When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

I am at a loss with why lately every single kids movie needs to be in 3D. This tactic which was very popular in the 1950’s with horror films died down over the years only to be resurrected of late with every single kids and animated movie that has come out lately. The technology for 3D is essentially the same as was it was in the 1950’s and it looks about the same as well so you would think the gimmick would make as little sense now as it did then. Then there is the problem of a movie that is clearly designed for 3D being shown in a regular theatre. That’s the problem I had with the film as I didn’t get to see the movie in 3D as there are no 3D theatres anywhere near me. So all the sight gags that were designed for the 3D experience are lost on the regular viewing audience. Hollywood needs to forget about 3D once more although the technology might impress the younger children it fails to impress those of us are actually paying for the tickets.

Monsters Vs Aliens wasn’t a bad movie persay it was just your very average run of the mill kind of film. Once the sight gags and the appeal of 3D are taken away you are left with a very mediocre story and very clichéd characters. The idea of the film is quite fun that when the earth is in danger from an alien attack the government rolls out monsters it had kept under wraps in an Area 51 like installation. It’s a great premise to set the movie up but the film rarely delivers as all the monsters are your typical clichéd type characters from the mad scientist to the brainless but loveable blob like creature. So while the movie has a great premise it rarely delivers on it instead it hams it up with tired old jokes of an evil alien who is just as clichéd as the monsters he fights.

The kids will likely love the movie as it is a richly colored film with lots of little things going on in the background that make for great second viewings. But it is sadly obvious that Dreamworks wishes it could be Pixar as Pixar made a similar movie about misunderstood monsters nearly a decade ago. But where there film had original characters and a unique story Monsters Vs Aliens pins their hopes on 3D. I liked the film at times as it could be fun and was clearly a good idea to begin with but many times I found myself bored by the clichéd characters and the clichéd situations they found themselves in.

A sign of really great casting for an animated movie is that you can still see a little bit of the actor in the character even though all you hear is their voice. This is one thing that Monsters Vs Aliens did very well as you can see most of the cast and their mannerisms in most of the characters. Bob the Blob is so obviously Seth Rogen and Ginormica is clearly Reese Witherspoon. It adds a little to the movie and makes it just a little bit more interesting when you can see the actors behind the voices even if their characters are animated. Stephen Colbert might have given the best performance as the President as he clearly injects a little of his political satire into the character. Overall the movie was very average but likely very fun for the younger audiences.

Grade: C+