Dreamworks Studios’ newest animated film Monsters Vs. Aliens boasts an all-star cast, but the technology involved takes center stage. Call it a gimmick, a way to sell more tickets, to cut down on piracy, whatever you like. In the end, the film is actually important because of the fact that it helps usher in a new era in viewing movies. I can’t speak for myself, but I’m sure that if you see it in the old (does anyone feel as strange reading that as I do writing it?) 2D format, a fun time will still be had at the Cineplex.
Susan (Reese Witherspoon) is the unlikely heroine who on her wedding day experiences an extraordinary event. When she is struck by a falling meteorite infused with a rare and powerful element called quantonium, she grows to an enormous size. Dubbed “Ginormica” by the feds, she is absconded and imprisoned in a secret warehouse with other misfits like herself. There is the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie) who is a half human half roach hybrid, B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) a gelatinous and very much brainless mass brought to life in a bizarre scientific experiment, The Missing Link (Will Arnett) A creature-from-the-black-lagoon-like Lizard man bent on scaring the world’s most popular beaches, and a skyscraper sized mutant larvae, insectosaurus. These oddities have been deemed as monsters by the U.S. government and have remained in captivity for nearly 50 years.
When evil alien lord Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) arrives on earth bent on retrieving the quantonium and destroying the world, the monsters get their chance to regain their social standing in society by helping stop the alien invasion.
As you can imagine, this is all too much for Susan to handle. But as the story progresses and her character becomes more and more confident in herself, her powers seem more like an afterthought than a necessity for beating the aliens. It’s a story about having confidence in one’s self no matter what society or in Susan’s case her hair-brained fiancé thinks of her. Quite honestly, Susan represents female empowerment, and young girls will no doubt find her character endearing and worth rooting for. For adults, there are just enough spoofs and references to classic sci-fi movies, including a hilarious jab at the Stephen Spielberg classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind to keep you entertained
At times, the plot of the film is vaguely reminiscent of Pixar’s Monsters Inc, and believe me it’s pretty simplistic. The animation of the movie clearly takes center stage here as it is the first cartoon to be filmed in “tru3D”. The 13th Ave. Warren Theater currently offers the film in 3D. Adults may find it distracting, but to your little ones, I’m sure they won’t notice or much care about the difference in the “old fashioned” 2D.
3/5
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