Monsters vs Aliens (2009)

Submitted by Joshy on Sun, 10/04/2009 - 21:12

Basic Plot

An unknown-to-earth group of monsters fight an alien overlord in hopes to save the planet. Exposing monsters and aliens to the public causes chaos. Our hero is transformed when struck by a meteorite and helps fight the aliens.

In-Depth

Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon), our main human character, is about to marry news anchor Derek (Paul Rudd) and enjoy a honeymoon in Paris. Before the wedding, Susan relaxes outside but suddenly a giant quantonium meteor comes crashing down upon Susan. During the wedding she grows a giant size and is scooped up by an unknown, top secret organization resembling the FBI.
She then wakes up in a mysterious building where she meets all the other monsters, including a genius cockroach named Dr.Cockroach, an intimidating, tough-guy creature known as "The Missing Link" (Will Arnett) and of course B.O.B.(Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate), the gelatinous blob (Seth Rogen).
Oh, and who could forget about Insectosaurus. Nobody, once you see him on screen. He's a giant, cuddly bug creature.
If you have ever seen Horton Hears a Who and noticed the little puffball character that randomly floats and smiles for no reason, he's like that except huge.

Cute!

So, we find out Susan can't talk to her family or fiance because the organization says monsters are still just a story in the eyes of the public. We also learn quantonium is wanted by our alien enemy, Gallaxhar (Rainn Willson) Apparently it grants super powers and/or the ability to destroy planets and allow Gallaxhar to create his own. Thus, the whole plot of the movie begins.

Gallaxhar sends a big robot prone to do his dirty work and retrieve the quantonium. And of course since this being the United States, our stereotypical, scared president's (Stephen Colbert) first idea is to shoot it down. Bullets and missiles do absolutely nothing to the thing, much like The Day the Earth Stood Still. Our president shoots a few times, says "I'm brave! I'm a brave president!" while being carried by the others to the chopper. I found this hilarious. The General tells the president that he can use the monsters to save planet earth and gives us background information on all of the monsters, including how they were created.

Left to Right: Missing Link, Ginormica and B.O.B.

Thus begins our first action packed fight scene against the robot prone, which leads to being fought on the Golden Gate Bridge. Susan must protect all the people and at the site time defeat the robot. Can she do it?!
Well, of course she does but it's how she does it that's important. I won't spill the beans on that, plus it's nothing especially spectacular. This doesn't make it bad at all, I just don't want to ruin the fight scene.

Afterwards, Susan gets to see her family and they're excited to see her. The monsters tag along and are given small lessons in living with the public. She says "Just do as I do", but she accidentally steps on a fence and the monsters begin destroying. This was a comical part in the movie. While in the city, Susan talks to Derek and finds out he no longer wants to see her, because he fears it will affect his ratings and thus his anchor job.

Out of nowhere Gallaxhar abducts Susan and nearly kills Insectosaurus in the process. Trapped in a laser cage, Susan is forced to talk face to face with Gallaxhar and enter the extraction chamber so the quantonium can be removed from Susan, at the same time making her normal again. Gallaxhar also begins mass cloning himself as to build his personal army.

Gallaxhar!

Using the Generals chopper, the monsters secretely gain access to Gallaxhar's space ship and attempt to save Susan.
They disquise themselves as clones to easily sneak past all the others and promise to take Susan to the incinerator. The monsters get busted when Dr.Cockroach accidentally shoots a clone, and a massive monsters vs all aliens brawl occurs. It's a good thing the aliens are useless without weaponry, granting the monsters an easy win.
The monsters make their way to the core of the ship to cause it to self-destruct.
Gallaxhar accepts this and makes his way to his escape pod, but of course Susan stops him (or does she? Yes. She does).

Thus ending the movie.

Let me first say, there were a lot of funny parts and it reminded me a bit of old Pixar. I was often told B.O.B. was the only funny part of the movie. This is incorrect and all the people who said that are big dummies.
I found just about every part with the president to be hilarious, and Colbert was a perfect voice for the job. Don't get me wrong, B.O.B. saying "No way! It's a boy, look at his boobies" was probably one of the funniest lines, but don't let it discourage you from watching this film.

Cast of Monsters: Missing Link, Dr.Cockroach, Ginormica, B.O.B.
Background: Insectosaurous.

The Good

•Best Pixar animation in a while.
•Awesome, famous voice-overs that fit their parts nicely.
•Fun for the kids and adults. I can guarantee both parties will laugh.
•Destroying a whole ship via Dance Dance Revolution... you'll understand soon enough.

The Bad

•The only thing I hate about this movie, is that I can't find anything bad with it.

The Verdict

Probably the best Dreamworks animation piece this year, 3D or not. Easily worth showing the children and if I were you, I would watch it with them. Good storyline, hot-- I mean cute main character, and funny monsters make this a must-see film. Definitely rent on DVD.