Monsters vs. Aliens
Starring the voice talent of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, and Rainn Wilson
Rated PG for sci-fi action, crude humor and mild language
Appropriate for all ages
When the Earth falls under the threat of an alien attack, the American military turns its secret weapon, a group of monsters that have been hidden away since the 1950s, to save it.
This is one of those films that has a fun title, and the premise couldn’t have been hard to put together. Since everyone loves monster movies and alien flicks, then all DreamWorks Animation would have to do is throw in some 3-D, a funny trailer, and a Super Bowl ad, and it should be a home run. Reviews from folks like me won’t even matter. But I’ll give my opinion anyways.
With the exception of the first two Shrek films and Kung Fu Panda (and possibly Madagascar 2), DreamWorks Animation keeps churning out pretty movies with poor story-telling and writing. Sure there are some good jokes here, and the voice talent is stellar, but the words coming out of their mouths and the combination of all of the ridiculous elements make for a very forgettable experience that will do nothing more than serve as a 90-minute babysitter.
Don’t get me wrong, complete believability is not important in a film like this, but some things are just too silly. Like a house-sized meteor crashing into a woman and her only having a slightly tarnished dress. Or that same dress actually stretching to fit her when she increases her size by a hundred times. OK – I realize it’s a kids film, but they could’ve created a better device for this, like maybe her wearing the church or a tree for covering her bits and pieces. After all, if I gained just 20 lbs I could use my pants button as a weapon. Or maybe when the blob Bob declares that the Jello mold gave him a fake phone number. Couldn’t they have come up with a better joke than that? DreamWorks needs to spend the time with a more rigorous and thorough story-telling process that fixes this and many other stupid issues throughout. C-
I suggest in the future you take a child with you the next time you go see an animated movie. You should then interview the child and then report on both of your opinions. I’ve been to the movies with my kids (Ratatouille, Wall-E and Coraline) that critics like you ranted and raved about and you ought to know you wasted my dime with your recommendation.
I don’t go to these kinds of movies for myself so please take kids opinions into consideration when reviewing animated movies.