Movie review of Monsters vs. Aliens

My apologies, but for some reason I thought that I had already posted my review of Monsters vs. Aliens! But when one of my GFs asked where it was, I told her that it was on my blog, and she told me, "No, it's not." To my horror, I saw that she was right! So without further ado, here is my review:

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The movie, Monsters vs. Aliens, was a very enjoyable movie. In it, the monsters are much like the mutants in the Marvel Comics universe, a misunderstood minority with special abilities and powers. But rather than be led by a Dr. Charles Xavier, the monsters are instead incarcerated by the government because the feds think that, as the prison's warden notes rather wryly, "the people have more important things to worry about, like paying taxes". That was probably my favorite line from the movie, because it is more true in regards to the government's attitudes towards us than that moment in the movie implies. :-)

Before I continue, let me add this disclaimer:

****SPOILER ALERT!****

The review below contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie and don't want what's in it to be revealed to you, STOP READING NOW!!! You have been warned!

****SPOILER ALERT!****

The movie mostly centered on a young woman named Susan who becomes a 50 ft woman after being struck by a meteorite. During the time of her incarceration and into her first battle with the invading aliens, all she wants is to get back to her old life and to be with Derek, the man she was about to marry until she grew into a giant. There are a lot of pop culture references from the monster movies of the 1950s, so pay attention and see how many you can spot!

My friends, the thing is, I really wanted to enjoy this movie - but one thing kept coming up that was rather annoying, and it was this movie's insistence on making everyone stupid. The president was an incompetent idiot along with his crisis staff, and the movie's villain was also a stupid idiot. And two of the monsters, Insectasaurus and B.O.B., were also stupid. It's like the movie was a celebration of stupidity! When did Forrest Gump become a standard to strive for?

And it's not so much the fact that the movie had so many stupid people in it, it's mainly the fact that the movie leaned so heavily on "stupid" jokes. To me, the overabundance of "stupid" jokes was a cop-out from making other, more thought-provoking humor; especially considering that this genre was fodder for more and better humor. And the story was a tad predictable - what else was Susan going to do other than come to her senses and see Derek for the jerk that he is?

Despite my negativity above, I did enjoy the movie, and some of the humor was indeed such that I laughed. I just feel that they easily could have made the story even better. The artwork was awesome, especially the fight scenes. In a scale in which 1 is a bomb and 10 is THE bomb, I give Monsters vs. Aliens an 8. The great art kept me from giving it a 7.5. It is definitely worth seeing at least one time.