Monster Vs. Aliens (2009)

I'm going to be honest with you: I watched this with German dubbing, so I may have missed one or two or several jokes. However, I feel my understanding of the general plot and type of humor warrants a review (unlike some other dubbed films I've seen recently that I don't feel I understood enough to write about). This means I can't offer any comment on the voice acting, though. And I didn't see it in 3-D, because (as maybe I've mentioned before?) I hate 3-D and it hurts my head. Monster vs Aliens tells the unfortunate tale of Susan Murphy, whose clash with a radioactive space rock causes her to grow several stories higher than the church in which she's being wed. She's immediately contained by the government in a secret facility for other "monsters": a scientist-turned-oversized cockroach, the half fish, half human Missing Link, an amorphous blue jello-like creature called BOB, and the giant, mutated larvae Insectosaurus.

Susan is petrified at first, but eventually acclimates to her teammates, though she and Dr Cockroach work persistently to return her to normal size. When the malicious alien Galaxhar finds out that his planet's super powerful Quantonium (the substance that affected Susan) is in California, he lands in San Francisco and attacks the President despite his friendship greeting. Military leaders in Washington decide to give the monsters their freedom if they can stop the alien invasion. As she works together with the group to fight Galaxhar, Susan becomes more accepting of her "freak" status and doubts her former resolve to work tirelessly to regain her normal size and normal life (including the asshole fiance).

Story-wise, the movie was ok. It's a great premise, though structurally and developmentally it was a little lacking. For example, I agree with Nick's point that he'd have liked to see the monsters bond more, instead of just making a several-month jump from Susan arriving and being way freaked out, to being best friends with everyone. And for a movie with a scintillating title, there was not enough action. I know it's a kids' movie, but come on. There totally could have been more giant robots or something. And the periods in between the action sequences often seemed too low-key. It was nice to see a woman as a main character though, and I liked the fact that Susan came to own her mutation and even prefer it over her regular size. Even better was when (spoiler alert) she lost her power and was still able to go head to head with Galaxhar. Yay for a lady being capable of world-saving without the help of a dude and/or superpower.

Monsters vs Aliens is pretty funny, with much of the humor coming from BOB and his adorability. However I was tickled the most by the President character, who was just so silly and over the top. Also everything he said became funnier because it was in hysterical German. They even had a "Don't press the doomsday button!" "Oh I thought it was for coffee" kind of joke. I imagine with the stellar American voice cast I would have really dug a lot of the dialogue more, so it's too bad I had to see it dubbed. That didn't stop me from noticing the sub-par animation, though (sorry but the "huge head, incredibly tiny feet" character design just looks ten times worse on a building-size woman). Overall this movie is amusing and has a good message, though nothing groundbreaking in terms of story or animation. Good for the kids, enjoyable for adults, easily merchandisable, etc.

3.5/5