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Monsters vs. Aliens

EMAILPRINTDreamWorks Animation

Monsters vs. Aliens reviews
56
6.8 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 63 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Animation

Written by: Conrad Vernon (story)
Rob Letterman (& story)
Glenn Berger, Jonathan Aibel
Wallace Wolodarsky, Maya Forbes

Directed by: Conrad Vernon
Rob Letterman

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 27, 2009
DVD: September 29, 2009

Running Time: 94 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Renée Zellweger, and Rainn Wilson

When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. The military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of Monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, the President is persuaded to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction. (Paramount)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Pure, light entertainment.

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80

Empire Kim Newman

Yayyyy, monsters!

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80

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

The grandeur of the effects--the honest-to-God spectacle of the thing--elevates Monsters vs. Aliens to something approaching art. It's not a masterpiece, but it's most certainly a milestone.

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80

Slate Jessica Winter

The richly multilayered picture tends to have a gently immersive effect, akin to a stroll through the world's most expensive diorama.

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75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Full disclosure: I saw Monsters vs. Aliens in 2-D. No dorky plastic glasses, no alien ooze flying at my head. More full disclosure: I liked it.

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75

Premiere Staff (Not credited)

This is a pleasure to watch for everyone.

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75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie may best be appreciated by people who know the references. All five monsters come from low-budget science fiction films of the 1950s.

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75

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

My favorite voice/animation combo, however, is Stephen Colbert's very terrestrial president of the United States.

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75

TV Guide Perry Seibert

This is a lean 90 minutes, packed with laughs and age-appropriate thrills -- not to mention a solid lesson for girls about self-respect.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

Dazzling colors, winning characters and energetic visual effects all work in concert, with the 3-D animation serving to intensify the experience.

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70

Time Richard Corliss

Another crowd-pleasing, expert-babysitting vaudeville turn.

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70

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

In fact "nice" is the adjective that seems to surface most in trying to pin down the film's most salient quality, which means that while the film is enjoyable enough, it is unlikely to become a classic for us, or a "Shrek" sort of franchise for DreamWorks.

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70

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Children won't get the references to atomic-age monster movies, but the film offers more than nostalgia: there are slyly funny performances by Seth Rogen as an omnivorous blue blob and Stephen Colbert as the U.S. president, who faces down, and then flees, an alien invasion.

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70

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

There is a nice mix of action with tender moments -- especially among the misfit monsters

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70

Variety Todd McCarthy

A film of chuckles, smiles and light amusement rather than big laughs, galvanizing excitement and original invention.

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67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

On some level, the latest DreamWorks CGI project isn't a movie so much as a gag-delivery system wrapped in special effects. The story is crammed with incident, yet completely trifling; there are a ton of personalities, but no real characters.

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63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

If you have to see Monsters vs. Aliens - and if you're a parent, you will have to - make sure it's the 3-D version.

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63

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

3-D is a distraction and an annoyance.

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63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Monsters vs. Aliens suffers from the common 3D problems: dim lighting, poor focus in fast-paced action sequences, and too many distractions for the movie to grab the viewer.

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63

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

"WALL-E" had more charm, more soul, more everything. But there's enough merry mischief here to satisfy, even if you’re way past puberty.

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60

Film Threat Eric Campos

The 3D visuals are an enormous part of MVA's experience and they also help to cover up the lackluster “comedy.”

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58

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The movie works hard -- desperately hard -- to be all things to all audience segments. And the visible effort erodes the sense of gaiety, of unfettered fun.

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55

NPR Bob Mondello

After a while, you can see the setups happening -- and once you do, the careening gets predictable. Which gets old, really fast.

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50

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Even in 3D, as the picture is being shown in some theaters -- Ginormica is a disappointingly flat character.

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50

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

As I took off my gray-lensed 3-D spectacles at the end of Monsters vs. Aliens, I felt not so much immersed as fuzzy with exhaustion. What I had seen struck me less as a herald of shining possibility than as a thrill ride back to the future--back, that is, to an idea of the future, and a stale one at that.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The movie is reasonably entertaining, though it helps to be 6 years old.

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50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Despite the 3-D gadgetry, there's a musty odour to the script.

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50

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The movie is curiously unmemorable, partly because nearly all of its humor depends on your having seen something like it before, even if you haven't.

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50

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Has bells and whistles, superb technical sophistication and dazzling visual effects, sound, fury and Reese Witherspoon. What it doesn't have is heart. Like so many vehicles that have popped out from the DreamWorks Animation snark tank, Monsters vs. Aliens is too clever by half.

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50

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

This action-comedy will seem fresh only to 8-year-olds -- though it may give parents an excuse to introduce some of the '50s horror movies it parodies.

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40

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The misfits, as ever, must take a back seat to the morality, and the result – while in no way migraine-inducing – traffics in rote truisms.

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40

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The biggest battle in Monsters vs. Aliens is banality vs. originality, and banality carries the day.

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38

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Will pop your eyes without tickling your funny bone.

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38

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It's tough to get on board with these monsters. They don't get the banter they--or we--deserve, and the screenwriters lean on wearying stereotypes.

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25

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Dreamworks Animation's clunky and wildly unimaginative Monsters vs. Aliens really doesn't have a clue what to do with the [3-D] technique.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 63 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Keith P gave it a10:
I like Monsters vs Aliens. This movie is hilarious. I give it an A+.

J T gave it a4:
With such a funny cast, it's surprising that the laughs in this film are minimal. I doubt even children would enjoy this movie.

Jay H gave it a7:
Great fun, highly entertaining. Beautifully animated, and wonderfully imaginative. Children and adults with both be entertained. Simple and sweet, as well as a good message.

Evin C gave it a4:
Boring but Seth Rogen's two whole lines are funny.

Daniel V. gave it a1:
Oh em gee, I hated this movie. Bad story, extremely cliche. I also hated it when who ever that was, said, "Oh em gee"..... out loud.

anonymous gave it a3:
A complete mediocre film, if there is a power outage and your TV goes blank, don't worry the plot only gets worse. Characters are forgettable if not just plain stupid. Predicable in every way. Show it to 5-12 year olds, other then that don't waste your time, see a Pixar film, with REAL character development.

David T gave it a9:
Loved it. Great movie to take the kids to, and I wasn't bored watching it either.

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