Cast: Voiced by Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie
Direction: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
The best way to enjoy this week's animated adventure, Monsters vs Aliens is to watch it at a cinema that's playing it in 3D. The film's about a feisty young woman Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who's struck by a meteorite on the day of her wedding to a local TV weatherman. The quantonium in that meterorite causes her to grow up to roughly 50 feet in height, following which her friends and family run off in the opposite direction out of fear, and the wedding's totally disrupted.
Nabbed by the government and taken to a top-secret facility where similar freaks of science have been impounded for years, Susan is renamed Ginormica. Here she meets four other inmates who will go on to become her best friends – a gelatinous blue blob with one eye named Bob; a half-ape half-fish named the Missing Link; a bug-headed mad scientist named Dr Cockroach; and Insectosaurus, a giant larva who can't talk. When a UFO lands in America, these monsters are mobilised to defend humanity against an evil alien overlord named Gallaxhar.
Doffing its hat by referencing a bunch of '50s B-movies including Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Blob, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Fly, this film delivers at least a few stunning set pieces, particularly the disastrous action scene on the Golden Gate Bridge.
The film's key themes of friendship, self-respect and female empowerment come through quite clearly; and the humor's quite basic – nothing half as smart as what we saw recently in either Madagascar 2 or Kung Fu Panda. And judged as a sci-fi animation film, Monsters vs Aliens doesn't have the innocent charm of Wall-E. Yet, it's fairly engaging because of its oddball characters and their interactions with each other. My favorite of the lot is the good-natured imbecile Bob, voiced by the very talented Seth Rogen, who has a hilarious scene with a plate of green pineapple jelly.
Watching the film in 3D with colorful stuff darting towards you, and characters zooming and zipping all around is really the best way to enjoy this movie. It's unlikely you'll remember it long after you've left the cinema, but while you're in there in your seat, chances are you won't be bored.
Three out of five for the new animation film Monsters vs Aliens; it's one for kids and adults alike.
Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
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