I finally got to see Monsters Vs Aliens earlier this week. Such a cute movie. The plot may have been a straight forward learning-to-accept-yourself storyline, but the characters kept me laughing. Between the references to other movies to the banter and one liners, this movie is full of humor, even if some of it is entirely for the benefit of the adults watching it with their kids.
Just minutes before her wedding, Susan Murphy is hit by a meteorite infused with quantonium, a rare element that causes her to grow. The government captures her as a monster and sends her to a secret government facility (don't say the name!) with other monsters collected over the years where they are watched over by General W.R. Monger. She desperately wants to find some way to become normal again in order to go back to Derek, her weatherman fiancee. Dr. Cockroach, B.O.B., the Missing Link, and Insectosaurus try to help her.
When the alien, Gallaxhar, shows up looking for the quantonium in his quest for world domination, the monsters are called upon to fight the menace. Mayhem and laughter ensue.
I allowed my preschooler to watch this with us, despite its PG rating. After all, this is the child who is already a fan of the original Star Wars trilogy. He dressed as a Clone Trooper this past Halloween, his choice. I find it fascinating to note what he found to be "scary." Was it the monsters, Gallaxhar, the giant robot, or the clones? Was it the battles? No, he thought those parts were exciting. It was Susan's capture and inprisonment that had him huddling against us and complaining about it being "too scary."
We paused the movie, a benefit to watching on DVD, to talk him through what was going on. We even gave him the option of turning it off, but he decided he wanted to keep watching. Then once Susan met the other monsters and made friends, he was fine. Not only fine but got excited about the fight scenes. (He's such a superhero wanna-be. I love it.) Now he likes the movie and doesn't think it scary after all.
This movie is now on my purchase list. Too bad I missed it in the theater; 3D would have been fun.
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4 comments:
This one was awesome in 3D! Saw it in the theater with my nine year old and it was an instant Christmas present wannabe. Although I'd have to say that I prefer UP a tad more, this one is definitely a keeper also.
Hmm. I wasn't too thrilled with it, namely because I had such high expectations.
I think the thing that turned me off was that Derek was such an obvious self-absorbed buffoon that I wanted to slap some sense into Susan. She redeems herself in the end, but still.
It was cute and had its funny moments, so I would second you on recommending it to anyone who can get over Susan's initial stupidity.
I think it is worthwhile if you approach the movie from a comedy standpoint rather than the obvious what-is-normal theme. Kind of hard to take a movie seriously when you have a mad scientist cockroach with the voice of Stewie involved. And a blob named B.O.B.
So Derek was obvious. So are most of the guys in teen-based stories. And somehow girls keep falling for them anyway, not that it makes sense. At least the movie didn't focus on that part much, keeping the spotlight on the interesting characters. Personally, I kept hoping Susan would end up with the Missing Link. But my ideas probably would have made this lighthearted flick into something more PG-13. ;)
I really enjoyed this movie. The humor (especially B.O.B.--Seth Rogen is a genius) was great, the animation was excellent, and I had a blast watching my kids enjoy it.
I know I got more out of it than they did, though, because I'm such a huge fan of the 50's monster/sci-fi movies that this movie both lampoons and pays tribute to.
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