Hola all. Massawyrm here.

When I walked into this, there was part of me hoping that MADAGASCAR 2 was a fluke - that Dreamworks was simply repeating the formula that had made MADAGASCAR so successful the first time around and that KUNG FU PANDA was the benchmark they were aiming for here. After all, it is a very similar concept. Take a classic genre of film and work in a number of archetypes, make it a bit more family friendly and give the main character a chance to prove themselves in front of their new friends. Pretty straight forward stuff. Well, do you remember the film we were afraid KUNG FU PANDA would be, but wasn’t? That’s MONSTERS VS ALIENS.

It’s not a bad movie. Just something of a boring one. Most of the gags, as I’d initially feared when writing up my initial assessment of the BNAT footage we were shown, are of the direct pop culture variety. The occasional movie reference; a couple jokes that they over explain, killing the timing. But mostly the film is surprisingly light on jokes, despite trying to seem funny. In fact, the single most clever thing about the film is a joke that didn’t find its way into the movie, but instead was something of an office joke: lacking the rights to the 50 Foot Woman, Ginormica was nicknamed the 49’ 11 and ¾ inch woman. That’s kind of funny -especially if they’d made it work right. But there seems to have been little attempt to punch this up as they let the idea of the film drive it.

And I’ll admit, I do like the ideas they’re playing around with. It’s the story of a regular girl who wants a regular life and instead gets turned into a giant monster on her wedding day. Shortly after she’s thrown into a containment facility (seemingly for life) with CG versions of THE FLY, THE BLOB, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and MOTHRA, aliens attack and the only thing the US Government can think of is to throw monsters at them. And it isn’t until she has to save the world that our heroine begins to discover who she is. But as great as her character is, the rest of the monsters are pretty much one note jokes that never quite get fully developed, nor does the film offer any real surprises at all. It certainly has something positive to say (being something of an empowerment film), but it rarely knows how to say it in a manner that is either funny or really touching.

The whole film is just kind of there, with none of the action scenes ever proving to be very inventive and none of the ideas being fleshed out enough to be interesting beyond their introductions. I really wanted to like this, but the film never helped me out, never met me halfway. It’s just a solid kids movie that lacks the magic to put it on par with the two films it most resembles: KUNG FU PANDA and THE INCREDIBLES. That said, most of the voice talent is pretty great with Seth Rogen standing out (yet again, he’s been pretty reliable with voice work) and Hugh Laurie rocking pretty hard as Dr. Cockroach (THE FLY). And I’m told that the film is much more watchable the first time through if you see it in 3-D. I’ve seen some of the 3-D at BNAT, and it was solid stuff, but having seen it in 2-D, I can tell you there’s little to marvel at on the screen in that format.

All told the film is a pretty mediocre affair. It will definitely give mom and dad something to look at while the kids are having a ball, but it isn’t something they’ll be eager to go back to a few more times. But it is ALMOST there. If only they’d run it through another punch up pass or two and added a bit more depth to the other monsters, then perhaps they would have had the movie this seemed to promise. It isn’t a deeply flawed movie, there’s never a bad moment here. There just aren’t many good ones.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

Massawyrm

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