Monsters vs. Aliens Review

by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT optonline DOT net)
April 1st, 2009
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
    (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

    CAPSULE: This film has a little something for
    the kids in the audience and a little something
    for the adults, but not so much both can enjoy.
    The film builds a story of cute monsters
    defending Earth from ugly aliens. A disenchanted
    young woman finds herself first turned into a
    monster and then called upon to save the Earth.
    The story is largely built from pieces taken from
    old science fiction films as if they were Lego
    blocks. For me they were more fun where they got
    them. Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) or 5/10

I love films and I enjoy when I see a film reference in a film.
Also I love science fiction films, particularly from the 1950s.
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS has a treasure trove of references to monster
movies and alien movies. There were truly an awesome number of in-
joke allusions aimed right at me (in 3D yet). They were all on
target. It is just the movie that missed me. They started with a
standard feminist empowerment theme. On top of this they took a stereotypical Toho plot--aliens are invading and monsters have to
band together to save the Earth. And then the filmmakers threw in
one action sequence after another. The characters were mostly
jokes based on ideas from the 1950s. The filmmakers literally
designed their monsters to be jokes. One was basically the
creature from the Black Lagoon but his origin was borrowed from THE
BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. One was a modeled on THE FLY, but his
origin was borrowed from SHE DEVIL. Each is good for one laugh but
they have no interesting personality. It is perhaps even more
important in animation to give characters personalities to engage
the audience.

Appropriately enough for a new 3D movie the film comes polarized.
The simplistic plot is probably too childish to be appreciated by
the adults, but the kids would probably like it. At the same time
the film's many homages to old science fiction films will be
enjoyable to adults who grew up seeing the original movies on TV,
but the kids who have not seen the films will be blind to them.

Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) is engaged and soon to
marry Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd), the town weatherman. Derek thinks
the two of them would make a good team, but he insists on being the
coach. On her wedding day she will be handed by fate something old
(lack of consideration from her chauvinistic fiancÂ<UTF16-201A>), something new (about 44 feet of new growth), something borrowed (a set of
monsters from the 1950s), and something blue (he's B.O.B. the
Blob). Just before the wedding a large meteor with strange energy
(think kryptonite) falls directly on her. Not only is she not
crushed (and not surprised that she was not crushed), but also she
has absorbed the weird energy. So she glows and she grows like the Fifty-Foot Woman. The marriage is off, and instead she finds
herself in a huge fortified government bunker where the government
keeps its monsters. There is B.O.B the Blob (Seth Rogen),
Dr. Cockroach with the head of an insect (Hugh Laurie), the
aforementioned lagoon creature (Will Arnett), and a Mothra-like
giant caterpillar.

Meanwhile on Earth land aliens who were tracking the meteor and
want it for their nefarious purposes. The government decides to
use its monsters to fight the aliens. This affords the script opportunities for two giant battles between monsters and aliens:
one on the Golden Gate Bridge and one inside the alien spaceship.

The animation is generally good, but in an odd way DreamWorks
animation seems to be better for sympathetic human characters than
for others who are less so. Characters like W. R. Monger seem to
be stiff in just the way Lord Farquaad was in SHRECK. Susan seems
more liquid in her motion.

The jokes are good; the animation is fine; the 3-D is awesome. But
still the film fails to make a monster or an alien as powerful a
character as the little clownfish Marlin from FINDING NEMO. And
lacking good characters makes MONSTERS VS. ALIENS no more than just
a diverting little film and nothing more. I rate MONSTERS VS.
ALIENS a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 5/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0892782/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/monsters_vs_aliens/>

Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper

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