Dreamworks needs some new originality

Rating: 5/10 (21 April 2009)

Monsters and Aliens was a poor clichéd animated outing from Dreamworks. I found some of the pop culture and repetition in an attempt to get cheap laughs were embarrassingly bad. In particular the part where the President tries to make peace with the alien invaders by playing the Beverley Hills Cop theme on an electric piano made me cringe. Another scene where the general was showing images of the monsters to the cabinet with the secretary hysterically screaming on a number of occasions, leading to the president screaming also left me cold.
The characters were charming, yet I did not feel that the bond between the female lead and the alien characters were all that strong for her to want to stay as the heroine Ginormica - and yes, what an original nickname, eh? Whilst Pixar and Disney are still coming out with great original flicks such as Wall-E and Bolt, Dreamworks are really hitting a downer with unoriginal narratives, and they need to find a new formula to get their franchise going again. Shrek 3 was also unimpressive. Maybe they should get out of their monsters theme and find some new kind of characters to play on.