I figured since the original Monsters vs Aliens thread is already over 6 pages long, perhaps there should be a separate thread for reviews now that the movie is out (maybe not such a bad idea for other movies as well – once they come out, start a separate thread for reviews and comments rather than upcoming info).
Well, my review:
I had the day off today and went to go see Monsters vs Aliens (decided to see it in 3D) at the local theatre. In a nutshell, it was pretty good. No deep meaning or exquisite care or craftmanship here like you’ll see in a Pixar film, but it was fun and entertaining without being lowbrow, gutter humor like so much of the Dreamworks fare is.
I can’t stand the typical Dreamworks formula (fart jokes, lowbrow gags), but thankfully this movie only had a few of them, and was a pleasant sendup of 50s monster movies. As with Coraline, the 3D effects thankfully weren’t used for gimicks (there was only one in the beginning, where a guy sitting at a computer is playing with a ball-and-paddle thing, making the ball go out to the audience). Other than that one time which is out of the way early, the 3D thankfully isn’t gimicky (which would distract, remind you of the 3D, and take you out of the story) but instead just gives you a nice 3D environment.
A lot of people thought Kung Fu Panda was a meatier, classier Dreamworks film… maybe it was just a little (only a little), but I still didn’t care for it. So in fact I wasn’t even sure if I should go see Monsters because I’ve really hated a lot of the Dreamworks stuff. But I went, and was surprised that MvA was pretty straightforward and enjoyable. Again, it doesn’t come close to what a Pixar film is, but was fun with generally good characters and story, without having to simply rely on gutter humor, fart jokes, or similar gags.
Two quick comments:
(1) It’s good to see that there has been some good animation on the scene lately other than from Pixar. Everything from Desparoux a few months ago, Coraline just recently (very good), Ponyo (coming out this summer) and a Dreamworks film that actually wasn’t bad.
(2) Real trivial stuff here, but I tend to notice these kind of things: there were 3 shots where you see a character on screen playing a keyboard or organ. In two of the three shots (playing “Here Comes the Bride” in church in the beginning, and the “Axel Foley” theme later on when meeting the alien probe), if you look closely, the on-screen characters are actually pressing the correct notes to match the pitch on the soundtrack being played! However also in the “meeting the alien probe” scene, the 5-note “Close Encounters” motif is played, and the keys shown on screen don’t match up with the pitches being played on the soundtrack. Oh well. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad I guess for something that no one would notice anyway…
