Fun but also acts as an example of why Dreamworks remains in second place to Pixar in all regards

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 2010)

When she is stuck by an alien meteorite, summer bride Susan finds herself growing to enormous size and in possession of great strength – neither of which she wanted as the intervention of the US military does rather put a damper on her wedding day. Next thing she knows she is in a secret facility and part of a group of other monsters and mutants which the government keeps under wraps for the greater good. However, when an alien forces comes to Earth searching for the power that transformed Susan, the Government has no choice but to unleash their "monsters" to fight back.
The family animated film "genre" is pretty crowded at certain times of the years. Since Pixar hit big with films that deliver plenty of adults and children, many have tried to do the same. Dreamworks has probably been one of the more successful and Monsters v Aliens is, for better and worse, a fine example of their output. The adventure story provides plenty of spectacle and, as two people in their 30's watching this without children, we were consistently engaged by it thanks partly to this. What worked mostly better for me was the humour. In the most case the film is pretty funny thanks to the characters and the dialogue – BOB and Dr Cockroach are probably the strongest and they provide plenty of laughs. In contrast I thought the Missing Link was only OK as a character. I was chuckling consistently when the main group were around and the only bits I felt were poorly judged were most of the stuff involving the President (which was a waste of Stephen Colbert – a very smart lampooner of politicians); his keyboard moment didn't work and is quickly followed by an inappropriate joke about soiling himself.
Otherwise the voice cast is well used. Witherspoon plays it more or less straight and does a solid job. Rogen and Laurie dominate the laughs and their delivery is great. Arnett is capable of more although his presence along with Tambor makes for an amusing Arrested Development moment and of course Poehler is in there too. The Office's Wilson is fun as the "baddie" of the piece although Sutherland, Colbert and Rudd are not really particularly good or well used for a variety of reasons.
The one thing that this film cannot do though, is to deliver anything beyond the impressive visuals, smart lines and fleeting laughs. It doesn't appear to be trying to have more than this which is fair enough but for my money MvA does remind the viewer of the difference in class (generally) between Pixar and Dreamworks. Pixar films generally seem to be able to do all that this film can, but also deliver so much more – while Dreamworks seems happy with pop culture references in place of depth. That said it is harsh to judge this film against a very high bar of Pixar's best films, but rather it should be met on its own merits. So, yes, while there are things that don't work and also aspects that could have been significantly stronger, the film is generally colourful, funny and engaging for a wide age range. Not a classic by any means but it is still fun.