‘Monsters Inc.,’ it is not. Despite being on top of the box office this past weekend, ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ fails to capture the interest of its audience.
While seeing in the film in 3-D will win over the kids, adults will be able to tell that it is merely a selling point for the mediocre computer-animated feature. Both 3-D and computer animation have done better.
Even with an all-star cast of voices, ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ seems to fall short. Reese Witherspoon sounds bored as the voice of Susan Murphy, who is renamed Ginormica after being hit by a meteor on her wedding day and growing forty feet. She is not only miscast but also overused. The title of the movie promises more than one ‘monster.’
After being transported to a government facility, Susan meets the other monsters, who are far more interesting than she, even though its characters are not fleshed out. All of the monsters pay homage to the sci-fi staples such as The Blob, the 50 Foot Woman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. Too bad this will all be lost on its core audience.
The rag-tag group under wraps by the government includes mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a hybrid ape/fish named The Missing Link (Will Arnett), the adorable Insectasaurus and the fan favorite B.O.B. (Seth Rogen).
Rogen certainly has a future in animation, as his voice is perfectly suited for the lovable but brainless, blue blob. His character provides some much needed comic relief to the otherwise dull and clunky plot. A highlight is a scene with B.O.B. asking a plate of green jello out on a date and later proclaiming his love for her and her chunks of pineapple.
After too much rising action, the group of monsters is poised to battle the alien invader Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson), who is set on destroying Earth. The film is only an hour and thirty minutes, but it takes forever to get to any action. The over-hyped first battle sequence between Gallaxhar’s giant robot and Susan through San Francisco could have potentially been a visual accomplishment, but didn’t add up and was tiresome.
Even the final battle between the monsters and aliens was anti-climactic. The film really should be named ‘Monsters vs. Alien,’ since there is only one (lame) alien. The writing falls short of Wilson’s high expectations.’ It was hard to understand what exactly Gallaxhar is after and what his motives are. Maybe the writers were too enamored with B.O.B. to even care that the plot does not really make sense. The moral of the story is predictable and stale.
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