MONSTERS VS. ALIENS

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3D in the House
Filmmakers Take the Quick Route to Spectacle
By Cole Smithey

Evidence that 3D animation is here to stay, "Monsters vs. Aliens" is a blast of eye-popping color and goofy characters that tips the scales a tad too far into violent realms to validate its purpose.

A UFO lands in Modesto, California on the day of hopeful bride Susan Murphy's wedding, and the alien attack that follows presses the U.S. Government into bringing out their best-kept security secret: Monsters.

A 20,000-year-old half-fish/half-ape called The Missing Link (Will Arnett), a gigantic furry bug named Insectasaurous, a mad scientist called Dr. Cockroach PhD. (Hugh Laurie), a one-eyed blue gelatinous mass called B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), and the freshly grown 50-foot Susan — A.K.A. Ginormica (Reese Witherspoon) — do battle with an army of four-eyed aliens led by Rain Wilson's Gallaxhar.

The writers smuggle in a pro-military subtext that intersects with a battle-of-the sexes theme being played out between Susan and her once would-be husband, an ambitious television broadcaster (Paul Rudd). Although good-humored, "Monsters vs. Aliens" doesn't stir many laughs. But that's not to say it's not an amusing ride if you can get past the spoonfuls of social insinuation being fed to your little ones.

Jeffrey Katzenberg announced recently that DreamWorks Animation will only be working in 3D from now on. The proclamation comes at a time when, for the first time in its 62 years, an animated film (the 3D movie "Up") will open the 2009 Cannes film festival. 3D technology promises to transform film industries just as color eclipsed black and white.

With a movie like "Monsters vs. Aliens" you sense the filmmakers attempting to show off every bell and whistle they can lay their hands on. Screenwriters Wally Wolodarsky, Jonathan Aibel, and Glenn Berger drew on '50s era sci-fi creatures (the 50-Foot Woman, the Blob, the Fly, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Mothra) to beef up a story about a trigger-happy military exploiting rare transmogrified creatures, that it has kept in a secret prison, to confront an invincible enemy.

In one scene, the United States President (voiced hilariously by Stephen Colbert) runs up the stairs of an impossibly high make-shift grand stand to face off against the freshly arrived alien threat, an enormous and impenetrable one-eyed iron robot. The President plays the "Close Encounters" theme on an electric keyboard that substitutes for a podium and then breaks into an '80s synth pop tune. Before finally retreating into Air Force One, the President draws a giant silver semi-automatic hand gun and unloads it at the robot to pronounce himself as a "brave" President.

For as funny as the sequence is, it reinforces an absurd message about how American authority figures view themselves and circumstances beyond their realm of reasoning. Much of the military satire here relates to Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," but how it translates to children soaking up every word and action like a sponge is an issue the filmmakers seem oblivious to.

The film's most problematic sequence involves San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge where giant Susan battles the alien robot while the bridge twists and cables snap. Cars crash and slide as civilians desperately try to escape. The gang of monsters are unable to give Susan or the civilians much help. Carnage is implicit even if we never see any mangled bodies. The disastrous violence goes too far for the kind of kid's movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" should be.

If you go back and look at the old black-and white '50s sci-fi horror movies, you can see how those filmmakers used budgetary and special effects constraints to mold the story at hand. Yet, in a high-tech animated movie like "Monsters vs. Aliens," where anything is possible, the filmmakers gravitate to the first line of spectacle attack — violent destruction — to pad a suffering story.

As filmmakers and audiences adapt to the potential of 3D (in animated and non-animated formats), we should begin to see a greater control exerted over the narrative substance that supports it. "Monsters vs. Aliens" is an imperfect if amusing step in that direction.

It's a lot better than Henry Selick's recent 3D effort "Coraline." Upcoming 3D efforts ("Avatar," "A Christmas Carol,"  and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") promise to thicken public and industry discussion about how the technology is, can, and will be used. 3D is here to stay.

(DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) Rated PG. 98 mins.