I'm sure it sounded like a good idea in the pitch: "Let's take the icons of 50s sci-fi movies — the 50-ft woman, The Fly, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Blob — team them up with Rodan or something, then have them fight an alien warlord and his robot minions! We could get some hot voice talent, write some jokes and spice it up with some 3D." That would work, right? Not so much, it turns out.
On the day of her wedding, Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is struck by a radioactive meteorite, causing her to grow nearly 50 feet in height. Before the very eyes of her horrified groom, Derek (Paul Rudd), a military strike team moves in to secure her for transport.
In a secret military compound, Susan meets her fellow "monsters": mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a half-man, half-fish called The Missing Link (Will Arnett), a dim-witted gelatinous blob named B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) and a giant grub called Insectosaurus. All have been locked away for 50 years under the watchful eye of General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland). Befitting her new status as a monster, Monger gives Susan the unfortunate moniker, "Ginormica".
Susan appears fated to a lifetime of poking and prodding, that is until Earth is beset by the evil alien warlord Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson). When conventional weapons prove useless, Monger and the President (Steven Colbert) send in the rag-tag team of monsters to save the world — not realizing they are wholly unprepared for the task.
It seems like a good idea for a movie, but "Monsters vs. Aliens" somehow falls flat. Where Pixar succeeds and Dreamworks fails ("
Kung Fu Panda" excluded) is in the attention to story. The script — written by no less than 5 screenwriters — is simply lazy. Jokes are few and far between and mostly consist of references too old for a child to understand and too hackneyed for an adult to appreciate. Only B.O.B.'s jokes seem to land, due in part to the character's good-natured cluelessness and Rogen's endearing delivery.
Style is also an issue. The fact that the majority of the characters are inspired by (or taken directly from) films from the atomic era should have informed some kind of animation style. As it is, there is no cohesive look "Monsters vs. Aliens". Just bits and pieces stolen from better films. Thematically, the film is all over the place, too. Susan's journey of female empowerment (have a "normal" life as Mrs. Derek Deitl or save the world as Ginormica) seems antiquated today. Perhaps if it had been set in the 50s, it would have been more resonant — a satirical nod to the past.
Adding 3D to the mix does surprisingly little to enhance the film. After an obligatory paddle ball gag, the 3D sequences were either completely gratuitous or superfluous. Either way, 3D can't keep "Monsters" from feeling flat.
