Monstres contre Aliens

The President of the United States (Stephen Colbert): "Boys, set the terror level at code brown, 'cause I need to change my pants."

Monsters vs. Aliens is my first 3-D movie—not really, but it is the first time I have felt the process worked within a film as an integral part of the artistic process. It supports the science fiction, titillates at times, but most of all gives the illusion of reality. DreamWorks can be proud of this addition to the pantheon of excellent contemporary animations (dominated by Pixar) that use its Shrek as a touchstone for memorable characters wedded to mature themes and superior techniques.

Monsters vs. Aliens is also a family film in the truest sense: Elders to tots can enjoy the visual delights of 3-D outer space and observe a young bride-to-be Susan Murphy (voice of Reese Witherspoon) grow by a radiation accident into the heroic role of Ginormica, a woman literally too big for her britches. She must assert her independence from a self-centered fiancé and convince family, friends, and the world that an out-sized woman (read overachieving feminist) has a place in the male world, a superior place at that.

A strength of this sweet film is its use of ironic, sometimes sardonic, language to satirize just about everyone, from the president (see the opening quotation, not great humor but entertaining) to the makers of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, whose feel good '70's glow is ripe for 21st-century cynicism, to memories of such chestnuts as The Blob and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The hip,loving mood of the film is exemplified by the alien's proclamation at invasion time, "Humans of Earth, my quest has led me to your planet. Give it to me now! You should, in no way, take any of this personally. It's just business."

When I first heard of Monsters vs. Aliens I literally went giddy. A 50's B-movie revival! Stephen Colbert as the President! Hugh Laurie as a cockroach! I mean, it's called Monsters vs. Aliens!!!

What I got was a mildly good movie. I mean, there were some nice gags in the Strangelove- lite War Room, and some great lines from BOB, but it really left me wanting more. As a whole, the film never got to the comical heights of Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, or even Shrek 2. There are times in the movie where you know that they are going completely random to try and get some laughs, but fail pretty badly.

Besides comedy, the story itself is pretty predictable. From the moment you meet the monsters you know what the moral of the story, and you know pretty much how the whole film will play out.

But it is not a bad film. Not at all. It's good, but not great. What IS great is the 3D. Me, I've never really warmed to 3D, but they use it here in a completely different sense. Monster's vs Alien's 3D is not about shouting "OMG I CAN TOUCH HIS BEARD!!", but more about perspective. And hair. I'm sorry but it's worth seeing just for Ginormica's (Susan's) hair alone.

So basically, it's fun - but not as fun as it should have been. And take it from me: even if you're cynical about 3D; see it in 3D. It's worth the ticket price alone.

Let's get this out of the way first: I'm not a huge fan of DreamWorks Animation. Usually consisting of nothing more than unfunny pop culture gags, I think the majority of their films are mediocre at best, with the only ones that I really enjoyed being the first Shrek and Kung Fu Panda. The trailers for Monsters vs. Aliens did get me interested, though, and the voice cast seemed pretty impressive. Even so, I was still fairly skeptical about how it would finally turn out. Now, having seen the film, I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised.

There isn't a whole lot in the way of story and character development, but suffice it to say, it serves its purpose. What makes Monsters vs. Aliens such an enjoyable film is how it works as a comedy. The pop culture references are still present, but I found them to be more clever and funny this time around, and in much smaller amounts. I was smiling through virtually the entire film, and had about 5 or 6 hard laugh-out-loud moments throughout. As expected, I was also very impressed by the voice cast in this movie. Hugh Laurie does a fantastic job as the voice of the sophisticated (though mildly insane) Dr. Cockroach, and most of the laughs are generated by Seth Rogen's performance as B.O.B.. Even Reese Witherspoon helps you feel some sympathy for her character near the beginning of the film, and Stephen Colbert does a surprisingly solid job as President Hathaway.

The 3D, while not used as effectively as it was in Coraline, is still one of the more impressive showcasings that I've seen, and that's largely due to the film's incredible action sequences. Seriously, this is some of the best action that I've seen in an animated film; as far as I'm concerned, it's right up there with that of The Incredibles.

Overall, I found Monsters vs. Aliens to be a surprisingly entertaining film, with clever and witty dialogue, as well as terrific action. I'm not usually in favor of sequels, but if they're able to keep it as balanced and charming, I would honestly like to see this become a successful, long-running franchise. Nice job, folks at DreamWorks Animation.

Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is a woman who got upsized by a meteorite on her wedding day. B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) is a gelatinous, brainless creation after an experiment on a tomato went wrong. Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie) is a scientist who turned himself into a hybrid. The Missing Link (Will Arnett) is a creature found frozen and revived. And giant mutant larva Insectosaurus is a product of nuclear testing. The government has secretly collected these monster and now they need them to fight alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson).

DreamWorks has gathered all the iconic 50s sci-fi B-movie creations, and formed a pretty cohesive team. It's surprising that the limited backstory allowed the characters to gel so well right off the bat. It's probably due the fact that these characters seem so familiar to us. It also helps that the actors do some great voice work.

The story itself has one major problem. The movie is basically split in two parts. The pacing slows down dramatically in the middle after a high intensity fight at the start. However the comedy works well especially the brainless BOB. I think this team has good potential.

After a rather slow beginning in which a girl gets proposed to, the movie picks up when she gets turned into a giant on her wedding day and from that on the film is frenetically comic. Like most Dreamworks cartoons, this one can feel like it's trying too hard (Dreamworks has a Looney-Tunes-on-speed approach that can be a little exhausting), but at its best the movie is wildly funny.

The story and characters are admittedly generic, but pleasantly so. But there is a certain annoying laziness to the plotting. The death of one character is treated as sad even though the audience is given no reason to care, and the female empowerment angle is a bit on the silly side. The plot is at a kid's movie level, even though the humor is funniest enough for this adult.

Not a great cartoon, but a very enjoyable one.