Monsters vs. Aliens is a movie carrying a suprising load on its shoulders. Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of Dreamworks Animation and onetime Michael Eisner nemesis, wants you to know that Monsters vs. Aliens isn’t just another CGI cartoon but rather the vanguard of a cinematic revolution.
Put simply, Katzenberg loves 3-D. For several years now he has been saying as much to any person willing to sit still for a few minutes. He has spent a lot of time and money trying to get the necessary equipment into movie theaters and much of the last year on a worldwide road show in which he used Monsters vs. Aliens clips to demonstrate just how big a paradigm shift 3-D signifies for cinema. Katzenberg believes that 3-D is the future and not just a gimmick for animated movies and schlocky horror films; eventually, in the future he sees, 3-D will be the standard format, and 2-D will simply be an artistic choice like black-and-white now is for filmmakers seeking a certain mood. In other words, 3-D is just as significant a change to film as were the introduction of sound and color.
So, as you can see, there is a lot of significance being focused on this one little movie. Yet despite what Kaztensberg want it to be, it is hard to see Monsters vs. Aliens as a milestone when it has been more than three years since I reviewed the 3-D presentation of Chicken Little (unclear to me: how is Dreamworks’ Tru3D fundamentally different from Disney Digital 3D?), and I’ve seen a dozen more since then. Sure, it is hyped that Monsters vs. Aliens is the first animated movie developed from the very first day as a 3-D movie (though similar claims were made for Disney’s Bolt), but apparently all that really gets you are extra “jump moments” from having things thrown out of the screen into the audience (such as a paddleball opening for this movie).
This is not to say that Monsers vs. Aliens is a failure. It may be unlikely to go down in history as a significant title in Hollywood history, but it remains a reasonably fun animated action movie.
Despite an apparent ensemble cast, the movie is really about Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon and animated in a style that made me think of Christina Ricci throughout), who is really the only main character in the movie. Susan’s wedding day is interrupted when she is unexpectedly crushed by a meteorite. Rather than killing her, she walks away only to start growing during the actual ceremony.
Soon, she is a confused 50-foot-tall woman with incredible strength. Almost immediately, a military team (apparently posse comitatus does not exist in this animated America) swoops in, captures her, and puts here in a secret monster detention center. General W.R. Monger (Keifer Sutherland), who runs the place, introduces her to all the fellow inmates:
Insectosaurus is a giant grub dwarfing that once attacked Tokyo and dwarfs even Susan. He’s not very bright and is easily manipulated using bright lights. Missing Link (Will Arnett) is an ancient fish-lizard-mammal creature who talks a big game but is out of shape from being in monster jail for half a century. Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie making use of his “Black Adder” voice rather than his more-familiar-to-Americans “House” voice) is a mad scientist who tried to give himself the indestructable nature of a cockroach and, in the process, actually turned himself into one. Finally there’s Bob (Seth Rogan), a literally brainless ball of sentient goo.
With everyone now in place, the movie settles down into a haunting parable of the evil that was Japanese internment during World War II. Our five outcasts are forced to struggle with unjust incarceration simply because they’re different and the public fears them. They’re torn between a love for their country and disappointment in that country’s behavior.
Ha ha, no not really. It turns out that an evil alien (Rainn Wilson) needs to talk to Susan about a certain meteorite and is willing to destroy the world to do so. Facing global destruction, the U.S. president (Stephen Colbert) decides to grant the monsters their freedom if they risk their lives and defeat this enemy (and our touching internment camp story turns into The Dirty Dozen).
And that’s what Monsters vs. Aliens is—the title doesn’t lie. It is not a deep movie (any more than it is a groundbreaking one), spending little time on important life lessons. The action sequences are superbly produced, especially a Susan vs. Alien Robot battle through San Francisco and onto the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, the action sequences feel more real and have better physics than similar set pieces in recent, purportedly live action, movies such as Transformers or X3.
Dr. Cockroach, Insectosaurus, and Missing Link never really become more than afterthoughts, but Seth Rogan’s stoner cadences—and particularly that laugh—lend Bob a great spot as the funny sidekick.
Finally, should you see it in 3-D? Is Katzenberg right that it adds something fundamentally important to film? As a person who puts a lot of weight into respecting the desire of the filmmaker when it comes to exhibition, I tilt towards saying yes, go out of your way to see it in 3-D—that is how it was conceived and put together. On the other hand, though, I don’t know that I could honestly say it offers anything worth an extra $3 at the multiplex.
I can, however, more confidently say that if you have the choice between 3-D on a regular screen using the newer Tru3D glasses and seeing it in IMAX 3-D, that you should go with the former. The new stuff is so fundamentally better that it is not worth $5 (the premium my local theater charges for IMAX) to have ill-fitting glasses that lose synch if you tilt your head.
Monsters vs. Aliens is a Dreamworks Animation presentation
- Wide release on Friday, March 27.
- Directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon
- Screenplay by Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, Rob Letterman, Jonathan Aibel, and Glenn Berger
- Starring Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogan, Will Arnett, Keifer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson
- Rated PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language
- Running time 94 minutes
- Alex’s Rating: 7 out of 10
