Saturday, March 28, 2009

Monsters vs. Aliens [3-D]

Genre - Computer Animation/Sci-Fi
Year Released - 2009
Running Time - 94 minutes
Rated PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor, and mild language
Directed by Rob Letterman (who also directed Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (who also directed Shrek 2)
Written by Rob Letterman, (who also wrote Shark Tale) Conrad Vernon, Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky, (both of whom also wrote The Rocker) and also Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger (both of whom also wrote Kung Fu Panda)


Voices Include:
Reese Witherspoon as Susan/Ginormica
Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach Ph.D.
Seth Rogen as B.O.B.
Will Arnett as The Missing Link
Kiefer Sutherland as General W. R. Monger
Stephen Colbert as President Hathaway
Rainn Wilson as Gallaxhar


Rating: 4 Skulls



Plot Summary:
After Susan Murphy is struck by a meteor and grows to be 50-feet tall, she's captured by the government and shuttled to a secret compound where she meets a team of other monsters - soon to be Earth's only defense when an alien attacks.

Under orders from the president, Susan and her cohorts - Dr. Cockroach, The Missing Link, B.O.B. and Insectosaurus
set out to save the world.


Review:
Dreamworks pulled out their big guns making this picture - obviously looking to give Pixar a run for their money - and I must say that 3-D is continuing to get better and better! [I actually flinched, for the 1st time, when a guy was playing with a paddle ball - I totally forgot I was watching it in 3-D and when the ball came my way, I instinctively jerked back] :-)

The film opens with an amazing shot of a planet's rings and the destruction of a planet - we then follow a meteorite's trajectory to Earth, where Susan Murphy is about to get married. However, while preparing to head into the church, she notices said meteor heading her way, and while attempting to run from the meteor, she ends up running right to where it crashes. Crawling out from underneath the meteor, she dusts herself off and quickly heads into the church where her fiance [voiced by Paul Rudd] is waiting. As he prepares to kiss her, he lifts her veil, to discover that she is literally glowing - all of a sudden, Susan begins to grow to enormous proportions [there is a hilarious moment when, as she's growing, her garter belt snaps and knocks someone over]

Susan is quickly captured by the military and whisked off to a secret facility - which is so secret, that those who know of it are not even allowed to whisper its name. Here, Susan meets Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. [an obvious homage to The Fly] B.O.B. [an obvious homage to The Blob] The Missing Link [an obvious homage to both The Creature from the Black Lagoon and King Kong] and Insectosaurus [an obvious homage to Godzilla] and of course, Susan
is obviously an homage to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Here's the trailer:


This is a fun film that the whole family can enjoy!
[I took my 4-year-old daughter and she loved it as well] So, go enjoy the the film! :-)

Jason

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This was really good, pretty funny. I just brought both my kids to see this today, both loved it! Great review!

thebonebreaker said...

Mike,

I don't know how good my review really is ~ I just logged back on and realized that I never really finished it [I was rushing at the end, as dinner was ready at the time]

I never even talked about Gallaxhar or anything, and I never even mentioned that my favorite monster was The Missing Link [though B.O.B. was obviously the funniest]

Oh well, glad to hear that you and your kids enjoyed it as well! :-)

J

Cins said...

I just got back from this movie and I LOVED it. Its nice to see how much better the writing for Dreamworks has gotten since the Shrek films.
Incectasaurus was AWESOME.

thebonebreaker said...

Cins,

Yes, while I enjoy Shrek, Dreamworks has definitely improved, all around!

Glad that you enjoyed the film! :-)

J

Anonymous said...

Eat lead!!!

...

Oh. It actually eats lead.

...

I'm a brave president!


-------


Somebody change the terror alert to brown 'cause I need to change my pants.



Awesome, awesome, awesome, HILARIOUS movie!

The guy who did the voice of Gallaxar (I can't recall his name at this moment, but he was the sci-fi fan with glasses in House Of 1000 Corpses that Bill Moseley ended up turning into "fish-boy") did a GREAT job. I was really amazed, because he didn't sound like himself at all. He really went all-out and did his voice a whole new way and BECAME that character.

Also Keifer Sutherland was great as General W.R. Monger (hyuk). I love picture him doing all these weird lines with over-the-top deliveries after seeing him as the cool, calm, serious guy on 24 for so long.

I honestly thought that this was the very BEST animated children's film I've seen since Kung-Fu Panda, and this is even better than that flick.

I haven't been a huge fan of the change from traditional paint cel animation to all CGI that's become the norm ever since Toy Story, but I think, now, with 3D, the CGI stuff has really found its niche and come into its own, and with 3D I think it can really take kids' movies to a whole new level. Great, great stuff. I plan to see it again before it leaves theaters.

...

...

...

Would you like a gun?

thebonebreaker said...

William,

My favorite line from the film [and probably becasue I totally missed it in the trailers] was when Gallaxhar was surprised and uttered, "What the Flag Nog?" Not having heard that before, I laughed out loud!

and when B.O.B. got the gun - HA! :-)

I agree that CGI & 3-D are a perfect marriage - I have "heard" that both Dreamworks & Disney have claimed that all future Computer Animated films are going to be made in 3-D now [I do not know if that's true, but if so, that's cool with me!]

J