Screenhead

It’s good to see movies that acknowledge their roots, but sometimes, this acknowledgement can go  a bit far, leaving behind a trite and poorly done production.  Recent Dreamworks ripoff release  Monsters Versus Aliens (seriously, watch this and see if you don’t think: “Huh…it’s like Monsters Inc. meets The Incredibles.  They could call it Incredible Monsters.”) trends very close to the whole “trite and poorly done” classification.

Clearly designed for the under-ten market who likely won’t get half the movie references piled  into this thing (Dr. Cockroach is riding The Fly wagon, the Missing Link looks a lot like the  Creature From The Black Lagoon, Insectosaurus is just Godzilla as a caterpillar and of course, B.O.B. is nothing less than The B.l.O.B with a shuffling of initials. ), Monsters Versus Aliens is the story of a secret governmental organization that keeps a bunch of monsters locked up for no clear reason.  Recent addition to the group, Ginormica (formerly a young bride who grew to be, oh, let’s say FIFTY FEET TALL in yet another subreference the kids will never get.  Best part is, she grew to a height of forty nine feet eleven and a half inches, thus subverting its own subreference.), is thrown headlong into the government’s control and is forced to fight a recently landed alien robot for her freedom.  But even when she can get her freedom, she discovers that old friends and family are not so accepting as they once were.  Thus, when Ginormica and company get a chance to take on the alien menace BEHIND the recent alien robot thing, they’re ready to fight to the death in hopes of gaining the world’s respect.

There are some good parts to this whole thing.  One, the legion of subreferences is great for anyone sufficiently old or sufficiently versed in movies to get them fully.  You’ll almost feel good every time you catch yet another one.  And the voices are pretty solid too–yes, Seth Rogen is involved in yet ANOTHER movie and once again he’s not particularly funny, but you can feel good about laughing at Hugh “Dr. House” Laurie, and of course Will Arnett,  and a special surprise as The President (shhh, don’t tell anybody but it’s STEPHEN COLBERT).

But hordes of subreferences and great voice talent aside, the plain and simple truth is that, on a narrative level, this thing sucks sour frog ass.  The aliens are beaten almost too easily, with the most difficult fight being the first against an alien robot probe.  When the aliens show up in their entirety, the resulting fight is almost easier for the monsters to win than the initial one, and there were SEVERAL alien robot probes in the second major fight.  How is it harder for the monsters to beat one alien robot probe on Earth than it is to beat an entire hangar bay full of same on an alien vessel?  I really don’t get it, and chances are, neither will you.

The long and the short on this one is, if you get roped into seeing it for the sake of the kids or some such, well, you likely won’t completely regret it.  Spend the time spotting movie references and you’ll have a fair time.  But if you’re going to enjoy a well crafted story by your lonesome, you will be sorely disappointed.