Monsters vs. Aliens
If you recall back in my Dreamworks Animation Lookback, I said that this movie was the first to be released in stereo-scopic 3-D instead of having the 3-D effects added on and I also said that it didn't do entirely well at the box office and received decent-to-mix reviews. But as a favor to that fan of mine I said previously, I decided to unleash my thoughts on it. Will this movie be of monstrous intensity or will this just be a waste of our time abducted? Let's find out.
The Story: Right off the bat, the story seems kind of original and interesting. It's about this woman named Susan Murphy who was hit by a meteorite on her wedding day and grows into a 50ft-tall giant and is placed in a remote facility where other monsters are kept. (Shot of one of the president's employees whispering to another, "Is he referring to Area Fifty...?" He is cut off by a blow dart that is launched into his neck and passes out.) Soon enough, Susan and her new friends, B.O.B., The Missing Link, Dr. Cockroach PhD, and Insectosaurus are given the opportunity for freedom when the President has them fight off a giant alien robot from space. Unknown to the heroes, the robot was sent by an evil alien named Gallaxhar who wants the essence of Susan's gianormous size, which he calls quantonium, so that he can make clones of himself to take over the Earth. In retrospect, it seems like it could be something interesting, but the story seems like 35% generic with cliche plot points and predictable outcomes. I wouldn't say that it's bad for an animated feature, it's just that it's kind of overdone. Although, I got to give the movie some credit from taking elements from classic monster movies like The Blob, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Attack of the 50ft woman. Those concepts are epic to put in an animated film; only it seems like they can be fit for better things than a generic storyline.
The Animation: The animation in Monsters vs. Aliens seems like something to be interested in and I got to say, it really is. I mean with the way that each character moves like B.O.B., Gallaxhar or heck even the robot, is all too impressive. The attention to detail is something to compliment. Now onto the character animation. Admittedly, it is creative as it is impressive with how they move. If I had to make any complaint, is that it seems a bit generic, especially in a world made by Dreamworks, but I'm willing to give it a pass since how impressive the animation is on the characters. As for the background animation, it is about as impressive as the character animation. With places like the remote monster facility and Gallaxhar's ship, it shows just what Dreamworks is capable of. Other places like Medesto feel like a generic city, but it seems good enough for this film. To put it into words, the animation is both impressive and decent enough for the movie.
The Characters: To be honest guys, it doesn't seem all that hard describing the characters since most of them are one-dimensional and whatever development they have can be just there for filler purposes. You have Susan Murphy who is an upbeat woman seeking to take a big step in her life with marriage, but after being unexpectedly hit with a meteor and growing to a 50ft-tall giant, her first reaction is that she wants to go back home and get back to normal size by any means, but would soon come to embrace her new potential in life. In short, she's the protagonist who has her own plans in life, but an unexpected series of events causes her to rethink them. As for the monsters, each of them have their own personality but as said before, they can be one-dimensional. Dr. Cockroach is the stereotypical mad-scientist, the Missing Link is the jock who is out of shape, but his pride clouds him from admitting it, B.O.B., who is the best character in my opinion, is the generic idiot but heart of the group and is the funniest character in the movie whether it be through Seth Rogen's lines or whatever kind of idiotic thing he does, and Insectosaurus seems like one of the more better ones as despite the fact that she is just a giant roaring insect, she has a personality of her own since she has sentience and is willing to help her friends. Ow, sorry, did I spoil the fact that Insectosaurus is a girl? Well, I thought I might since she turns into a butterfly with a feminine look As for the human characters, they're also one-dimmensional with little-to-no development, like General Monger is the head of the monster prison who takes great pride in sending his prisoners to save the world, the President is actually one of the more better characters since he has a lot of the funniest lines and moments of the movie, and Derek Dietel, Susan's fiancee, proves to be more of a dick than you would expect before the film came out in theaters. And then there's the villain of the film, Gallaxhar. Honestly, there isn't much to say about him other than he's a generic villainous alien who wants to take over the Earth. The film does have a scene where he explains his origins to Susan, but probably just for comedic purposes, they spoiled that scene with a joke where he keeps getting cut off every time he clones himself. Some of the characters here are okay and maybe even more funny than what you'd expect, but not all of them hit that mark.
Monsters vs. Aliens is an okay feature, but I can see why it's one of the more forgettable films of Dreamworks. It has a generic and predictable story, animation that's the same as Shrek, and characters with little to no development. I can understand why the Nickelodeon series was cancelled after just one season. The entire movie is just hammering down a tone that says that the movie is just for kids. If anything, I'd say that this falls in line as enjoyable between Home and Shark Tale. I will give the movie some credit for going in some directions to try and spice the movie up a bit, but I have to wonder, could they do better than this?
Story: 4/10
Animation: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Score: 5/10