Review of Monsters vs Aliens (2009) by Hari R — 27 Jan 2013

For what it is, it's a fun enough movie. I like the types of movies this is supposed to be an homage/parody to, but it's just not a very good homage/parody. ParaNorman is of a similar vein, but that one pulled it off much better. But I digress. There isn't the same sense of grand scope that Godzilla had, or the sense of wonder that The Day the Earth Stood Still had, or tension that the Universal classics had. Things just sort of happen, and there's no real feeling of fun or importance to any of it. The aliens aren't interesting at all, and the plot is even thinner than the movies it references. Honestly it all felt a little bland, and really shows a greatly missed opportunity.

But hey, it's a Dreamworks flick, it's a kids movie, so how's it fair on that end? Well, eh, it's not their worst, but it's not their best either. This was the start of them going into some more action-oriented stuff, but it's not done as well as it later would be in stuff like Megamind or How to Train Your Dragon. The comedy is mostly hit or miss, and the misses do seem to outweigh the hits.

Really it just skims by at a 3 star rating, because it is quite mediocre. However, there were some things I really liked. I liked seeing things from the monsters perspective, and I liked seeing how they feel like outsiders. While the action scenes aren't great, there were a couple that were still pretty fun. The comedy may be mostly miss, but when it hit it hit hard. Rogen in particular deserves huge praise here. I was cracking up at pretty much anything B.O.B. said.

Overall it's worth checking out if you want some fluff, and it'll kids will probably get a kick out of it, but really if you don't see it your not going to be missing much.