Monsters Vs Aliens: Movie Review

Monsters Vs Aliens: Movie Review

Rating: 5/10 for adults, 7/10 for kids.
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie and Keifer Sutherland.
Directors: Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon.

Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is getting ready for her wedding when she is hit by a meteorite infused with alien energy. Shortly after she turns into a giant woman 15 metres tall, bursting through the roof of the chapel and causing her guests to run in terror.
Now a monster, Susan is quickly captured by General W.R. Monger (Keifer Sutherland) and taken to the government's classified building in Area Fifty-something.
Dubbed "Ginormica," she joins four other monsters also seized over the years: Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist whose attempt to give himself the survival skills of a roach had unintended side-effects; B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) a gooey brainless blob created from a genetic engineering experiment gone wrong; The Missing Link (Will Arnett), an amphibious lizard-man; and Insectosaurus, an enormous giant bug herded around by bright lights.

The five monsters remain locked up until alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) arrives on Earth to retrieve the meteor's transforming energy and take over the world. After a military attack against Gallaxhar fails, General W.R. Monger and The President (Stephen Colbert) decide the only course of action is to deploy the five monsters to defeat Gallaxhar's robot probe and his army of clones. The gang are released and set out on a journey of self discovery and laughs as they band together to save the world.
Excited by attending a 3D Dreamworks movie, there was a moment of panic when I arrived and was handed the 3D specs. Smaller than the head-enveloping IMAX frames, it was uncertain that they would fit over my everyday glasses. Thank goodness for rectangular frames - if I had owned hipster horn-rimmed glasses there would have been 90 minutes of blurry screen action instead of the crystal-clear special effects I enjoyed.
(Mental note: when attending a 3D screening make sure to put contacts in.)
Monsters vs Aliens opens with an amazing view of the universe, packing a powerful 3D punch, and the special effects novelty stays around long enough for Susan's hair to be somewhat more captivating than normal. After this the effects settle down somewhat - there are a few moments of 3D for 3D's sake, including a pingpong ball - but the kids had such a lot of fun with it there's no point in being picky.
As an adult, the fun mainly lies with the references to the creatures from 1950s horror movies. Susan is clearly the 50 Foot Woman (or rather in her case, the 49 foot, 11 inch woman), B.O.B is the BLOB, and The Missing Link is uncannily similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Unsurpisingly, this novelty wears off fairly quickly, leaving you desperate for the odd pop culture reference. I laughed out loud twice, which was a disappointing result when you consider the fun of another Dreamworks production, Shrek.
On the other hand the kids in the audience seemed captivated from the get-go. This may have been due more to the 3D effects than the storyline, but at least they weren't bored. Before the feature started the cinema was full of chatter, kicking seats, and calls for mum to sit in the middle. Once the lights went down there was complete silence, apart from an irresistable need at the beginning to name the planets - "Look there's Saturn!"
Gallaxher starts off as a comedic bad guy, but it's worth mentioning that in the second half of the movie he becomes slightly more menacing. Still, there weren't any really scary bits, and only one child was overwhelmed (three times). If your child is likely to cry at a friendly looking evil alien it might be best to stay away, but in terms of octopus-formed bad guys, Gallaxher doesn't come close to the truly terrifying Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Monsters vs Aliens has all the ingredients of a good kids' flick- a band of misfits finding themselves, a scary bad guy who isn't too scary, a moral (your true friends will accept you for who you are) and a nod to Axle F. However as an adult, be prepared for the slightly unengaging characters and a predictable plot.