Monsters vs. Aliens

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2011)

The return of 3D, a tradition that has been in and out of cinemas for decades, was a big deal in the 2000s, and this was of the films leading the way forward for what is possible. Basically Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is just about to get married to news weatherman Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd), when all of the sudden she is hit by an alien meteorite full of a substance called Quantonium. She absorbs all of this substance that it causes to grow about fifty foot high, and being classed as a monster labelled Ginormica she is taken to the secret government prison facility holding feared monster inmates. The three leading monsters, the brainless indestructible gelatinous blob B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the mad cockroach headed scientist Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie), and fish-ape hybrid The Missing Link (The Incredibly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret's Will Arnett), mistake her as one of them, oh, and there's monster giant grub Insectosaurus too. Meanwhile evil alien dictator Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) detects that the Quantonium he wants is coming from Earth, so his probe goes there and starts destroying things, and General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) convinces President Hathaway (Stephen Colbert) that the monsters are all that can stop it. When Susan gets out however, she is more interested in getting back to her normal life, and even being fifty foot high and monsters coming with her she tries to return home, only to be rejected and have Derek dump her. After accepting that she may be better off as a monster, she is then abducted by Gallaxhar and the Quantonium that made her big is sucked out, making her normal size and lose her super-human strength. Eventually the other monsters catch up to the alien leader and his clone army, they are defeated with the help of butterfly turned Insectosaurus, and in the end Susan aka Ginormica stays the way she is, and she, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., and The Missing Link fly away to solve a new threat. Also starring Jeffrey Tambor as Carl Murphy, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel's Amy Poehler as Computer and Renée Zellweger as Katie. This is a really funny spoof of all the popular horror and alien B-movies, borrowing Mothra, The Blob, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Fly and Creature from the Black Lagoon, and referencing the popular sci-fi films for buffs, like E.T. and Men in Black. The voice casting is really good, the animation is of course class, including the distinctive 3D moments, and the sight and one-liner gags are all hilarious, my favourite bit being the President referencing the Close Encounters communication music with Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F", a great fun family animated science-fiction comedy. Very good!