The title, Monsters vs. Aliens, promises a lot for fans of cheesy science fiction. Monsters, aliens and fighting are three things that can guarantee fun for those who are young and young at heart. However brilliant the title might be, the movie fails to live up to it.
On the day of Susan Murphy's wedding to dopey weatherman Derek Dietl, the young bride-to-be is hit by a meteorite, causing her to grow into a 50-foot woman. This leads to her being immediately captured by the government and sent to a secret facility with other monsters, including The Missing Link, Dr. Cockroach, Insectosaurus and B.O.B, a blue blob of goo. Susan joins the team just in time, as an alien invasion led by Gallaxhar has come to America, and the president has called on the team of monsters to be earth's defenders.
PDI/Dreamworks Animation, the creator of the film, has had a reputation of being something of a second-rate animation studio, especially when compared to their rival Pixar's track record of consistently great movies. This reputation is at least halfway unfair, as both companies have made tremendous steps in the art of animation. Monsters vs. Aliens, in particular, is a milestone in that regard. The battle scenes in the movie are thrilling and beautiful, rivaling some of the work done in live action. The film is also presented in 3-D, and the extra depth to the image does add some extra fun to the movie.
However, the reason the company has the reputation it does is made clear by the characters and writing. Other than being mildly clever parodies of 1950s monster movies, none of the characters are particularly memorable, and a lot of jokes fall flat. The fight scenes end up being the only part of the film worth watching. The constant insistence on using A-List names for the characters' voices also leads to some awkward moments, as the talent ranges from people who can do voice acting (Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie) to those who can't (Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland). Most upsetting is Stephen Colbert as the president of the United States, which on paper sounds like a brilliant idea, but ends up with no funny lines.
Monsters vs. Aliens could have been a fun time at the movies, but it is undone by some pretty bad writing. Fortunately, the 3-D and the animation makes it not a complete waste of time.
3 Culture
Ethan Goldsmith
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