Monsters vs. Aliens came out in 2009, and it wouldn’t be until 2012’s Brave that Pixar would catch-up with their rival on that feat. I’m not saying this is the only bit of positive criticism I can hurl Monsters vs. Aliens way, but it is the most enthusiasm I can muster towards it.

 

The rest is a grab-bag of celebrity voices, thinly written characters, 50s sci-fi movie parodies and clichés, and a bare minimum of pop culture references disguised as jokes. At least there’s that from DreamWorks, the worst offender of that particular brand of “humor.” Well, there is the whole bit about Stephen Colbert voicing the president and looking/acting like his Colbert Report character was transformed into something resembling Ronald Reagan. But other than that and a character basically performing Dance, Dance Revolution to hijack a space ship while Aqua plays in the background, no you read that right, there’s relatively little references as jokes here.

 

It’s just a shame that the majority of Monsters vs. Aliens goes through the motions as quickly as possible and still feels overly long. There’s no wit, no inventiveness, no sense of joy or adventure here. Compare it to the comic book love letter The Incredibles, the bruised heart of How to Train Your Dragon, or the emotional heft of ParaNorman and watch contemporaneous films put this one to disgrace.

I already saw this movie, in fact, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released, but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, when rewatching the damned thing, to be honest, I was actually surprised by how ugly this movie was, above all the background decors and the human characters. Seriously, this movie didn’t grow old very well, that’s for sure. The other issue was that, even though some of the jokes were not bad at all (B.O.B. voiced by Seth Roger was quite hilarious), most of them were just so random and actually rather pathetic. Eventually, in contrary to Pixar, with Dreamworks, it has always been rather hit-and-miss with their animated features. Indeed, sometimes, they would have some big hits like ‘Shrek’ or ‘How to train your dragon’ but they would usually produce 3 or 4 underperforming features between those hits and, basically, this movie was one of those. It’s too bad because, the concept was actually pretty awesome and there was definitely some potential. However, I wish they explored more the possibilities provided by this great premise but, unfortunately, the story turned out to be so generic and predictable. Basically, it was a typical Dreamworks effort, it did have some potential but it displayed also an obvious lack of ambition and there was obviously no actual desire to deliver something really remarkable. Anyway, to conclude, it was nothing ground-breaking whatsoever but it was still one of the few animated features by DreamWorks which actually had a decent concept and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I was actually expecting quite a lot going into this film because it is a DreamWorks film and they do a lot of great films yet they do some rather bad ones too. I was both disappointed and un-surprised when I finished this film because it did seem like a very silly film but it was an animated film and I admit it did look fun for the family. Monsters Vs. Aliens is created by creators of Shrek, Madagascar, The Prince Of Egypt, Over The Hedge and many more. It probably is one of the worst DreamWorks animated films so far.


Actors like Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett and Kiefer Sutherland provide the voices within Monsters Vs. Aliens. Susan Murphy (Witherspoon) is hit by a meteorite on the day of her wedding, absorbing a substance called quantonium and growing into a giantess. Alerted to the meteorite crash, the military arrive and capture Susan. She is labeled a monster, renamed "Ginormica" by the government, and sent to a top-secret prison facility headed by General W.R. Monger (Sutherland) and containing other monsters: B.O.B. (Rogen), a brainless, indestructible gelatinous blob; Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Laurie), a mad scientist with the head and abilities of a cockroach; the Missing Link (Arnett), an amphibious fish-ape hybrid; and Insectosaurus, a colossal grub that is 300 feet larger than Susan. The monsters are forbidden to have any contact with the outside world; while the other monsters have been living contentedly with this lifestyle for the past 50 years, Susan feels incredibly isolated and wishes to return to her old life.


Overall, I didn't find Monsters Vs. Aliens really bad, I just didn't find it a very good film to watch and I thought it was more bad than good. I wouldn't recommend it but it wasn't awful. Won't succeed at getting any Oscar nominations. Hope DreamWorks do better next time.

A tribute to all those 50's black & white sci-fi horrors flicks, but now in cool 3-D-like computer graphics. And in full color.
The graphics are absolutely top-notch,but some of the sheen has been lost due to the fact that they're also something that I'm sure viewers are pretty much starting to become accustomed to by now. And teen-agers today, let alone the more targeted little kid audience, will barely, if at all, get any of the connections to Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman, Black Lagoon & the like.
Now don't get me wrong. I think that this film comes off as entertaining enough, but to some, it may feel like it came out a fews years too late.

Firstly watching this movie in IMAX 3D was a true movie experience, there were numerous times when I was so pleased with how this movie was presented. Once immersed, everything was as if you were watching the movie from the director’s chair – 3D wasn’t just a gimmick, it was used creatively. Ok, there are a couple of instances where it was just for fun, such as the bat and ball scene, but that was also there for comic effect. I appreciated just how well it was made in 3D when an on-screen character stands up into view, and for a split second I thought it was actually someone in the cinema.

However for all the delights of the 3D IMAX experience, the movie was just average, the laughs too few and far between, and movie references far too nerdy. You need both a good knowledge and appreciation of Science fiction movies from the past sixty years to get every reference.

Monsters Vs Aliens is also weirdly balanced in terms of characters. Unlike ‘The Incredibles’, which had a 2.4 children family arrangement, this movie wants you to like, well whom would you empathise with from the following list… A young woman who doesn’t initially value herself? A man-made brainless blob? A muscle-bound monster from the '50s that is now out of shape? A mad scientist?

I’m glad I saw this movie in 3D IMAX, it bodes well for the future use of 3D as a medium. But I certainly won’t be rushing out to buy the DVD. Now where did I put my copy of ‘The Incredibles’?!

NOTE: There is a scene after the credits, so do stay around to watch the entire film! The last clip certainly prevents a sequel, which isn't a bad thing!

Just saw it; the 2-d version (seeing the 3-d version tomorrow). Being a sci-fi movie/tv buff I probably got more out of it than a lot of people (though the BEVERLY HILLS COP bit was amusing but outta left field). References I picked up:

Red Dwarf
SUPERNOVA
ATTACK OF THE 50FT WOMAN
AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN
STAR TREK
THE THING
KRONOS (the giant robots reminded me a little of Plankton)
BACK TO THE FUTURE
MOTHRA
THE FLY
THE BLOB
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
DR STRANGELOVE
INVISIBLE MAN
WAR OF THE WORLDS
X-Files
IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
ET
THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD
HOUSE OF WAX
(You'd think they could of thrown a bone to The Outer Limits).

There were probably others I didn't pick up.

It's good, but not as good as KUNG FU PANDA. I expect the 3-d version to add some visual pizazz, but ultimately if a movie sucks, it's gonna suck regardless of whether it's in 2 dimensions or 3. I was surprised that they held themselves back from using Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need A Hero; it would have been so easy for them to succumb. MONSTERS VS ALIENS is likable enough, but can be considered a squandered opportunity.