Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

Genre

Animation | Comedy | Adventure

Directors

Rob Letterman | Conrad Vernon

Country

USA

Cast

Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Conrad Vernon, Rainn Wilson, Amy Poehler,  Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Jeffrey Tambor, Julie White, Renée Zellweger, John Krasinski, Ed Helms

Storyline

When a meteorite from outer space hits Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) and turns her into a giant monster, she is taken to a secret government facility where she meets a group of monsters also rounded up over the years. As a last resort, under the guidance of General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland), on a desperate order from The President (Stephen Colbert), the motley crew of Monsters is called into action to combat the aliens and save the world from imminent destruction.

Opinion

After the fantastic Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks is back with a brand new film. It isn't that fresh nor original though.

Monsters vs. Aliens has enough humour to entertain people of all ages, and relatively good CGI. However, it is tedious for most of the running time, having the film slowing down dramatically after a pretty good start.

The story written by co-directors Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon is anything but original. It is more of a sort of parody of science fiction films, although the task force of monsters gives a touch of originality. The plot is predictable in many places - however I doubt kids are that smart to guess in advance what's going to happen. The dialogue is never that brilliant, still there are some solid jokes that will make you laugh.

There isn't much of character development. Only the main character changes a little, the others remain unchanged.

Reese Witherspoon's Susan/Ginormica has some back story, but we really don't care about it, or her character much. The monsters, Seth Rogen's B.O.B., Hugh Laurie's Dr. Cockroach, and Will Arnett's the Missing Link, are the most interesting characters. Too bad they are not developed enough. Rogen's character is the one that steals the show. He is incredibly dumb - he doesn't even have a brain - but at the same time he is incredibly funny. The President is just like Stephen Colbert. Besides from the voice, the facial expressions are the same as well.

The aliens who want to conquer and destroy the earth are way too stupid to complete such a task. However, if such an event were to occur, I'd rather have to deal with dumb aliens instead of intelligent ones.

Quotes

Gallaxhar: Humans of Earth, I come in peace. You need not fear me, I mean you no harm. However, it is important to note that most of you will not survive the next 24 hours. The few of you that do survive will be enslaved and experimented upon. You should, in no way, take any of this personally. It's just business. So to recap, I come in peace, I mean you no harm, and you all will die. Gallaxhar out.