Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Monsters vs. Aliens [Blu-ray] [3D Blu-ray]

Cameron Angell

Loved it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 6, 2023

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Perfect for stocking stuffers

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IW

Best Animated Movie

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 24, 2022

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Strong female leads - what more could you ask for. Every kid should watch

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H. Bala

"Look out! Here comes... Susan."

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 28, 2009

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In the realm of animation films, DreamWorks' track record for sure isn't quite as sublime as that of Pixar's (*cough*SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS, *cough*BEE MOVIE, *coughhackcough*SHARK TALE). However, DreamWorks has trotted out its fair share of classics or near-classics. I really like MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, and if it weren't for the SHREK series, I might even put this up there as my favorite DreamWorks animated flick. I certainly think it's on par with KUNG FU PANDA, OVER THE HEDGE, FLUSHED AWAY, and ANTZ (But you ever get the sense that Pixar films just have more heart?).

In the much ignored Omega quadrant, in Sector 72-4, towards a planet locally known as Earth, the most potent element in the universe, the Quantonium, plummets. Quantonium is highly sought by the four-eyed space terror known as Galaxar, this element being crucial in some master scheme of his. Galaxar heads toward Earth, post-haste.

The film's concept is nifty and it also bridges two genres. What does the U.S. military do when the country falls under alien attack? It sics monsters at the problem. There's a top-secret military project which, for the past fifty years, had been capturing rampaging monsters and then holding them prisoners (and, after fifty years, the military has exactly... five monsters). The central character is Susan (sweetly voiced by Reese Witherspoon). Susan is a young woman in Modesto, California, and moments away from getting married. And then a meteorite slams into her and turns her into a 50-foot-tall giant. There goes the wedding. There goes the self-absorbed fiance. Here comes General W.R. Monger, head of that top-secret military project, grappling nets and sleep darts in his arsenal.

Who knows how long Susan would've languished in some maximum security holding facility? (Answer: the rest of her life.) But then the colossal retro-robot probe from outer space comes to Earth, and even our cool and brave President is rendered useless against it. To quote the Commander in Chief: "Okay, uh, boys, set the terror level at Code Brown 'cause I need to change my pants." As a desperate last gesture, the Earth monsters are released from captivity (including Susan, now codenamed Ginormica) and off they go into hapless action, and, oh heck, this is just a fun movie to watch.

It turns out that these scary monsters want what everyone else wants: to be accepted and to fit in. And this being DreamWorks Animation and a kid's flick, no way was a "good guy" beastie gonna pull a switcheroo and turn to the dark side. Even the most suspect creature, the super-genius labcoat-wearing cockroach, stays true to his friends. But, okay, there's a part of me that wouldn't have minded if there'd been more edginess to this movie. Plenty of big action sequences - including a fantastic encounter on the Golden Gate Bridge, in which the CG really pops - but the best moments come when the monsters are simply interacting with each other, and the inherent sweetness of these characters come out. That's when the movie shows its heart and when it's at its most appealing.

The voice casting is crazy stocked with big names. Reese Witherspoon is well cast; she makes Susan seem like your typical sweet-natured young woman living out her life but who then gets exposed to very odd goings-on. Will Arnett brings swagger to the Missing Link (who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Creature from the Black Lagoon), while Hugh Laurie's mellifluous voice makes it fun listening to the mad British scientist Dr. Cockroach, PhD. You've got Kiefer Sutherland (General Monger) and Paul Rudd (Susan's weatherman reporter), and the casting coup may well be Stephen Colbert playing the hip and happening U.S. President. But Seth Rogen easily takes the cake as the funniest monster in the bunch, as Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate (or B.O.B.), that completely clueless but amiable gelatinous blob. Heck, Renée Zellweger even drops in for a cameo.

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS is just a straight up crowd pleaser. The animation is flawless, but you can almost shake that off, because any DreamWorks or Pixar product will be well-designed and very slick and will flaunt flawless animation. It's funny at a mile-a-minute clip (smile-a-minute?). Leonard Nimoy entrenches himself deeper into pop culture and, as a Spielberg fan, I appreciate the cute nod to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Encroaching a bit into Studio Ghibli territory, the dialogue-bereft Insectosaurous - so huge it makes Ginormica seem like a normal-sized girl - looks like something that would emerge from Hayao Miyazaki's imagination. And with its high energy and frenetic pace, the kids' eyeballs will be glued fast to the screen. Speaking as a sometimes babysitter, this may be the best thing going on for this flick.

2 people found this helpful

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Louis LaBrunda

Grand kids love it.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2022

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Lots of fun.

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Great cartoon spoof of 50-60s monster movies

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2020

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Monsters Vs Aliens was another great Dreamworks production. It begins with aliens landing in California and the government creating a team of monsters to fight them. The movie is obviously a take-off of the horror movies of the 1950s-60s that were full of such stories. It has an added element as well, which stems from the monsters all being outcasts. By joining together to fight for the Earth they find value and self-worth.

An example of how the movie is an ode to movies of yesteryear the main character Susan is a takeoff of the 50 Foot Woman. She gets hit by an asteroid and on her wedding day grows to enormous size. She’s captured by the government and sent to a super, secret base with other monsters they collected over time. Likewise The Missing Link is from the Creature From The Black Lagoon, Dr. Cockroach is a take of The Fly, B.O.B. was derived from The Blob, and Insectosaurus was from Mothra.

Of course this is not a serious monster movie but a play on it full of jokes and comedic moments. Susan also highlights how the characters transform themselves. At first she lives for her fiance’s career. By the end she embraces her size and powers.

