Monsters vs. Aliens

Just watched Monsters vs. Aliens. I had seen the trailer last spring when I saw Coraline, and had been very excited about it.

I admit that it's somewhat clever, in an unrelenting, effortful and tepid way. I didn't mind watching it. It isn't terrible.

But, it's not really good either. It has a good premise, good effects, good voice-work, but it's messy, (a little violent and destructive) and predictable.

It deliberately rehashes a bunch of movie cliches, but it never manages to really transcend them or to be funny about them. So it looks like just a big salad of movie elements tossed together.

It's about a girl who on her wedding day gets hit by a meteor and becomes gigantic. She is immediately whisked away by government officials who have a top secret facility where they hide monsters. There's a giant mad scientist cockroach, a giant lizard or some sort, and a lovable giant blob (voiced my Seth Rogen, a real life lovable blob). When the planet is attacked by an evil alien, the monsters are enlisted to fight off the threat. The evil alien is in a giant fortress like spacecraft and at one point the girl (Susan/Ginormica) is held captive and the others go to rescue her. It totally reminded me of The Wizard of Oz when they go to rescue Dorothy from the witch. The alien had clones himself and armies of him were marching around the place, just like the flying monkeys. In fact, at one point the monsters put on their uniform to blend in, just like in The Wizard of Oz.