Monsters Vs. Aliens 3-D Review
I actually saw this movie in 3-D, which is still novel enough that I was pretty excited. But as neat as it is to initially see something fly out at you from the screen that gimmicky fun eventually wears off and you need a good story.
Monsters Vs. Aliens is a totally pleasant and fun movie, but it is pretty lax in terms of story. It’s evident the movie is not trying to take itself seriously at all when problems are resolved as easily as asking where the super-important-defeat-the-aliens-button is (literally at one point characters ask this and are simply told where it is) and random forays out of the story world occur (The President does a dance number to the Beverly Hills Cop theme for no particular reason).
Pixar takes this type of kids entertainment seriously enough to really put effort into their story. Obviously this is a super silly movie and that’s fine, but at a bedrock level you still need a story where we buy into the conflict and stay with the movie. While some of the Monsters Vs. Aliens non-conflict departures are funny they kind of undermine the story.
It’s still plenty funny and kids should enjoy it (even it is a bit violent for a kids movie, as in people clearly die).
And for the extra couple bucks it’s worth it to see a 3-D movie if you haven’t yet (like me). You will still enjoy that experience.