If you like any of Dreamworks other cartoon movies you will enjoy Monsters vs Aliens.
C

23 people found this helpful

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Betty L. Wilkins

Calling all Monsters........

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 1, 2014

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Susan is a young bride to be, getting ready for her big day when a meteor strikes her and she finds herself glowing and growing out of proportion, becoming almost fifty feet tall. The military arrives soon after and after she is sedated, she awakes and finds herself locked away in a top secret facility along with other monsters who are either missing links or the subjects of experiments past and her name has been changed to Ginormica. At first, she is definitely not okay with it, and is more than anxious to get back to the life she had, but over time finds the monsters she is held with are not quite the monsters they appear to be as they begin to get acquainted. A chance for freedom arises when the monsters are asked to take on a giant alien robot and they set out for the Golden Gate Bridge where Susan earns her place as Ginormica as she almost single handedly takes it on in order to save the people on the bridge. They defeat the robot and earn their freedom at last, but when Susan tries to reconnect with her old life she discovers the man she almost married is on a fast track to promotion and considers her being a monster a big detriment to his future success and he wants nothing more to do with her. The other monsters find freedom has a hollow ring to it as well, because they aren't really accepted anywhere. It is here that Susan has found her calling as a monster--and is kidnapped by the alien seeking to gain the element that gives Susan her powers and to invade and conquer her world. The monsters then must band together to save one of their own, and stop the invasion, if they can. The monsters here are all straight from the B-movies of the Fifties, B.O.B. is a thinly disguised Blob, Dr. Cockroach is straight from "the Fly". The Missing Link is "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and Insectasaurus, is from "Mothra." Ginormica is from "Attack of the 50 ft. Woman" . This is meant to be a parody and the movie pulls it off rather well. While this may not be on a par with other movies by DreamWorks, it is still fun to watch and worth a look.

4 people found this helpful

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WALTER B HARRELL

Didn't notice any woke nonsense but it is an old movie

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 16, 2022

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Didn't notice any woke nonsense but it is an old movie

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Amazon Customer

3 year old likes this movie.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 16, 2022

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Grandson is into monster movies and dinosaurs so this is hit.

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Jasoncdean

Lacking 3D but overall great movie.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 6, 2009

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We got this on Blu Ray and it looks amazing. The animation was just flat out great and in the HD format the characters and environments just come to life. Especially a screen in San Fransisco has a tremendous amount of detail.

The story and characters are all very well written, extremely well animated, and the actors did a great job of bringing their voices to life. There was a lot of good clean humor with an easy to follow plot. I especially liked our heroine giant as she did a wonderful job with a well written character. I like how this character grows over the course of the movie and does not fit any female stereotypes or played as a ditz but is instead a strong and courageous woman. We need more characters like that.

The extra movie for BOB's birthday was great. It was really funny and gave a little more back story on the main characters. It was also in 3D was was fun.

The only downside is the film lacked 3D for the main film even though it had it in the theatres and comes with glasses for BOBs birthday film... but no 3D option for the main movie. We are not really big into 3D or anything but it would be nice to at least have the option since that is how they made the movie. Coraline offered both versions for example.

Overall we love the film and it just looks so crisp and clear on blu ray. I would have given it 5 stars had the movie come in 3D. I am sure over the years we will watch this one a bunch with the kids.

2 people found this helpful

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Raisuli the Magnificent

Mom empowerment film

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 14, 2019

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I'm not the target audience for this film, and however charming it comes across, it's still pretty formulaic, and in this way fairly insulting. Mom gets the fifty-foot woman treatment, who is then induced into a struggle she didn't want and isn't much prepared for.

How about letting dad get the gigantism treatment, or junior, or sis, or Fido?

To me this film smacks of "Mars needs moms", just with a slightly different story to it. As a Bay Area denizen it was kind of neat seeing the SF Bay Area getting to star as a backdrop once more. Toss in Modesto, Fresno, and maybe even Lodi and the state capitol or Sacramento, and you got my childhood and university years all wrapped up.

It's a witty film, but it's predictable to a fault. Mom gets zapped into monster funkyness, and gets paired up with unlikely critters to save the world. The truth is your average "love America" mom would probably get recruited by the NSA and teamed up with crazy smart and strong people who were also recruited by the feds to tackle some threat. That's the allegory.

Does it work? I'm not so sure. I can't remember the last time I saw a tall handsome strong dude get to be the hero. What, no since the 1950s or something. That's an important observation because those people exist, usually in the form of fire fighters or law enforcement. To me the "unlikely hero" is so cliché as to be insulting and expectant. "Wow, I bet you never guessed MOM would be the hero … HUH?!?!" Well, yeah, I did.

Still, for all that, it has a kind of charm to it, but I'm just burnt out on empowerment of women themes and unlikely hero themes being shoe horned into CGI extravaganzas. So much so that I simply can't take it anymore. Ergo, I do not recommend this film.

I would give it one star, but like so much "empower females and unlikely hero" movies, it is technically competent, even if the toll booth at the SF End of the Golden Gate wasn't rendered … at least Market, Kearny, Geary and Van Ness got some cameos.

If I see one more "mom's the hero, nerd, geeks and oddballs unite!" film, I'll puke my guts out.

There are better movies out there.

15 people found this helpful

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5 star		83%
4 star		11%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

Monsters vs. Aliens [Blu-ray] [3D Blu-ray]

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Monsters vs. Aliens [Blu-ray] [3D Blu-ray]

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