Alien Problem? Monster Solution.
Monsters vs Aliens
By Madeleine Chong
Director: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogan, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd
Official website: http://www.monstersvsaliens.com/
Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is having a very bad day. She's narrowly avoided being crushed by a meteorite. She's glowing before her vows, but that's just the Quantonium radiation. And she's got a growing problem that's sending her up through the chapel roof, leaving her man at the altar in a shower of splinters and debris. It's enough to reduce any bride to tears.
The troops turn up, and our poor heroine is sedated and trussed up like a turkey to be whisked away to a top secret facility where she inherits the codename, Ginormica, and meets a motley crew of monsters whom she must now accept as her new family.
Monsters vs Aliens may be billed as family-friendly fare, but the homage to schlocky B-Movie creature features and satirical references (shades of Kubrick's classic Dr. Strangelove abound in the War Room scenes) will probably fly over the heads of young tykes.
Movie buffs however, will chuckle with glee over precious bits like President Hathaway (the irrepressible Stephen Colbert) tinkering away on the keyboard, the tune itself a sly nod to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And a character name like General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) is simply spot-on in the tongue-in-cheek department.
To sweeten the animated movie-going experience, watch Monsters vs Aliens in 3-D. Those plastic glasses may be a novelty (and the butt of many lame cyber-futuristic jokes), but the larger than life action on screen is the real immersive deal, especially since the movie was shot entirely in 3-D. Windswept leaves, swirling planets, Ginormica's lustrous locks, everything seems to pop off the screen.
It's hard not to like the monster protagonists. More sweet than scary, they are brought to life by a star-studded cast who infuse their characters with personality, charm and quirkiness. There's B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the naive gelatinous blob who oozes warm, gooey feel-good vibes, the brilliantly eccentric scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), the wannabe macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link (Will Arnett), the gurgling gargantuan grub Insectosaurus and the towering Ginormica.
Spouting punchy one-liners the likes of "I think that Jello gave me a fake phone number," and "I'm hyperventilating...Does anybody have a giant paper bag?" Monsters vs Aliens delivers easy laughs, but the numerous jokes and action sequences feel randomly tacked on and directionless. The film pans out quite predictably, and falls short of the inspired combination of solid plot and seamless character integration so evident in previous DreamWorks productions such as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Wallace & Gromit.
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