Hollywood rummages much too often through pop culture’s attic for stuff to wow the kids.
In the case of “Monsters vs. Aliens,” this thought is more observation than criticism. Because as willfully chock-full of the familiar as the animated feature is, it’s also a hoot.
So we’ll forgive the fact that it forgoes invention, instead mining so many sci-fi flicks that have come before. Its irrepressible fun is kryptonite to these qualms.
Co-directed by DreamWorks vets Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon, “Monsters vs. Aliens” struts its 3D stuff right away. See it in this format. (It also opens today on IMAX.)
Honest-to-goodness “Whoas” were uttered at a preview screening. They were deserved. There’s something planetarium-groovy about Saturn’s rings jutting out of the screen, or meteor fragments showering the folks just a couple of rows ahead.
Loyalists to story, we’re not sure this represents the deepest magic of the movies. But it sure is spellbinding, and the story’s got its charms.
When a large chunk of of glowing meteor lands in Modesto, Calif., irradiating bride-to-be Susan Murphy, she grows and grows and grows. She’s voiced for maximum likability and gumption by Reese Witherspoon. Her fiance, Derek (Paul Rudd) is a weatherman angling to be an anchor. When he puts the kibosh on their honeymoon for a job interview, you get a whiff of his character.
How interesting it is for youngsters to get an early gander at marital compromise, we can only guess: not very.
But this is the rub of so many animated features: They seem crafted by hipsters and newbie parents who fear their own boredom as much as that of the ticket-buying guardians in the audience.
The couple’s strained relationship isn’t half as entertaining as the newly found bonds Susan makes with a group of misfits once she becomes Ginormica.
Captured like Gulliver by a Lilliputian army, she’s confined to a top-secret facility run by Gen. W. R. Monger. It’s a loaded name, but Kiefer Sutherland does amusing things with his puffed-up man in a uniform.
Incarcerated since the 1950s, the monsters are a B-movie Who’s Who.
Seth Rogen voices B.O.B., an endearing, dimwitted, translucent blob with one eye. A particularly clever sequence finds B.O.B stuck like a wad of gum to the massive metal foot of a robot as it tromps down the streets of San Francisco.
A personal favorite is Insectosaurus, the huge grub with big eyes and a screeching way of communicating. Mothra, anyone?
Will Arnett’s Missing Link resembles the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
A laboratory mishap transformed a researcher not into a fly but into Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D (Hugh Laurie). Talented rivals DreamWorks and Pixar (in “WALL*E”) have both made a companionable character out of one of Earth’s most detested insects — which gets one wondering all over again about the spontaneous generation of ideas and jokes.
The monsters’ freshly forged bond and Susan’s new super-identity as a 49-foot-11-inch woman get tested when Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) arrives from outer space.
But before the multi-eyed alien lands and Earth stands still, the president (Stephen Colbert) tries to negotiates with Gallaxhar’s robot emissary. Kudos to the character animators for creating an onscreen avatar who looks nothing like Comedy Central’s genius of snark.
“Commander, do something violent,” he barks.
It’s a funny line.
But if we could hit pause on our adult pleasures, we might wonder how this action sequence works on the imaginations of our wee-est.
We’ve seen it all before. So its impressive violence is rendered a knowing joke. The words, “E.T. Go Home” are painted on a zipping missile. Ha ha, we say. Warning: But there’s even more spectacular destruction ahead.
It seems the more enjoyable a movie, the easier it is to overlook the glee its makers take in unmaking stuff. We start to feel like curmudgeons for even pointing it out.
But point we must.
Then, we sit back in our stadium seating, don our 3-D specs and take the ride.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com. Also on blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
“Monsters vs. Aliens”
PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language. 1 hour, 34 minutes. Directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon; written by Letterman, Maya Forbes, Wally Wolodarsky, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger; production design by David James; voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd. Opens today at area theaters.
