Monsters vs. Aliens

Rating

Director

Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon

Screenplay

Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, Rob Letterman, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Conrad Vernon

Length

94 min.

Starring

Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Julie White, Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Poehler, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski

MPAA Rating

PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language.

Review

There was a time when spectacle sold tickets and to a minor extent, animation has been doing that lately. With Monsters vs. Aliens, we’re taking an evolutionary step toward blurring the line between spectacle and storytelling.

3-D films were all the rage in the 1980s. It was a gimmick that lasted well into the 1990s, but failed to really gain traction beyond that point. The reason? There were actually many. The glasses you had to wear limited the color palette a film could use. Having to rely on blue-and-red spectrum wave length fluctuations to create the semblance of depth from a two-dimensional medium, was a bit distracting. On top of that, even with the glasses, some viewers had a hard time actually discerning multiple dimensions, which resulted in further dissatisfaction. As a gimmick, the filmmakers relied heavily on molding stories around images instead of images around stories, thus creating an emotional disconnect between the viewer and the film. And, like all gimmicks, 3-D eventually faded away and now we’re left with only a vague memory.

But, 3-D has miraculously returned, but what really is the difference? Sitting down to Monsters vs. Aliens, I could count on one hand the differences…matter of fact, two fingers. Gone was the red-blue issue. A full range of colors was now possible. Then, we had the added benefit of the third dimension being much easier to see and follow, our eyes much better able to rectify the images than previously.

Sadly, what didn’t change was the gimmickry. From the opening scene of the film, pushing through Saturn’s massive rings, I was briefly lulled into believing we might actually have a provable and enjoyable medium. Then, the actual film started and the same gimmicks (things being thrown at the screen, random snippets popping out at the audience) persisted. The story wasn’t even that great, continuing the tradition of stories and concepts being grafted onto image potential. While not strictly true, that’s how you feel when the purpose of the 3-D used is merely to tantalize and tease the audience, not really to evoke emotional response to what’s going on on the big screen.

The film is about a young woman who gets hit by a meteor and gains massive strength along with a 50-foot-woman-type vantage point. Tall as she is, she’s toppled easily by the government and transported to a secret facility where monsters are kept out of sight of the world’s population. When aliens come looking for the meteor, it containing some precious metal that they need to power their massive weapon, the government decides to send the monsters out against the aliens in hope they can topple the burgeoning threat.

The story is so simplistic, that it’s almost impossible to care what happens to the characters in the film. Even Ginormica’s (Reese Witherspoon) self-centered ex doesn’t evoke much more than mild dislike. The lone character with any emotional attachment from the audience is the giant fuzzy worm easily distracted by television and that’s short lived.

But, the film doesn’t seem to be of much more purpose than as an experiment with the new 3-D medium. Although it’s an old medium, may producers are now saying that 3-D could be the wave of the future, and with James Cameron pushing that idea with his Avatar film due later this year, we might very well have a future for it, though how long that future will be will depend on whether studios can get away from 3-D concerts and gimmicky animated movies like Monsters vs. Aliens and starting giving the audience meaningful thrills and excitement from the capabilities of the medium.

Review Written

May 20, 2009