Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters vs. Aliens is an entertaining wrestling match for young children, an ironic take on society for older adults, and a delicious homage to 1950s science fiction movies for geeky parents.

Monsters vs. Aliens is one of those movies that's pretty explicit about what you get: a fight involving two critters that sometimes blur together. The thing is, while an alien could be classified as a monster, a monster can't always be classified as an alien. Although these monsters are, well, monsters, they're OUR MONSTERS, good old American-bred monstrosities created from science and evolution gone awry: Insectosaurus (Mothra), Dr. Cockroach (a riff on The Fly voiced by Hugh Laurie), BOB (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes + The Blob voiced by Seth Rogen), The Missing Link (The Creature from the Black Lagoon voiced by Will Arnett), and of course Ginormica (Attack of the 50-foot Woman voiced by Reese Witherspoon). The origins of these science fiction creations were completely lost on the audience in the theater I went to.

The story revolves around Susan Murphy's transformation into Ginormica on her wedding day. It's a thrilling tale of female empowerment – literally, as Susan transforms into an enormously powerful giantess – that seems more appropriate to a 1950s setting. After her transformation Ginormica becomes a pawn of the government, working for a secret agency dedicated to defeating supernatural threats. In other words: Hellboy and the BPRD. When a giant robot (sent by aliens, natch) shows up to destroy the Earth, it's up to this completely untrained and clueless team of monsters to save the world.

The movie is rife with in-jokes about classic science fiction movies, the current state of the U.S. government, and the complexities of global conquest that movies tend to gloss over (how does an alien overlord tell his clones apart?). The action comes fast and furious and in three-dimensions, the violence is definitely not for kids, and at various points things blow up. Although this is something of an action comedy, Monsters vs. Aliens plays for keeps.

The characters' lip-synching seemed off, but that might have been the theater I was in. Some of the characters were underdeveloped: BOB is a laugh-machine, but Link and Cockroach have little to do, especially in light of Ginormica's powers. And everyone conveniently ignores the fact that there's a bigger-than-even-Ginormica Insectosaurus wandering the countryside…but to go down that path is to question the basic premise of the movie.

Monsters vs. Aliens is a real treat for monster movie fans. For everyone else, it's a serviceable 3-D roller coaster ride. The kids in the audience (and it was almost all kids and parents) weren't bored, but they weren't laughing as much as my wife and I.