Another somewhat mediocre CGI flick

Rating: 6/10 (13 April 2009)

I had high hopes for "Monsters vs. Aliens" and in certain respects it met those expectations but substantially as a whole it failed to meet them.
Why? Because essentially it lacks real heart.
It just felt wrong - you'll know what I mean when you watch it. Like Pixar's "Cars," it just lacked the heart, the engaging storytelling of their past triumphs.
The story is fine, if a bit retreaded from alien movies - a super-secret group of monsters sequestered away by a vague, mysterious government agency is finally (after 50 years, holed away in a facility that, had it been real, likely cost billions to operate, but let's not let reality intrude) called to action when an evil alien named Gallaxhar invades earth to retrieve a vital mineral that made one of the monsters-Ginormica, voiced by Reese Witherspoon--a monster in the first place.
There is some good action, the CGI animation pretty solid (standard, I'd say, by today's standards), and the climactic battle scenes good but, while it is supposed to feel heartwarming as Ginormica grows surer of her identity as a "monster," it feels somewhat limp.
My theory - and take that for what it's worth, which is nothing - is that these CGI movies generally fall flat because there are too many big name, big screen actors taking these roles. I'm serious - there are just too many big names here and I don't think they're up to the task of good voice acting, which is a whole different ball game than screen acting. I didn't think Reese and Hugh Laurie were particularly good though Seth Rogen as B.O.B. the blob is pretty funny.
Let me provide a supporting argument for this theory: In the movie "Bolt," John Travolta, in my opinion, was not that great as the movie's namesake dog. Likewise Miley Cyrus was not that great, which is not saying much as Cyrus is a questionable actor anyway. But Mark Walton, who voices Rhino in that movie, and is a professional voice actor, was very, very funny and really made that movie worth watching.
The biggest problem in my opinion is not that the big name actors are especially bad - though I think they lack the art of good, professional voice actors - but rather that we know the voices themselves. We know Reese's voice and Travolta's and so on.
Of course my theory falls apart in movies like "Kung Fu Panda" where major names like Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, voice stars of that movie, deflate my theory entirely. Of course "Kung Fu Panda" was "A grade" CGI, storytelling, and easily on par with Pixar fare which has set the gold standard for animated CGI. "Monsters vs. Aliens" - not so much.
All said "Monsters vs. Aliens" is decent, not spectacular, somewhat fun, but not amazing. Much of the humor feels rather flat to me. It's enjoyable to a point and then seems to strain.
My feeling? Wait for the DVD.