User Reviews

Monsters and Aliens was a poor clichéd animated outing from Dreamworks. I found some of the pop culture and repetition in an attempt to get cheap laughs were embarrassingly bad. In particular the part where the President tries to make peace with the alien invaders by playing the Beverley Hills Cop theme on an electric piano made me cringe. Another scene where the general was showing images of the monsters to the cabinet with the secretary hysterically screaming on a number of occasions, leading to the president screaming also left me cold.

The characters were charming, yet I did not feel that the bond between the female lead and the alien characters were all that strong for her to want to stay as the heroine Ginormica - and yes, what an original nickname, eh? Whilst Pixar and Disney are still coming out with great original flicks such as Wall-E and Bolt, Dreamworks are really hitting a downer with unoriginal narratives, and they need to find a new formula to get their franchise going again. Shrek 3 was also unimpressive. Maybe they should get out of their monsters theme and find some new kind of characters to play on.

When a meteorite made of quantonium strikes Susan Murphy on the day of her wedding it doesn't kill her; it causes something strange to happen though... just as the service is getting underway she starts glowing slightly green then starts to grow. She doesn't stop growing till she is fifty feet tall! Understandably everybody flees in terror and the army turns up, tranquilises her and takes her to a secret facility where they keep monsters. These include Dr. Cockroach; BOB, a gelatinous blob; (Missing) Link, a strange fish/ape and Insectosaurus an enormous caterpillar like creature. It looks as if Susan will have to spend the rest of her life in captivity with these creatures until evil alien Gallaxhar sends a giant robot probe to Earth to recover the quantonium. The military is powerless to stop the robot so they use the monsters; they manage to defeat it but Gallaxhar realises that Susan has his quantonium so comes to Earth to recover it himself. If Earth is to survive his plans Susan and her monster friends will have to defeat Gallaxhar and his army of clones.

This Dreamworks animation has quite a lot going for it; the animation looks good, the characters are fun, the story is exciting enough without being too scary for younger viewers and the numerous references to older films are done in a way that people who haven't seen those films won't feel like they are missing a joke. The voice work was done well with none of the characters sounding overly cartoony. On the downside there are a few jokes which seemed out of place in a film aimed at children... do we really need a joke about the president soiling his trousers? I think not. The opening scene suggested that we were going to be reminded that this was filmed in 3D at every opportunity but thankfully that was the only moment that I thought was gratuitously 3D, which was good as I was watching on television. When compared to the works of Pixar or Dreamworks own 'How to Train Your Dragon' this looks distinctly second best; however it is still pretty good; it might not be essential viewing but it is well worth watching if you are a fan of animated films.

After reading the synopsis of Monsters vs Aliens, a few friends and I decided to watch it, assuming it would be one of those "it was so bad it was funny" types of movies. Regarding the plot, we were not entirely wrong. However, the movie had good special effects (even though I did not have the chance to watch it in 3d), entertainment value, and a women's empowerment vibe, which certainly is a positive message to send to any young girls watching the film.

The main character is about to marry a career-obsessed TV weatherman when she encounters a radioactive material that causes her to grow to an enormous size. The man spurns her, and the movie pretty much evolves into a self-discovery process, at the end of which the protagonist recognizes her self-worth and abandons the egotistical fiancé. Along the way, the main character joins up with monsters to fight an evil-mastermind alien who is trying to retrieve the radioactive material. The creatures, though, are the typical cute and lovable characters to be expected from DreamWorks. One of which, Insectosaurus, was probably one of the funniest animated characters I have ever seen. I legitimately laughed every time it came on the screen.

While I walked away thinking the movie was fairly cheesy and predictable, I was also entertained the whole way through. If you are looking for intellectual stimulation or an in-depth plot, this is probably a good one to skip. However, if you are craving a simple feel-good movie, young kids will probably love it, and while it probably won't be your favorite movie, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Watched it, didn't enjoy it. To me it looked like a waste of time.

The Good:

1) Have a few good jokes in the movie.

2) Relatively high quality CG.

The Bad:

1) Predictable plot. It many places it is obvious what will happen in say, next 15..30 minutes, and it is possible to correctly guess key events at the end of the movie.

2) There are less than 5 good jokes in the movie.

3) Nearly no character development - only main character change a little, others remain unchanged.

4) Unrealistic character development and behavior. Not really logical story. Weak plot.

5) In some scenes it almost look like creators were running either out of time or out of budget - while some scenes are interesting, and filled with many objects and different characters, most of the other scenes use pretty bland sets that doesn't look "alive" (In my opinion) enough. In fact with exception of one or two scenes nearly every set looks more like decoration, than a something even remotely realistic.

6) Absolutely horrible design of giant butterfly at the end.

Bottom line: Someone obviously had too much cash to spent. This movie could be much better. There are maybe 2 or 3 good jokes that could make me smile a bit, but story weak and predictable, and the movie doesn't offer enough in graphic department to watch it only because of graphics or CG.

This is a nostalgic movie for me. A lot of people say it's bad but for me it's wonderful. All the characters play their part in the plot well. BoB and Susan are my favorite characters in this movie. Comedy part centered on BoB is very funny. A well-closed film did not and will not need a sequel. Derek vs BoB are very funny, especially BoB acting like Susan. I always watch the dubbing in Portuguese and this dubbing is wonderful. Just like "All Dogs Go To Heaven" this movie is very nostalgic for me and I can't rate it less than 10 even with flaws. Nostalgic but good. Film Watched on August 23, 2023.