MONSTERS VS. ALIENS (2009)
Tagline: The Weird Will Save The World.
(Animation, Sci-Fi, Love Letter To The 50s) [PG]
I'm not gonna kid you, Mr. President. These are dark times.
The odds are against us. We need a Hail Mary pass! We need raw power! We
need... monsters!
In this one, an alien named Gallaxhar decides to send a probe down to earth to
determine where a meteorite made from “plantonium” landed. What Gallaxhar
doesn’t know is that the “plantonium” has already enlarged small-town
California girl Susan Murphy to an ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN size, after she
comes close to it shortly before her wedding. Gallaxhar also doesn’t know that
earth is prepared to defend itself even if conventional weapons fail. It’s all
part of an X-file, wrapped in a cover-up and deep-fried in a paranoid
conspiracy. Can earth’s monsters overcome Gallaxhar’s army of clones and robot
titans?
First off, yes this is an animated movie, but it’s clearly meant to be a love
letter to the 50s in general. We get references either via characters or scenes
that bring to mind ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON,
THE FLY, THE BLOB, and even THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN. All this from the studio
that brought us animated icons from THE CROODS, MINIONS, and SHREK to name a
few. This movie cost $175 million to make and as of 2009 when it came out, was
the most expensive animated movie made by Disney or Pixar.
Where this movie succeeds in the script. It’s incredible and I really liked the
animation for anything that involved Gallaxhar, his robot probes and even his
clone army are pretty freakin rad. I also liked most of this cast. Reese Witherspoon does a great job voicing
Susan Murphy. Reese is probably best known for her role in WALK THE LINE. Rainn
Wilson best known for THE MEG and the TV show “The Office”, does a great job as
Gallaxhar. Will Arnett is solid as The Missing Link. Actually, Arnett is great
in every animated role he does. We even get Paul Rudd voicing Derek (who is a
jerk in the movie). Paul might be most famous for GHOSTBUSTERS right now. Hugh
Laurie from the TV show “House” voices Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. The list goes on and
on.
If I have any critiques it’s probably in a few of the designs. While Dr.
Cockroach, B.O.B. (who is just a blob), and “Ginormica” (Susan) are fine… The
Missing Link and Insectasaurus look terrible. The Missing Link looks like just
a really sad effort at doing something that resembles THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, and Insectasaurus is a giant goofy-looking moth kaiju that is
essentially an insult to TOHO and Mothra. I won’t say the design work ruined
the movie, but a few tweaks and maybe even a few more cool monster
introductions would have been amazing. Maybe someday we will get an official
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS 2: DOUBLE CREATURE FEATURE or something like that. By the
way, this movie was almost named “CREATURE FEATURE”.
Overall I still love this thing overall and I really appreciate the love that
Dreamworks put into it. Because execution on the actual idea is a big thing for me,
the best I can do is a 6 out of 7 on the merits though. The idea offered so
much more than we got. It’s like giving a cat toy that blows your mind
and hoping they can have a blast with it…but then they only mess with the box,
and the toy gets lost under the couch. With a name like MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, this should have been a home run on all levels.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF DREAMWORKS ANIMATION AND ARE
USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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Because no one should die buttonless.
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