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Friday, March 27, 2009
‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ frenzied but fun
While I watched Monsters vs. Aliens, I thought it was visually dazzling, fast, funny and even delightfully clever.
So why can’t I remember much about it only a few days after seeing it?
I had a lot of fun in the theater, but after it was over, I felt like I had been zapped by a very slow-working version of the memory eraser from Men in Black. I remember certain scenes, characters and jokes well, but as a whole, the movie has faded from view, like the Invisible Man.
My usual beef with DreamWorks’ animated movies is that they emphasize gags over character and story, which is what happened with lesser entries like the Madagascar films and Bee Movie. Occasionally, DreamWorks overcomes that and produces a winner like Over the Hedge or Kung Fu Panda.
Monsters vs. Aliens falls somewhere in between those extremes. It’s good, solid fun that would have been even better had the filmmakers not overstuffed the movie. The central character is Susan (Reese Witherspoon) who gets struck by a meteorite on her wedding day. At the altar, she finds herself growing and growing (with newly white hair) until she’s just shy of 50 feet tall. Before she can say “Fee, fi, fo fum,” the military is tying her down and whisking her away to a top-secret facility.
Turns out the military has been capturing monsters for years. Other guests at the facility include the mad genius Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), the amphibianesque Missing Link (Will Arnett), the smart-aleck B.O.B (Seth Rogen), who resembles one of the Pac-Men monsters, and the massive Insectosaurus, who’s even bigger than Susan, now stuck with the ungainly name Ginormica.
The government has been storing the creatures away for military purposes, and wouldn’t you know it, a threat arrives in the form of Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), a dastardly alien who wants the power source that turned Susan into a giant.
That’s an awful lot of plot, and that’s the main problem with Monsters vs. Aliens. It tries too hard.
To its credit, the movie does have more heart than some DreamWorks films. However, the story piles on so many characters, sidekicks, subplots, and razzle-dazzle effects, it creates sensory overload. It felt good at the time, but I came crashing down from the rush.
Kung Fu Panda juggled a lot of supporting players too, but it never lost sight of its central character, and Monsters vs. Aliens does, to a certain extent. Susan makes a good heroine, but all the sidekicks and action scenes keep getting in her way. It doesn’t help that Gallaxhar is a dull villain who never seems all that threatening.
As for the much-ballyhooed 3D effects, they’re well done, but I wouldn’t say the 3D is essential to the viewing experience the way it was for The Polar Express. The main action scene in San Francisco, however, is a blast that justifies the glasses (and the higher price).
Monsters vs. Aliens gets the job done and is an enjoyable ride, but I can’t escape the feeling that all that razzmatazz trapped a great movie inside this good movie that I began to forget right away.
GRADE: B
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