Easter is nearly upon us, which means the usual release of children friendly movies with this one being an exception. I was lucky enough to get tickets for a private screening at the Waterloo Imax Cinema and a great treat it was for us and the little ones.

Starting in Modesto, California, the plot centres around Susan, a normal young lady about to marry the man of her dreams and live in supposed married bliss when she experiences the radioactive fallout of a meteor which falls to Earth. After absorbing a substance called quantonium, Susan grows into a giant and is captured by a secret group within the US military who operate to capture different types of monsters. An alien called Gallaxhar seeks out the quantonium and after tracing it to Earth, heads to Earth to retrieve the quantonium.

After the US military fail to overcome Gallaxhar, Susan (now renamed to Ginormica) and some of her fellow Monsters are deployed to battle with the Aliens. What ensues is some hilarious and madcap entertainment as well as soul searching in the quest to prevent the Aliens taking over Earth.

~~~ THE MAIN CHARACTERS ~~~

Monsters:

Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is the heroine of the film searching for a reason to exist and at the start of the movie, being a wife of a Weatherman seems to be her destiny. After being exposed to quantonium from a meteor fallout, grows to giant proportions and becomes very strong from the quantonium. After experiencing this and being captured, Susan wishes she could go back to her own life. As soon as Susan leads her team of monsters against the Aliens, things begin to fall into place and she finds the strength and courage to be different as well as stand on her own feet.

Dr Cockroach (Hugh Laurie) is a madcap scientist who is actually very clever but has the huge head of a cockroach and eats garbage. would you believe he provides sanity to solving problems but in a maniacal manner.

The Missing Link (Will Arnett) is a 20,000 year old fish/ape combination that was found by the US military, frozen in ice. Very strong but mis-guided in his strength.

B.O.B (Seth Rogen) is a blue jelly like mass formed from a tomato which was altered using ranch dressing. Far-fetched I know, but complete fantasy and hilarious nonetheless. B.O.B's character is quite weak and his permanent state of confusion makes him think other people's life are actually his own.

Insectosaurus (Conrad Vernon) is a gigantic grub who follows bright lights and matures throughout the movie.

Aliens:

Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) is the evil alien who tries to take over Earth and creates an army out of clones of himself. Although this character is the only baddie in the movie, he doesn't play a huge part in the movie. In terms of looks, he is not too scary and more odd looking with 6 legs/tentacles upon which he stands. More as a supporting role to Susan's heroics.

Humans:

General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) is leader of the military group responsible for capturing monsters and uses them to fight Gallaxhar. The portrayal of this character actually looks like a caricature with pronounced features that are bound to make you laugh.

President Hathaway (Stephen Colbert) is the US President and is actually portrayed as a parody. Everyone expects the President to be a forceful and commanding leader, but this character seems to be written tongue-in-cheek with weaknesses and a nervous disposition. Laugh out loud moments include him playing Axel F when the Aliens first arrive as some sort of welcoming message.

Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd) plays Susan's fiancé and is far more interested in his career rather than Susan.

~~~ THE 3-D EXPERIENCE ~~~

Monsters vs Aliens is from the Dreamworks Production company who have also produced the very popular Shrek, Madagascar and Over the Hedge to name a few. Monsters is certainly no exception to this. This particular movie is produced specifically in IMAX 3D providing a very entertaining and thrilling 3D experience.

As we walked into the theatre we were presented with these plastic 3-D glasses that are bigger than your face and just about sit on your ears. You would think they would fall off but somehow they stayed on and are so lightweight that you forget they are there and they do not present any problem to the viewing experience of this movie.

As part of the run-up to the movie a clip of a red ball was played. It bounced on the floor a few times and with our glasses on it looked like the ball actually bounced off of the screen. A few wows from the audience was proof that 3-D was working. As the whole movie is shot in 3-D, all the CGI special effects actually came away from the screen and looked life-like. Sure, the movie is an animated cartoon, but with the colours being so vivid, it looked like the stairs were something the audience could hold on to. Even the space rocks looked real and appeared to be something you could reach out and touch.

Having recently converted to HD viewing with Television programmes, I would say this 3-D experience is like having HD for the cinema screen. As well as the 3-D effects, the movie was presented with very imaginative and strong colours. I found that all this combined made the movie seem all the more real rather than just an animated movie.

The movie is also presented in 2-D for standard viewing.

~~~ OTHER THOUGHTS ~~~

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The plotline although quite simple far exceeded my expectations and was extremely enjoyable. The CGI special effects are captivating and the characters are portrayed such that you get involved in each of their traits and nuances and start to understand their humour. This is obviously aimed at children but it does capture the adult's imagination. It certainly did mine.

What made the viewing more enjoyable was the 3-D experience. My previous experience was of the Matrix and I came away with a headache. This was more light-hearted and the runtime was not too long. The 3-D effects weren't everywhere in the movie but placed so that when they appeared it made it more special. I certainly feel that Dreamworks have raised the standard on animated movie presentation and I'm not sure if I could go back to watching animations in 2-D. I will be interested to see how this transfers to eventual DVD and whether the effects that make this movie experience can be maintained.

The ending of the movie left it open for sequels so expect more from the Monsters. My niece and nephew were thoroughly entertained by this and gave it a definite thumbs-up. I would definitely recommend this for viewing by children and adults alike especially in 3-D, but even standard viewing.

~~~ Other Information ~~~

Released on: 3 April 2009
Directed by: Conrad Vernon/Rob Letterman
Run time: 94 mins
Certificate: U
Website: http://www.monstersvsaliens.com/

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© jupiter28 2008