Monsters vs. Aliens

Movie Information

The Story: A group of retro monsters from an earlier era are called upon to save the Earth from an alien invasion. The Lowdown: A consistently -- if mildly -- amusing, creative animated take on '50s sci-fi that works well enough without being particularly distinctive.
Score:

Genre: Animated Sci-Fi Comedy
Director: Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2)
Starring: (Voices of) Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson
Rated: PG

The basic idea of making a spoof of 1950s science-fiction movies using the quintessential 1950s gimmick of 3-D is, in itself, inspired. The idea of filling it with cross-references to 1950s-‘60s sci-fi movies from the well known—The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Fly (1958)—to the cultish—Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)—to the esoterically awful—The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)—is a nice nod to film and SF nerds. There’s even something sweetly nostalgic about the movie’s story line: the idea that the government has had all these out-of-date monsters locked away for about 50 years. The voice casting is surprisingly good, especially Rainn Wilson (a performer I generally find more obnoxious than appealing) as the evil Gallaxhar. Nonetheless, though the individual components suggest it should be better, the results are rarely more than pleasant.

It’s hard to pinpoint what’s wrong with Monsters vs. Aliens, because there’s nothing really wrong with it, but there is a lot that isn’t quite right. It’s a little too much like the film is going through the motions—hitting all the right notes, but without much in the way of feeling.

The early scene where Susan (Reese Witherspoon), having been exposed to a meteorite, grows to nearly 50-foot tall proportions and is subdued by the army is a lovingly crafted riff on Bert I. Gordon’s Amazing Colossal Man. Most of the other nods to old SF don’t have the same feeling. They fall prey—at least slightly—to the unfortunately common syndrome of the post-modern penchant for making pop-culture references in place of actual gags. At least here, it’s a little more of a test than usual (the Net nerds seem to have missed the Colossal Man references altogether); but that doesn’t make it any funnier, just a little cooler. Probably the single funniest thing in the film—apart from Wilson’s intergalactic bad guy—is the idea that an alien spacecraft would have a computer (voiced by Amy Poehler) that sounds like a dead ringer for the woman who informs viewers at Regal theaters that “concessions are available in the lobby.”

Kids aren’t likely to find any of this a problem. As a story on the kid level, there’s certainly nothing wrong with the film. It is pretty typical/serviceable stuff, complete with the usual “believe in yourself” tropes and a dash of female empowerment. The movie finds the suddenly enlarged Susan being imprisoned with monsters from the ‘50s-‘60s—a blob called B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a mad scientist with a cockroach head called Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a vaguely (very vaguely so as not to alarm Universal’s legal department) Creature from the Black Lagoon creature called “The Missing Link” (Will Arnett) and a Mothra knockoff called Insectosauraus (remonkeyed so as not to alarm the Toho legal department). As soon as the Earth is invaded by aliens, however, the government finds a use for the monsters. Apart from the personal stories used to flesh this out, that’s the plot, and it works fine for what it is.

At bottom, I liked the movie well enough. I found it consistently clever and that it maintained a pleasantly giddy sense of fun. In a year, I’ll have only the vaguest sense of ever having seen it. Make of that what you will. Rated PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language.

SHARE
About Ken Hanke
Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Author of books "Ken Russell's Films," "Charlie Chan at the Movies," "A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series," "Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker."

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

3 thoughts on “Monsters vs. Aliens

  1. Vince Lugo

    I think Dreamworks Animation peaked with Shrek 2 and nothing they’ve done since has been anywhere near as good (I was even slightly disappointed with Kung Fu Panda due to the final showdown not being as epic as it should have been), but I think MVA is a step in the right direction. If they can do more stuff like this and less stuff like the thoroughly mediocre Madagascar, they may yet get their groove back.

  2. Ken Hanke

    Shrek 2 was definitely the high point. I liked Kung Fu Panda better than this one, though. What I don’t get about them is that they seem disinclined to make a feature centered on the Madgascar penguins. I’m not that wild about them myself, but they’re clearly the big draw in that series — and the short film they were in that was attached to (I think) the Wallace and Grommit movie tended to rate higher with viewers than the feature.

  3. Andrew Leal

    As far as I can gather, it’s partially because they have “The Penguins of Madagascar” airing on Nickelodeon as a series, presuming that they can get more mileage out of a series that they can stretch out and rerun than in a single feature. Though I wouldn’t be too surprised on that score either. The new series focuses on the penguins, utterly abandons the original main characters (who I suppose are still in the wilds somewhere), and has the lemurs as their “wacky neighbors.”

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.